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¹ And I decided this to myself, not to come again to you in sorrow,² for if I make you sorry, then who is he who is making me glad, except he who is made sorry by me?³ And I wrote to you this same thing, that having come, I may not have sorrow from them of whom it was necessary [for] me to have joy, having confidence in you all, that my joy is of you all,⁴ for out of much tribulation and pressure of heart I wrote to you through many tears, not that you might be made sorry, but that you might know the love that I have more abundantly toward you.

⁵ And if anyone has caused sorrow, he has not caused sorrow to me, but in part, that I may not burden you all;⁶ sufficient to such a one is this punishment, that [is] by the greater part,⁷ so that, on the contrary, [it is] rather for you to forgive and to comfort, lest by over abundant sorrow such a one may be swallowed up;⁸ for this reason, I call on you to confirm love to him,⁹ for this also I wrote, that I might know your proof, whether you are obedient in regard to all things.¹⁰ And to whom you forgive anything—I also; for I also, if I have forgiven anything, to whom I have forgiven [it], because of you—in the person of Christ—[I forgive it,]¹¹ that we may not be over-reached by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

¹² And having come to Troas for the good news of the Christ, and a door having been opened to me in the LORD,¹³ I have not had rest to my spirit, on my not finding my brother Titus, but having taken leave of them, I went forth to Macedonia;¹⁴ and to God [is] thanks, who at all times is leading us in triumph in the Christ, and the fragrance of His knowledge He is revealing through us in every place;¹⁵ we are a refreshing fragrance to God because of Christ, in those being saved, and in those being lost;¹⁶ to one, indeed, a fragrance of death to death, and to the other, a fragrance of life to life; and who is sufficient for these things?¹⁷ For we are not as the many, adulterating the word of God, but as of sincerity—but as of God; in the presence of God, in Christ we speak.