1 So I made up my mind not to come to you again to make you sad. 2 For if I were to make you sad, who would be left to cheer me up? Only the very persons I had made sad. 3 That is why I wrote that letter to you—I did not want to come to you and be made sad by the very people who should make me glad. For I am convinced that when I am happy, then all of you are happy too. 4 I wrote you with a greatly troubled and distressed heart and with many tears; my purpose was not to make you sad, but to make you realize how much I love you all.
Forgiveness for the Offender
5 Now, if anyone has made somebody sad, he has not done it to me but to all of you—in part, at least. (I say this because I do not want to be too hard on him.) 6 It is enough that this person has been punished in this way by most of you. 7 Now, however, you should forgive him and encourage him, in order to keep him from becoming so sad as to give up completely. 8 And so I beg you to let him know that you really do love him. 9 I wrote you that letter because I wanted to find out how well you had stood the test and whether you are always ready to obey my instructions. 10 When you forgive people for what they have done, I forgive them too. For when I forgive—if, indeed, I need to forgive anything—I do it in Christ's presence because of you, 11 in order to keep Satan from getting the upper hand over us; for we know what his plans are.
Paul's Anxiety in Troas
12 When I arrived in Troas to preach the Good News about Christ, I found that the Lord had opened the way for the work there. 13 But I was deeply worried, because I could not find our brother Titus. So I said good-bye to the people there and went on to Macedonia.
Victory through Christ
14 But thanks be to God! For in union with Christ we are always led by God as prisoners in Christ's victory procession. God uses us to make the knowledge about Christ spread everywhere like a sweet fragrance. 15 For we are like a sweet-smelling incense offered by Christ to God, which spreads among those who are being saved and those who are being lost. 16 For those who are being lost, it is a deadly stench that kills; but for those who are being saved, it is a fragrance that brings life. Who, then, is capable for such a task? 17 We are not like so many others, who handle God's message as if it were cheap merchandise; but because God has sent us, we speak with sincerity in his presence, as servants of Christ.
1 Bvt I determined thus in my selfe, that I would not come againe to you in heauinesse. 2 For if I make you sorie, who is he then that shoulde make me glad, but ye same which is made sorie by me? 3 And I wrote this same thing vnto you, lest when I came, I should take heauines of them, of whom I ought to reioyce: this confidence haue I in you all, that my ioye is the ioye of you all. 4 For in great affliction, and anguish of heart I wrote vnto you with many teares: not that yee should be made sorie, but that ye might perceiue the loue which I haue, specially vnto you. 5 And if any hath caused sorowe, the same hath not made mee sorie, but partly (lest I should more charge him) you all. 6 It is sufficient vnto the same man, that hee was rebuked of many. 7 So that nowe contrariwise yee ought rather to forgiue him, and comfort him, lest the same shoulde bee swalowed vp with ouermuch heauinesse. 8 Wherefore, I pray you, that you woulde confirme your loue towards him. 9 For this cause also did I write, that I might knowe the proofe of you, whether yee would be obedient in all things. 10 To whome yee forgiue any thing, I forgiue also: for verely if I forgaue any thing, to whome I forgaue it, for your sakes forgaue I it in the sight of Christ, 11 Lest Satan should circumuent vs: for we are not ignorant of his enterprises. 12 Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christs Gospell, and a doore was opened vnto me of the Lord, 13 I had no rest in my spirit, because I founde not Titus my brother, but tooke my leaue of them, and went away into Macedonia. 14 Now thankes be vnto God, which alwaies maketh vs to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the sauour of his knowledge by vs in euery place. 15 For wee are vnto God the sweete sauour of Christ, in them that are saued, and in them which perish. 16 To the one we are the sauour of death, vnto death, and to the other the sauour of life, vnto life: and who is sufficient for these things? 17 For wee are not as many, which make marchandise of the woorde of God: but as of sinceritie, but as of God in ye sight of God speake we in Christ.