2 1 So I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. 2 For if I cause you pain, who then is left to cheer me but the very one I have pained? 3 I wrote as I did so that when I came I would not be pained by those who ought to make me rejoice, confident in all of you that my joy is the joy of you all. 4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the overflowing love I have for you.
5 But if anyone has caused pain, he has not so much pained me as all of you—to some degree, at least; I don't want to be too hard on him.
Forgive and Restore Him
6 For such a person, this punishment by the majority is enough. 7 So now instead you should forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 So I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. 9 This is also why I wrote: to test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. 10 Anyone you forgive, I forgive too. Indeed, whatever I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I forgave for your sake in the presence of Christ, 11 so that we would not be outwitted by Satan—for we are not unaware of his schemes.
12 When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, a door was opened for me in the Lord, 13 yet my spirit had no rest, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia.
14 But thanks be to our Father, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. a a v14 A triumphal procession was a Roman victory parade in which a conquering general led his captives and burned fragrant incense along the route — Paul pictures our Father leading his people in Christ's victory. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to our Father among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing 16 —to the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. And who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not, like so many, peddlers of our Father's word, but in sincerity, as from him and in his sight, we speak in Christ.