10. If you forgive someone, then I also forgive them. And what I have forgiven—if I had anything to forgive—I forgave it for you, and Christ was with me.
11. I did this so that Satan would not win anything from us. We know very well what his plans are.
12. I went to Troas to tell people the Good News of Christ. The Lord gave me a good opportunity there.
13. But I had no peace because I did not find my brother Titus. So I said goodbye and went to Macedonia.
14. But thanks be to God, who always leads us in victory through Christ. God uses us to spread his knowledge everywhere like a sweet-smelling perfume.
15. Our offering to God is to be the perfume of Christ that goes out to those who are being saved and to those who are being lost.
16. To those who are being lost, this perfume smells like death, and it brings them death. But to those who are being saved, it has the sweet smell of life, and it brings them life. So who is good enough to do this work?
17. Certainly not those who are out there selling God’s message for a profit! But we don’t do that. With Christ’s help we speak God’s truth honestly, knowing that we must answer to him.