2 Corinthians 2
2
He does not wish to reiterate censure
1So I would not and could not come to you again in sorrow and reproof. 2Why should I inflict pain on that which is my joy? And why should that bring me pain which was to be my joy? 3-4And indeed I wrote that letter with only one intention in my mind. It was that after I had said what I had to say by letter I might then be able to come to you with all that put behind us, and receive that joy from our meeting and association together which I know you share abundantly with me. 5If anyone in particular has caused pain, that was no pain to me, for in the singling out of that one who was to blame and the cause of trouble, I thereby no longer impute it to all of you. It was a relief rather than a sorrow that his guilt should become clear, and now that this is so, his rebuke is sufficient. 6Your own knowledge of his wrong-doing is quite enough punishment for him; 7-9therefore remember him kindly, be gracious and forgiving towards him; for excessive mortification and punishment only completes a man’s downfall. And remember that in doing so, you represent my feelings also. 10I forgive where you do so; for remember that that forgiveness was for your sake; in the Christ and with your own love set before me I forgave that sin, 11lest by its means Satan might wrestle me a fall. I know his readiness to lay hold of anything in that nature and to get my mind captive thereby.
12I reached Troas then on this intended journey, 13but arrived there I found no help, no one to work with me, for Titus my brother alone could have helped me. A great door was opened for me there, and I had come to proclaim the Christ, yet I could not stay, I was not able to endure without Titus, so I bade them farewell and crossed into Europe. 14Yet in my weakness God himself continually causes me to triumph. It is in the Christ that this happens.
The fragrance of Christian truth
15Through me the fragrance of the knowledge of God is filling the world, like the sweet savour of incense and sacrifice. It is the divine freshness of life in the Christ which forms this fragrance and which makes men whole, and continually points onward to an ever increasing measure of life, and all its infinite possibilities, when released from fate and death. 16But this same fragrance of the new life, alas, to those who know it not and who continue in the power of the flesh and its inevitable doom, this very fragrance shows up the stench of their corruption, so that I become to them the thing of all others that they hate, the index and characteristic sign of their own approaching dissolution. Now who is sufficient for these things? That one should be through the Christ that is present in me, both the life and the death of this material world. 17For that is my position; it is a necessity to me to be all this, it is in utter sincerity that I stand before the world and speak the truth of the Christ as from God in the presence of God. I am not, and you know it, one of those so-called teachers who run round with the Gospel, dispensing it to people for a consideration.
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2 Corinthians 2: GWC
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Translated in 1916, published in 1937.
2 Corinthians 2
2
1But I determined this for myself, that I would not come again to you with sorrow. 2For if I make you sorry, who then is he that maketh me glad, but he that is made sorry by me? 3And I wrote this very thing, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all. 4For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be made sorry, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.
5But if any hath caused sorrow, he hath caused sorrow, not to me, but in part (that I press not too heavily) to you all. 6Sufficient to such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the many; 7so that contrariwise ye should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his overmuch 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. 10But 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 no advantage may be gained over us by Satan: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
12Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ, and when a door was opened unto me in the Lord, 13I had no relief for my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother: but taking my leave of them, I went forth into Macedonia. 14But thanks be unto God, which always leadeth us in triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest through us the savour of his knowledge in every place. 15For we are a sweet savour of Christ unto God, in them that are being saved, and in them that are perishing; 16to the one a savour from death unto death; to the other a savour from life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? 17For we are not as the many, corrupting the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ.
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maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society