Study Desk

For if I cause you sorrow, who then makes me glad but the one whom I made sorrowful?

For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you.

Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority,

Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.

For to this end also I wrote, so that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things.

But one whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ,

so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ and when a door was opened for me in the Lord,

I had no rest for my spirit, not finding Titus my brother; but taking my leave of them, I went on to Macedonia.

For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing;

to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?

For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.

being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.

For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it.

For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.

But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.

For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake.

For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.