‘But I determined this for myself, that I would not come again to
you with sorrow. For if I make you sorry, who then is he who makes me
glad but he who is made sorry by me? And I wrote this very thing,
lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from those of whom I ought to
rejoice, having confidence i... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with
many tears, not that you should be made sorry, but that you might know
the love that I have more abundantly to you.'
For the truth was that he loved them dearly, so much so that the
severe letter had cause him much anguish of hear... [ Continue Reading ]
‘But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow, not to me, but
in some measure (so that I do not press the case too heavily) to you
all.'
Indeed the reason that he dealt with the offender so strongly in his
letter is not because of the sorrow the man has caused him, he does
not think of that,... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Sufficient to such a one is this punishment (‘censure, reproof,
reprimand') which was inflicted by the many, so that, in contrast to
that, you should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means
such a one should be swallowed up with his overmuch sorrow. Wherefore
I beseech you to confirm... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Because for this purpose also I wrote, that I might know the proof
of you, whether you are obedient in all things.'
He assures them that the main reason that he had written the severe
letter to them was not in order to obtain punishment for the man, but
so that he could test out their own obedienc... [ Continue Reading ]
‘But to whom you forgive anything, I forgive also: for what I also
have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, it is for your sakes in
the presence of Christ, so that no advantage may be gained over us by
Satan. For we are not ignorant of his devices.'
So now he was ready to completely forgive, bec... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ, and when a door
was opened to me in the Lord, I had no relief for my spirit, because I
did not find Titus my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went
forth into Macedonia.'
He first describes the great concern that he had had about the
situati... [ Continue Reading ]
‘But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and
is making known through us the fragrance of his knowledge in every
place. For we are a sweet fragrance of Christ to God, in those who are
saved, and in those who perish. To the one a fragrance from death to
death, to the other a fr... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For we are not as the many, corrupting (or ‘peddling') the word
of God, but as of sincerity. But as of God, in the sight of God, speak
we in Christ.'
So, Paul concludes, they should now be able to see the truth about him
and his fellow-workers. They are not, like many, corrupting and
misinterpreti... [ Continue Reading ]