2 Corinthians 2
Worldwide English (New Testament)
2 I made up my mind that I would not go to visit you again if I had to make you sad.
2 For if I make you sad, who is going to make me glad? No one, but the one I made sad.
3 That is why I wrote the letter. I did not want to come and be made sad by those who should make me glad. I am sure that what makes me glad makes you all glad too.
4 When I wrote to you, I was in great trouble and my heart was very heavy. I cried with many tears. I did not want you to be sad, but I just wanted to let you know that I love you very much who made me sad. It was not only me that he made sad. It was every one of you, in a way. I say `in a way' because I do not want to be too strong in what I say.
5 That man has been punished enough by what most of you did to him.
6 So now, you ought to forgive him and comfort him. If you do not, then he may be so sad he cannot bear it.
7 So I beg you, show your love to him again.
8 Here is why I wrote to you. I wanted to test you to find out if you obey me in all matters.
9 Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. And if I have had anything to forgive, I have already forgiven it for your sakes, just as if we were standing before Christ.
10 I have done this so that Satan will not get ahead of us. We know his tricks. of Troas to tell the good news of Christ, the door was open for me to work for the Lord.
11 But my mind was troubled because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to the people there and went on to the country of Macedonia. Christ. And Christ leads us to victory every time. To know Christ is like a sweet smell. And God lets us carry that sweet smell of his truth everywhere.
12 We are like a sweet smell to God. It is the smell of Christ we have. We have this sweet smell among the people who are saved and among those who are lost.
13 To some it smells like death and brings death to those who are lost. To others it smells like life and it brings life to those who are saved. Who is good enough for such things?
14 We are not like some people. They tell God's message to make money. But we tell it with a true heart just as God told it to us. We tell it as if we stood before God. And we tell it with Christ's help.
2 Corinthians 2
World English Bible
2 But I determined this for myself, that I would not come to you again in sorrow. 2 For if I make you grieve, then who will make me glad but he who is made to grieve by me? 3 And I wrote this very thing to you, so that when I came, I wouldn’t have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all that my joy would be shared by all of you. 4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that you should be made to grieve, but that you might know the love that I have so abundantly for you.
5 But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in part (that I not press too heavily) to you all. 6 This punishment which was inflicted by the many is sufficient for such a one; 7 so that, on the contrary, you should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his excessive sorrow. 8 Therefore I beg you to confirm your love toward him. 9 For to this end I also wrote, that I might know the proof of you, whether you are obedient in all things. 10 Now I also forgive whomever you forgive anything. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, 11 that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.
12 Now when I came to Troas for the Good News of Christ, and when a door was opened to me in the Lord, 13 I had no relief for my spirit, because I didn’t find Titus my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went out into Macedonia.
14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and reveals through us the sweet aroma of his knowledge in every place. 15 For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God in those who are saved and in those who perish: 16 to the one a stench from death to death, to the other a sweet aroma from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not as so many, peddling the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.
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