⁹ Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.

⁸ For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. ⁹ For we are glad ^(A)when we are weak and you are strong. And this also we pray, ^(B)that you may be made complete. ^10 (C)Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the ^(D)authority which the Lord has given me for edification and not for destruction.

⁸ For even if I should boast somewhat more ^(A)about our authority, which the Lord gave ^[a]us for ^[b]edification and not for your destruction, ^(B)I shall not be ashamed— ⁹ lest I seem to terrify you by letters. ¹⁰ “For his letters,” they say, “are weighty and powerful, but ^(C)his bodily presence is weak, and his ^(D)speech contemptible.”

^21 (A)testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, ^(B)repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

¹⁰ For ^(A)godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; ^(B)but the sorrow of the world produces death. ¹¹ For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what ^(C)clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be ^(D)clear in this matter.

⁶ Nevertheless ^(A)God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by ^(B)the coming of Titus, ⁷ and not only by his coming, but also by the ^[a]consolation with which he was comforted in you, when he told us of your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more.

^16 (A)To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And ^(B)who is sufficient for these things?