2:1 For I decided not to come to you again in painful circumstances.
2:2 For if I inflict pain upon you, then who is there to cheer me except the one pained by me?
2:3 And I wrote as I did so that when I came I might not be pained by those in whom I should have rejoiced, confident about all of you that my joy is that of all of you.
2:4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that you might be pained but that you might know the abundant love I have for you.
2:5 If anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure
2:6 This punishment by the majority is enough for such a person,
2:7 so that on the contrary you should forgive and encourage him instead, or else the person may be overwhelmed by excessive pain.
2:8 Therefore, I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.
2:9 For this is why I wrote, to know your proven character, whether you were obedient in everything.
2:10 Whomever you forgive anything, so do I. For indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for you in the presence of Christ,
2:11 so that we might not be taken advantage of by Satan, for we are not unaware of his purposes.
2:12 When I went to Troas for the gospel of Christ, although a door was opened for me in the Lord,
2:13 I had no relief in my spirit because I did not find my brother Titus. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia.
2:14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ and manifests through us the odor of the knowledge of him in every place.
2:15 For we are the aroma of Christ for God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,
2:16 to the latter an odor of death that leads to death, to the former an odor of life that leads to life. Who is qualified for this?
2:17 For we are not like the many who trade on the word of God; but as out of sincerity, indeed as from God and in the presence of God, we speak in Christ.