BUT I prescribed to myself this rule, not to come again to you with
sorrow. (2)For if I make you sorry, who is he that maketh me glad, but
he that is made sorrowful by me? (3)And I have written unto you for
this very purpose, that I might not, when I come to you, have sorrow
from those in 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 grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more
abundantly towards you.
(5)Now if any person hath given cause for grief, he hath not grieved me
_merely_, but partly all of you; that I may add no farther burden.
(6)Sufficient for such person is that chastisement which hath been
inflicted by the majority of you. (7)Wherefore, on the contrary, ye
rather ought to forgive and comfort him, lest such a one be swallowed
up with excess of sorrow. (8)Wherefore I exhort you to confirm your
love towards him. (9)For to this end also have I written, that I may
know by this proof of you if ye are obedient in all things. (10)But to
whomsoever ye forgive any thing, so do I; and if I forgive any thing,
to whom I forgive, for your sakes I do it, in the person of Jesus
Christ, (11)that no advantage be gained over us by Satan; for we are
not ignorant of his devices.
(12)But when I came to Troas to preach the Gospel of Christ, though a
door was opened unto me by the Lord, (13)I had no test in my spirit on
my not finding there Titus my brother: so taking my leave of them I
went forth unto Macedonia. (14)But thanks be to God, who causeth us
always to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his
knowledge by us in every place. (15)For we are a sweet odour of Christ
to God in those who are saved, and in those who perish. (16)To the one
we are the odour of death unto death, to the other the odour of life
unto life: and who is sufficient for these things? (17)For we are not
as the many, adulterating the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as
of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ.