Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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1 So I made up my mind not to
come to you again to make you
sad.
2 For if I were to make you sad,
who would be left to cheer me up?
Only the very persons I had made
sad.
3 That is why I wrote that letter
to you—I did not want to come to
you and be made sad by the very
people who should make me glad.
For I am convinced that when I am
happy, then all of you are happy too.
4 I wrote you with a greatly troubled
and distressed heart and with many
tears; my purpose was not to make
you sad, but to make you realize
how much I love you all.
Forgiveness for the Offender
5 Now, if anyone has made somebody
sad, he has not done it to me
but to all of you—in part, at least. (I
say this because I do not want to be
too hard on him.)
6 It is enough that
this person has been punished in this
way by most of you.
7 Now, however,
you should forgive him and encourage
him, in order to keep him
from becoming so sad as to give up
completely.
8 And so I beg you to let
him know that you really do love
him.
9 I wrote you that letter because
I wanted to find out how well you
had stood the test and whether you
are always ready to obey my instructions.
10 When you forgive
someone for what he has done, I forgive
him too. For when I forgive—if,
indeed, I need to forgive anything—I
do it in Christ's presence because of
you,
11 in order to keep Satan from
getting the upper hand over us; for
we know what his plans are.
Paul's Anxiety in Troas
12 When I arrived in Troas to
preach the Good News about Christ,
I found that the Lord had opened the
way for the work there.
13 But I was
deeply worried, because I could not
find our brother Titus. So I said
good-bye to the people there and
went on to Macedonia. note
Victory through Christ
14 But thanks be to God! For in
union with Christ we are always led
by God as prisoners in Christ's victory
procession. God uses us to
make the knowledge about Christ
spread everywhere like a sweet fragrance.
15 For we are like a sweet-smelling
incense offered by Christ to
God, which spreads among those
who are being saved and those who
are being lost.
16 For those who are
being lost, it is a deadly stench that
kills; but for those who are being
saved, it is a fragrance that brings
life. Who, then, is capable for such a
task?
17 We are not like so many others,
who handle God's message as if
it were cheap merchandise; but because
God has sent us, we speak
with sincerity in his presence, as
servants of Christ.
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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