1. |
And I decided this to myself, not again to come in sorrow unto you, |
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 behoved 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 ye might be made sorry, but that ye might know the love that I have more abundantly toward you. |
5. |
And if any one hath caused sorrow, he hath 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 more 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. |
wherefore, I call upon you to confirm love to him, |
9. |
for, for this also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether in regard to all things ye are obedient. |
10. |
And 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,' |
11. |
that we may not be over-reached by the Adversary, for of his devices we are not ignorant. |
12. |
And having come to Troas for the good news of the Christ, and a door to me having been opened in the Lord, |
13. |
I 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; |
14. |
and 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, |
15. |
because of Christ a sweet fragrance we are to God, in those being saved, and in those being lost; |
16. |
to 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? |
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 do speak. |