Reaffirm Your Love

1But I determined this for myself, that I would not come to you again in sorrow. 2For, if I make you sorry, who, indeed, is he that makes me glad, but he that is made sorry by me? 3And I wrote this very thing, that I might not, when I came, have sorrow from those of whom I ought to have joy; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all. 4For out of much tribulation and anguish of heart I wrote to you, through many tears; not that ye should be made sorry, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly toward you.

5But, if any one has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow, not to me, but in part (that I press not too heavily) to you all. 6Sufficient for such a one was the punishment inflicted by the many; 7so that, on the contrary, ye ought rather to forgive and console him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his excessive sorrow. 8Wherefore, I beseech you to confirm your love toward him. 9For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye are obedient in all things. 10And to whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also; for what I also have forgiven?if I have forgiven anything?for your sakes have I forgiven it in the person of Christ; 11that we might not be over-reached by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his devices.

Triumph in Christ

12Now, having come to Troas for the Gospel of Christ, and a door having been opened to me in the Lord, 13I have had no relief in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother; but, bidding them adieu, I went forth into Macedonia.

14But thanks be to God, Who always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest through us the savor of His knowledge in every place; 15because we are to God a sweet savor of Christ, in those who are being saved, and in those who are perishing; 16to the one class a savor of death unto death, and to the other a savor of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? 17For we are not as the many, making merchandise of the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.