[1] For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you.
[2] For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained?
[3] And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all.
[4] For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.
[5] Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure—not to put it too severely—to all of you.
[6] For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough,
[7] so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
[8] So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him.
[9] For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything.
[10] Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ,
[11] so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.
[12] When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord,
[13] my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia.
[14] But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
[15] For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,
[16] to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?
[17] For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.