1 So I made up my mind that I would not 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 had confidence in all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all.

4 For I wrote 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 But if any one 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 Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority,

7 so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

8 I urge you, therefore, 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 Any one whom you forgive, I also forgive. What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ,

11 in order that Satan might gain no advantage over us; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

12 Now when I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and when a door was opened for me in the Lord,

13 I still had no rest in my mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took my leave of them and went on to Macedonia.

14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph, 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 the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. And who is sufficient for these things?

17 For we are not, like so many, peddling the word of God; but as men of sincerity, as from God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.