章 |
2:1 |
For I made up my mind not to make you another painful visit.
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2:2 |
For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained?
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2:3 |
And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all.
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2:4 |
For I wrote you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.
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2:5 |
But if any one has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure --not to put it too severely -- to you all.
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2:6 |
For such a one this punishment by the majority is enough;
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2:7 |
so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
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2:8 |
So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him.
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2:9 |
For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything.
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2:10 |
Any one whom you forgive, I also forgive. What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ,
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2:11 |
to keep Satan from gaining the advantage over us;for we are not ignorant of his designs.
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2:12 |
When I came to Tro'as to preach the gospel of Christ, a door was opened for me in the Lord;
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2:13 |
but my mind could not rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedo'nia.
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2:14 |
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
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2:15 |
For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,
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2:16 |
to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?
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2:17 |
For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word;but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.
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