1 But I have judged this with myself, not to come back to you in grief. 2 For if I grieve you, who also is it that gladdens me, if not he that is grieved through me? 3 And I have written this very letter to you, that coming I may not have grief from those from whom I ought to have joy; trusting in you all that my joy is that of you all. 4 For out of much tribulation and distress of heart I wrote to you, with many tears; not that ye may be grieved, but that ye may know the love which I have very abundantly towards you. 5 But if any one has grieved, he has grieved, not me, but in part (that I may not overcharge you) all of you. 6 Sufficient to such a one is this rebuke which has been inflicted by the many; 7 so that on the contrary ye should rather shew grace and encourage, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with excessive grief. 8 Wherefore I exhort you to assure him of your love. 9 For to this end also I have written, that I might know, by putting you to the test, if as to everything ye are obedient. 10 But to whom ye forgive anything, I also; for I also, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, it is for your sakes in the person of Christ; 11 that we might not have Satan get an advantage against us, for we are not ignorant of his thoughts. 12 Now when I came to Troas for the publication of the glad tidings of the Christ, a door also being opened to me in the Lord, 13 I had no rest in my spirit at not finding Titus my brother; but bidding them adieu, I came away to Macedonia. 14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in the Christ, and makes manifest the odour of his knowledge through us in every place. 15 For we are a sweet odour of Christ to God, in the saved and in those that perish: 16 to the one an odour from death unto death, but to the others an odour from life unto life; and who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we do not, as the many, make a trade of the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of God, before God, we speak in Christ. | |