1 I decided I would not pay you another painful visit.
2 For if I pain you, then who is to give me pleasure? None but the very people I am paining!
3 So the very reason I wrote was that I might not come only to be pained by those who ought to give me joy; I relied on you all, I felt sure that my joy would be a joy for everyone of you.
4 For I wrote you in sore distress and misery of heart, with many a tear ??not to pain you but to convince you of my love, my special love for you.
5 If a certain individual has been causing pain, he has been causing pain not so much to me as to all of you ??at anyrate (for I am not going to overstate the case) to a section of you.
6 This censure from the majority is severe enough for the individual in question,
7 so that instead of censuring you should now forgive him and comfort him, in case the man is overwhelmed by excessive remorse.
8 So I beg you to reinstate him in your love.
9 For my aim in writing was simply to test you, to see if you were absolutely obedient.
10 If you forgive the man, I forgive him too; anything I had to forgive him has been forgiven in the presence of Christ for your sakes,
11 in case Satan should take advantage of our position ??for I know his man?uvres!
12 Well, when I reached Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, though I had a wide opportunity in the Lord,
13 my spirit could not rest, because I did not find Titus my brother there; so I said goodbye and went off to Macedonia.
14 Wherever I go, thank God, he makes my life a constant pageant of triumph in Christ, diffusing the perfume of his knowledge everywhere by me.
15 I live for God as the fragrance of Christ breathed alike on those who are being saved and on those who are perishing,
16 to the one a deadly fragrance that makes for death, to the other a vital fragrance that makes for life. And who is qualified for this career?
17 I am, for I am not like most, adulterating the word of God; like a man of sincerity, like a man of God, I speak the word in Christ before the very presence of God.