¹ But I determined this for myself, that I would not come again to you with sorrow. ² For if I make you sorry, who then is he that maketh me glad but he that is made sorry by me? ³ And I wrote this very thing, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all. ⁴ For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be made sorry, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.

⁵ But if any hath caused sorrow, he hath caused sorrow, not to me, but in part (that I press not too heavily) to you all. ⁶ Sufficient to such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the many; ⁷ so that contrariwise ye should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his overmuch sorrow. ⁸ Wherefore I beseech you to confirm your love toward him. ⁹ For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye are obedient in all things. ¹⁰ But to whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also: for what I also have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, for your sakes have I forgiven it in the presence of Christ; ¹¹ that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

¹² Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ, and when a door was opened unto me in the Lord,¹³ I had no relief for my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother: but taking my leave of them, I went forth into Macedonia.

¹⁴ But thanks be unto God, who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest through us the savor of his knowledge in every place. ¹⁵ For we are a sweet savor of Christ unto God, in them that are saved, and in them that perish; ¹⁶ to the one a savor from death unto death; to the other a savor from life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? ¹⁷ For we are not as the many, corrupting the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ.