1 B ut I have judged this with myself, not to come back to you in grief.

2 F or if I grieve you, who also it that gladdens me, if not he that is grieved through me?

3 A nd I have written this very, that coming I may not have grief from those from whom I ought to have joy; trusting in you all that my joy is of you all.

4 F or out of much tribulation and distress of heart I wrote to you, with many tears; not that ye may be grieved, but that ye may know the love which I have very abundantly towards you.

5 B ut if any one has grieved, he has grieved, not me, but in part (that I may not overcharge ) all of you.

6 S ufficient to such a one this rebuke which by the many;

7 s o that on the contrary ye should rather shew grace and encourage, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with excessive grief.

8 W herefore I exhort you to assure him of love.

9 F or to this end also I have written, that I might know, by putting you to the test, if as to everything ye are obedient.

10 B ut to whom ye forgive anything, I also; for I also, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, for your sakes in person of Christ;

11 t hat we might not have Satan get an advantage against us, for we are not ignorant of his thoughts.

12 N ow when I came to Troas for the glad tidings of the Christ, a door also being opened to me in Lord,

13 I had no rest in my spirit at not finding Titus my brother; but bidding them adieu, I came away to Macedonia.

14 B ut thanks to God, who always leads us in triumph in the Christ, and makes manifest the odour of his knowledge through us in every place.

15 F or we are a sweet odour of Christ to God, in the saved and in those that perish:

16 t o the one an odour from death unto death, but to the others an odour from life unto life; and who sufficient for these things?

17 F or we do not, as the many, make a trade of the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of God, before God, we speak in Christ.