2 Corinthians 2

{I have not visited you} because I have chosen to avoid visiting you if it hurts you and me like it did last time {I visited you}.

{I chose not to visit you again} because, when I hurt you, I have hurt the only people who can make me glad. \*

I already wrote {in my previous letter} what I am now saying {to you}. {I wrote those things} so that, when I next visited you, you would not hurt me, and I would be glad about you as I should. {I wrote those things because} I was sure about all of you that you would be glad when I was glad.

I suffered greatly and hurt inside when I wrote {that previous letter} to you. In fact, I wept {while I wrote it}. {I sent it to you} so that you would realize how much I care for you. I did not intend to hurt you. \*

However, the person who has hurt others did not really hurt me. Rather, that person hurt some {of you}. {I use the word “some”} so that I do not include all of you {as those whom that person hurt}.

Most of you together have disciplined that person. {You do not need to do} anything more.

So then, instead {of disciplining that person}, you should now forgive and encourage that person. Otherwise, the person will become very sad and give up. \*

Therefore, I encourage you to show publicly that you care for that person.

Another reason for which I wrote {that previous letter} was in order that I could find out for sure if you would do everything that I asked {you to do}. \*

In the end, when you forgive any person for anything, I too forgive that person. In fact, I have forgiven {that person} for what {that person did}, even though it was basically nothing. {I did that} to help you, as the Messiah desires.

{We should forgive others} so that Satan will not control us. Indeed, we know all about his plans {to control us}. \*

{To return to how I traveled,} when I arrived in the city of Troas, the Lord Jesus made it possible for me to proclaim the good news about the Messiah effectively.

However, since my fellow believer Titus was not {in the city of Troas}, I continued to be anxious about {what happened when he visited you}. Therefore, I said goodbye to the believers there and left to travel to the region of Macedonia. \*

Now we praise God! {He is the one} who, because he has united us to the Messiah, continually includes us as he conquers {his enemies}. Further, he uses us to reveal to people in many places what God is like.

In fact, we are like a pleasant smell that comes from Christ and that pleases God. {We are like this smell} when we are with people whom God is rescuing and when we are with people who are passing away. \*

Those {who are passing away think that we are like} a smell that comes from a dead body and that causes people to die. On the other hand, those {whom God is rescuing think that we are like} a smell that comes from a living thing and that causes people to live. No one can perfectly {proclaim the good news in that way}!

{You can tell that we do not do so perfectly} because we do not sell the message that God has given us for money, like many other people do. Rather, we only want to serve God, not to gain something. Indeed, {we proclaim the good news} because that is what God sent us {to do}. So, as those whom God has united to the Messiah, we proclaim {the good news} to please God{, not people}. \*