1 I have decided not to make my next visit with you so painful. 2 If I make you feel bad, who would be left to cheer me up, except the people I had made to feel bad? 3 The reason I want to be happy is to make you happy. I wrote as I did because I didn't want to visit you and be made to feel bad, when you should make me feel happy. 4 At the time I wrote, I was suffering terribly. My eyes were full of tears, and my heart was broken. But I didn't want to make you feel bad. I only wanted to let you know how much I cared for you.
Forgiveness
5 I don't want to be hard on you. But if one of you has made someone feel bad, I am not really the one who has been made to feel bad. Some of you are the ones. 6 Most of you have already pointed out the wrong that person did, and this is punishment enough for what was done.
7 When people sin, you should forgive and comfort them, so they won't give up in despair. 8 You should make them sure of your love for them.
9 I also wrote because I wanted to test you and find out if you would follow my instructions. 10 I will forgive anyone you forgive. Yes, for your sake and with Christ as my witness, I have forgiven whatever needed to be forgiven. 11 I have done this to keep Satan from getting the better of us. We all know what goes on in his mind.
12 When I went to Troas to preach the good news about Christ, I found that the Lord had already prepared the way. 13 But I was worried when I didn't find my friend Titus there. So I left the other followers and went on to Macedonia.
14 I am grateful that God always makes it possible for Christ to lead us to victory. God also helps us spread the knowledge about Christ everywhere, and this knowledge is like the smell of perfume. 15-16 In fact, God thinks of us as a perfume that brings Christ to everyone. For people who are being saved, this perfume has a sweet smell and leads them to a better life. But for people who are lost, it has a bad smell and leads them to a horrible death.
No one really has what it takes to do this work. 17 A lot of people try to get rich from preaching God's message. But we are God's sincere messengers, and by the power of Christ we speak our message with God as our witness.
1 Bvt I determined thus in my selfe, that I would not come againe to you in heauinesse. 2 For if I make you sorie, who is he then that shoulde make me glad, but ye same which is made sorie by me? 3 And I wrote this same thing vnto you, lest when I came, I should take heauines of them, of whom I ought to reioyce: this confidence haue I in you all, that my ioye is the ioye of you all. 4 For in great affliction, and anguish of heart I wrote vnto you with many teares: not that yee should be made sorie, but that ye might perceiue the loue which I haue, specially vnto you. 5 And if any hath caused sorowe, the same hath not made mee sorie, but partly (lest I should more charge him) you all. 6 It is sufficient vnto the same man, that hee was rebuked of many. 7 So that nowe contrariwise yee ought rather to forgiue him, and comfort him, lest the same shoulde bee swalowed vp with ouermuch heauinesse. 8 Wherefore, I pray you, that you woulde confirme your loue towards him. 9 For this cause also did I write, that I might knowe the proofe of you, whether yee would be obedient in all things. 10 To whome yee forgiue any thing, I forgiue also: for verely if I forgaue any thing, to whome I forgaue it, for your sakes forgaue I it in the sight of Christ, 11 Lest Satan should circumuent vs: for we are not ignorant of his enterprises. 12 Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christs Gospell, and a doore was opened vnto me of the Lord, 13 I had no rest in my spirit, because I founde not Titus my brother, but tooke my leaue of them, and went away into Macedonia. 14 Now thankes be vnto God, which alwaies maketh vs to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the sauour of his knowledge by vs in euery place. 15 For wee are vnto God the sweete sauour of Christ, in them that are saued, and in them which perish. 16 To the one we are the sauour of death, vnto death, and to the other the sauour of life, vnto life: and who is sufficient for these things? 17 For wee are not as many, which make marchandise of the woorde of God: but as of sinceritie, but as of God in ye sight of God speake we in Christ.