²So I made up my mind not to make another visit that causes you grief.^* ²For if I cause you grief, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have grieved? ³And I wrote as I did, so that when I came, I might not suffer grief from those who should have made me rejoice, for I am confident about all of you, that my joy would be the joy of all of you.^* ⁴For I wrote you out of much distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you grief but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.

Forgiveness for the Offender

⁵But if anyone has caused grief, he has caused it not to me but to some extent—not to exaggerate it—to all of you. ⁶This punishment by the majority is enough for such a person;^* ⁷so now instead you should forgive and console him, so that he may not be overwhelmed by even worse grief. ⁸So I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. ⁹I wrote for this reason: to test you and to know whether you are obedient in everything.^* ¹⁰Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. In fact, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ. ¹¹And we do this so that we may not be outwitted by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his designs.

Paul’s Anxiety in Troas

¹²When I came to Troas to proclaim the good news^h of Christ, a door was opened for me in the Lord,^* ¹³but my mind could not rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said farewell to them and went on to Macedonia.

¹⁴But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him.ⁱ ¹⁵For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing:^* ¹⁶to the one group a fragrance from death^j to death, to the other a fragrance from life^k to life. Who is qualified for these things?^* ¹⁷For we are not peddlers of God’s word like so many,^l but as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God, we are speaking in Christ before God.^*

Read in Logos

Footnotes

hOr the gospel
iGk the fragrance of the knowledge of him
jOther ancient authorities read fragrance of death that leads
kOther ancient authorities read fragrance of life that leads
lOther ancient authorities read like the rest

2 Corinthians 2

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Forgiveness for the Offender

Paul’s Anxiety in Troas

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