2 Corinthians 2

1 For I decided this within myself, not to come to you⁺ again in grief.

2 For if I grieve you⁺, then who is gladdening me except the one being grieved by me?

3 And I wrote this same thing so that, having come, I might not have grief from [those] for whom it was necessary for me to rejoice, having been confident in you⁺ all, that my joy is of all of you⁺.

4 For out of much tribulation and anguish of heart, I wrote to you⁺ through many tears, not that you⁺ might be grieved, but that you⁺ might know the love that I have more abundantly toward you⁺.

5 But if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me, but in part (so that I might not be severe) all of you⁺.

6 Sufficient to such a one [is] the punishment that [is] by the majority,

7 so that on the contrary, [it is] rather for you⁺ to forgive and to comfort [him], lest somehow such a one might be overwhelmed by more abundant grief.

8 Therefore I exhort you⁺ to confirm love toward him.

9 For this indeed also I wrote, so that I might know the proof of you⁺, whether you⁺ are obedient to everything.

10 Now to whomever you⁺ forgive anything, I also do; and indeed to whom I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, [it is] on account of you⁺ in the face of Christ,

11 so that we should not be exploited by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

12 Now having come to Troas for the gospel of Christ, a door also having been opened to me in the Lord,

13 I have had no rest in my spirit [in] my not finding Titus my brother, but having taken leave of them, I went out to Macedonia.

14 But thanks [be] to God, the One always leading us in triumph in Christ and making manifest the fragrance of the knowledge of Him through us in every place.

15 For we are a sweet smell of Christ to God among those being saved and among those perishing:

16 to one indeed a smell from death to death, but to one a smell from life to life. And who [is] sufficient for these things?

17 For we are not like the many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity—but as from God—we speak before God in Christ.