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 goodbye to the people there and went on to Macedonia.
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 of 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.