¹For I made up my mind unot to make another painful visit to you. ²For vif I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? ³And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, wfor I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all. ⁴For xI wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.

Forgive the Sinner

⁵Now yif anyone has caused pain, zhe has caused it not to me, but ain some measure—not to put it too severely—to all of you. ⁶For such a one, bthis punishment by the majority is enough, ⁷so cyou should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. ⁸So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. ⁹For this is why I wrote, that I might dtest you and know ewhether you are obedient in everything. ¹⁰Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, ¹¹so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for fwe are not ignorant of his designs.

Triumph in Christ

¹²When gI came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though ha door was opened for me in the Lord, ¹³my spirit iwas not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia.

¹⁴But jthanks be to God, who in Christ always kleads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads lthe fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. ¹⁵For we are the aroma of Christ to God among mthose who are being saved and among nthose who are perishing, ¹⁶oto one a fragrance from death to death, oto the other a fragrance from life to life. pWho is sufficient for these things? ¹⁷For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.