Riverside(i)
1 BUT I decided this in my own mind, not to come again to you in sorrow.
2 For if I grieve you, who is there to cheer me except those who are grieved by me?
3 I am writing this very thing so that I may not come and have grief from those who ought to make me glad, for I am confident in regard to all of you that my joy is yours.
4 For out of great distress and pain of heart I am writing with many tears, not that you may be grieved, but that you may know the love that I have beyond measure for you.
5 But if any one has caused grief, he has grieved not me, but to some extent — not to be too severe — all of you.
6 Sufficient for such a one is this punishment by the majority,
7 so that on the contrary you should rather forgive him and encourage him, that such a one may not be swallowed up in excessive grief.
8 Therefore I beg you to assure him of your love.
9 Because for this purpose I am writing, that I may know your tested character, whether you are obedient in everything.
10 To whomever you forgive anything I also forgive it, and what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, it was for your sake in the sight of Christ,
11 that Satan may not take advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his purposes.
12 When I came to Troas for the good news of Christ and a door had been opened for me in the Lord,
13 I had no rest in my spirit because I did not find Titus my brother, but bidding them farewell I came away to Macedonia.
14 Thanks be to God who always leads us in his triumph in Christ and spreads through us the sweet odor of the knowledge of him in every place.
15 For we are for God a sweet odor of Christ — in the saved and in the perishing.
16 To the latter an odor from death to death, to the former an odor from life to life. And who is competent for this?
17 For we are not, like the most, adulterating the message of God for gain, but in sincerity, as from God, in the presence of God, we speak in Christ.