Reaffirm Your Love

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

5And if any one hath caused sorrow, he hath not caused sorrow to me, but in part, that I may not burden you all; 6sufficient to such a one is this punishment, that is by the more part, 7so 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; 8wherefore, I call upon you to confirm love to him, 9for, for this also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether in regard to all things ye are obedient. 10And to whom ye 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, 11that we may not be over-reached by the Adversary, for of his devices we are not ignorant.

Triumph in Christ

12And having come to Troas for the good news of the Christ, and a door to me having been opened in the Lord, 13I have not had rest to my spirit, on my not finding Titus my brother, but having taken leave of them, I went forth to Macedonia;

14and to God are thanks, who at all times is leading us in triumph in the Christ, and the fragrance of His knowledge He is manifesting through us in every place, 15because of Christ a sweet fragrance we are to God, in those being saved, and in those being lost; 16to the one, indeed, a fragrance of death to death, and to the other, a fragrance of life to life; and for these things who is sufficient? 17for 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 do speak.