If I am in trouble, it is to bring you comfort and salvation, and if I am comforted, it is for the sake of the comfort which you experience when you steadfastly endure such sufferings as I also have to bear.

To lost people [we become] a smell of death [i.e., we bring condemnation to people who reject our message]; to saved people [we become] a fragrance of life [i.e., we bring salvation to people who accept our message]. And who is adequate to [accomplish] such tasks?

And, even if the Good News that we bring is veiled, it is veiled only in the case of those who are on the path to Ruin--

Indeed, the same God who said 'Out of darkness light shall shine,' has shone in upon our hearts, so that we should bring out into the light the knowledge of the glory of God, seen in the face of Christ.

knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and will present us [along] with you in His presence.

But all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ [making us acceptable to Him] and gave us the ministry of reconciliation [so that by our example we might bring others to Him],

Therefore, since we have these [great and wonderful] promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, completing holiness [living a consecrated life—a life set apart for God’s purpose] in the fear of God.

so that we exhorted Titus, that, as he had previously begun, so he would bring to an end this gift among you also.

For our object is not to give relief to others and bring distress on you, but, by equalizing matters, to secure that,

As for Titus, he is my partner and comrade in the work for you, while these brothers of ours, the representatives of the churches, will bring glory to Christ.

You will be enriched in every way so that you may be generous, and this [generosity, administered] through us is producing thanksgiving to God [from those who benefit].

When we pull down, calculations, and every height that uplifteth itself against the knowledge of God, and when we bring into captivity every thought unto the obedience of the Christ,

For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face.

I fear lest when I come again, God bring me low among you, and I be constrained to bewail many of them which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness, and fornication, and wantonness which they have committed.

Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith; bring yourselves to the proof; are you so little acquainted with yourselves, as not to know whether Jesus Christ be in you? but if you are destitute of proofs,