⁹ now I rejoice, not because you were grieved but because your grief led to repentance, for you felt a godly grief, so that you were not harmed in any way by us.

⁸ For we cannot do anything against the truth but only for the truth. ⁹ For we rejoice when we are weak but you are strong. This is what we pray for, that you may be restored.^{(A) 10} So I write these things while I am away from you, so that when I come I may not have to be severe in using the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.^(B)

⁸ Now, even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it.^{(A) 9} I do not want to seem as though I am trying to frighten you with my letters. ¹⁰ For someone says,^[a] “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible.”^(B)

²¹ as I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus.^[a](A)

¹⁰ For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death.^{(A) 11} For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves guiltless in the matter.

⁶ But God, who consoles the downcast, consoled us by the arrival of Titus,^{(A) 7} and not only by his arrival but also by the consolation with which he was consoled about you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.

¹⁶ to the one group a fragrance from death^[a] to death, to the other a fragrance from life^[b] to life. Who is qualified for these things?^(A)