| 1 | And I decided this to myself, not again to come in sorrow unto you, |
| 2 | for if I make you sorry, then who is he who is making me glad, except he who is made sorry by me? |
| 3 | and I wrote to you this same thing, that having come, I may not have sorrow from them of whom it behoved me to have joy, having confidence in you all, that my joy is of you all, |
| 4 | for out of much tribulation and pressure of heart I wrote to you through many tears, not that ye might be made sorry, but that ye might know the love that I have more abundantly toward you. |
| 5 | And if any one hath caused sorrow, he hath not caused sorrow to me, but in part, that I may not burden you all; |
| 6 | sufficient to such a one is this punishment, that [is] by the more part, |
| 7 | so that, on the contrary, [it is] rather for you to forgive and to comfort, lest by over abundant sorrow such a one may be swallowed up; |
| 8 | wherefore, I call upon you to confirm love to him, |
| 9 | for, for this also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether in regard to all things ye are obedient. |
| 10 | And to whom ye forgive anything—I also; for I also, if I have forgiven anything, to whom I have forgiven [it], because of you—in the person of Christ—[I forgive it,] |
| 11 | that we may not be over-reached by the Adversary, for of his devices we are not ignorant. |
| 12 | And having come to Troas for the good news of the Christ, and a door to me having been opened in the Lord, |
| 13 | I have not had rest to my spirit, on my not finding Titus my brother, but having taken leave of them, I went forth to Macedonia; |
| 14 | and to God [are] thanks, who at all times is leading us in triumph in the Christ, and the fragrance of His knowledge He is manifesting through us in every place, |
| 15 | because of Christ a sweet fragrance we are to God, in those being saved, and in those being lost; |
| 16 | to the one, indeed, a fragrance of death to death, and to the other, a fragrance of life to life; and for these things who is sufficient? |
| 17 | for we are not as the many, adulterating the word of God, but as of sincerity—but as of God; in the presence of God, in Christ we do speak. |