2 Corinthians 2

1 For my own sake, as well, I decided not to pay you another painful visit.

But I determined this in myself, not to come again to you in sadness.

2 If it is I who cause you pain, why, who is there to cheer me, except the person whom I am paining?

For if I make you sad, who then is he who makes me glad except he who is made sad by me?

3 So I wrote as I did because I was afraid that if I had come, I should have been pained by those who ought to have made me glad; for I felt sure that it was true of you all that my joy was in every case yours also.

And I wrote this same thing to you, so that when I came, I would not have sadness from whom I ought to rejoice, having been confident toward you all, because my joy is of all of you.

4 I wrote to you in sore trouble and distress of heart and with many tears, not to give you pain, but to let you see how intense a love I have for you.

For out of much stress and dismay of heart, through many tears, I wrote to you, not that ye would be grieved, but that ye might know the love that I have so much more for you.

5 Now whoever has caused the pain has not so much pained me, as he has, to some extent – not to be too severe – pained every one of you.

But if any man has caused sadness, he has not caused me sadness, but in part (that I may not bear down) you all.

6 The man to whom I refer has been sufficiently punished by the penalty inflicted by the majority of you;

Sufficient to such a man is this punishment by the many,

7 so that now you must take the opposite course, and forgive and encourage him, or else he may be overwhelmed by the intensity of his pain.

so that instead, for you rather to forgive and encourage, lest perhaps such a man would be swallowed up with too much sorrow.

8 So I entreat you to assure him of your love.

Therefore I beseech you to affirm love for him.

9 I had this further object, also, in what I wrote – to find out whether you might be relied on to be obedient in everything.

For I also wrote for this, so that I might know the proof of you, whether ye are obedient in all things.

10 Anyone you forgive, I forgive them, too. Indeed, for my part, whatever I have forgiven (if I have had to forgive anything), I have forgiven for your sakes, in the presence of Christ,

But to whom ye forgive anything, I too. For I also, whom I have forgiven (if anything), I have forgiven because of you in the presence of Christ,

11 so as to prevent Satan from taking advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.

so that we may not be exploited by Satan. For we are not ignorant of his methods.

12 When I went to the district round Troas to tell the good news of the Christ, even though there was an opening for serving the Master,

Now having come to Troas for the good news of the Christ, and a door having been opened to me in the Lord,

13 I could get no peace of mind because I failed to find Titus, my friend; so I took leave of the people there, and went on to Macedonia.

I had no rest in my spirit, my not finding Titus my brother. But having departed from them, I went forth into Macedonia.

14 All thanks to God, who, through our union with the Christ, leads us in one continual triumph, and uses us to spread the sweet perfume of the knowledge of him in every place.

And thanks is to God who always causes us to triumph in the Christ, and who makes manifest the aroma of the knowledge of him in every place, through us.

15 For we are the fragrance of Christ ascending to God – both among those who are in the path of salvation and among those who are in the path to ruin.

Because we are a fragrance of Christ to God, in those being saved and in those perishing:

16 To the latter we are a stench which arises from death and tells of death; to the former a fragrance which arises from life and tells of life. But who is equal to such a task?

to the one an odor of death for death, and to the other an aroma of life for life. And who is adequate for these things?

17 Unlike many people, we are not in the habit of making profit out of God’s message; but in all sincerity, and bearing God’s commission, we speak before him in union with Christ.

For we are not as other men, huckstering the word of God, but as from purity. But we speak in Christ as from God in the sight of God.