MODERN LITERAL VERSION

2:1 But I decided this for myself, that I wished not to come to you* again with sorrow.
2:2 For* if I make you* sorry, who is it who also makes me joyous except he who is made sorry from me?
2:3 And I wrote this same thing to you*, that*, having come, I might not have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you* all, that my joy is the joy of you* all.
2:4 For* I wrote to you* out of much affliction and dismay of heart with many tears; not that* you* should be made sorry, but that you* may know the love* that I have even-more toward you*.

2:5 But if anyone has caused-sorrow, he has not caused-sorrow to me, (that* I may not burden him ), but in part to you* all.
2:6 Sufficient to such a one is this penalty which was inflicted by the many;
2:7 so-that you*, rather instead, forgive* him and encourage him, lest such a one might be swallowed up with his sorrow even-more.
2:8 Hence I encourage you* to validate your * love* toward him.
2:9 For* I even wrote *for this reason; that* I might know the trial of you*, if you* are obedient in all things.
2:10 But to whom you* forgive* anything, I also forgive *. For* what I have also forgiven*, ( him of whom I have forgiven* is because of you*), I have forgiven * in the presence of Christ;
2:11 that* we should not be taken-advantage of by the Adversary; for* we are not ignorant of his devices.

2:12 Now when I came to Troas *for the good-news of Christ and when a door was opened to me in the Lord,
2:13 I had no relief in my spirit, because I did not find Titus my brother, but bidding farewell to them, I went forth into Macedonia.

2:14 Now gratitude to God, who always makes us triumph in Christ and the aroma of his knowledge in every place is manifest through us.
2:15 Because we are a sweet-fragrance of Christ to God, in those who are saved and in those who are perishing;
2:16 to the one an aroma from death to death, but to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is sufficient in these things?
2:17 For* we are not as the rest who are peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.