Bible Time

¹BUT I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in sadness. ²For if I make you sad, who can make me happy, but him whom I made sad? ³And I wrote this same thing to you, so that when I come to you I may not be made sad by those who ought to make me joyful, having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all. ⁴For out of great affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote you with many tears; not to make you feel distressed, but that you may know the abundant love I have for you.

⁵But if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me only, but to a certain degree all of you; therefore the news will not be a shock to you. ⁶The rebuke of many persons is sufficient for such a man. ⁷So that from now on you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one will be overcome with excessive grief. ⁸I beg you, therefore, that you confirm your love toward him. ⁹For that is why I wrote you, that I might know by your word whether you are obedient in all things. ¹⁰To whom you forgive anything, I also forgive; for anything which I have forgiven, to whomever I forgave it, it is for your sakes I forgave it in the presence of Messiah, ¹¹Lest Satan might take advantage of us; for we know his devices.

¹²Furthermore, when I came to Troas with the gospel of Messiah, and a door was opened to me in the Lord, ¹³I could not rest in my spirit, because I did not find Titus my brother; for this reason I took leave of them and left for Macedonia. ¹⁴Now thanks be to God, who has made us in the pattern of Messiah, and makes manifest the savor of his knowledge through us in every place. ¹⁵For we are a sweet savor to God through Messiah, in those who are saved and in those who perish; ¹⁶To the one the savor of death to death; and to the other the savor of life to life. And who is worthy of these things? ¹⁷For we are not like those who corrupt the word of God; but according to the truth, and as men of God we speak through Messiah in the sight of God.