2 Corinthians 2

¹ So I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you.

² For if I cause you pain, who is left to cheer me but the very one I have pained?

³ I wrote as I did so that when I came I would not be pained by those who ought to make me rejoice. I had confidence in all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all.

⁴ For I wrote to you out of great distress and anguish of heart, with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the depth of my love for you.

⁵ Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not so much to me as, in some measure (not to overstate it) to all of you.

⁶ The punishment imposed on him by the majority is enough.

⁷ Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

⁸ So I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.

⁹ This is why I wrote: to see whether you would stand the test and be obedient in everything.

¹⁰ Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven, if there was anything to forgive, I have forgiven in the presence of Christ for your sake,

¹¹ so that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

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

¹³ I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia.

¹⁴ But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.

¹⁵ For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

¹⁶ To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?

¹⁷ Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.