1 I decided that I would not visit you again in grief;
2 for if I cause you grief, who is there to cause me joy except those whom I have grieved?
3 And for this very reason I wrote you, that I might not come only to be grieved by those who ought to give me joy; and because I trusted in you all, that my joy is the joy of all of you.
4 For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart, through many tears; not to pain you, but to convince you of my love, my abundant love for you.
5 As to him who has been, and now is, causing pain, it is not I whom he has pained, but all of you??t least some of you (not to overstate the case).
6 Sufficient for the offender is the punishment imposed by the majority;
7 so that now you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest he should be overwhelmed by the excess of his grief.
8 So I beg you to reinstate him in your love.
9 For this very purpose also I wrote you (before), that I might test you, to see if you were obedient in every respect.
10 If you forgive the man, I forgive him, too; for whatever I have forgiven has been forgiven in the presence of Christ,
11 for your sakes, that I may not be overreached by Satan, for I am not ignorant of his devices.
12 Now when I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, although a door was opened to me in the Lord,
13 I could get no peace of mind because I failed to find Titus, my brother. So I bade them good-bye and started off for Macedonia.
14 But thanks be to God, who in every place is leading me in the train of Christ's triumph, and is making manifest through me the knowledge of him, an odor of incense everywhere.
15 I am Christ's fragrance upwafted unto God, among those who are being saved and those who are perishing;
16 to these latter an odor of death to death, to the former, of life to life. For such service as this, who is sufficient?
17 I am; for I am not like most, trafficking in the word of God, but rather from a sincere heart, like a man of God, I speak in Christ, in the very presence of God.