2 Corinthians
Working together with the Messiah, we also appeal to you not to receive the grace of God and do nothing with it.
For He says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you; on the day of
salvation I helped you.” Listen, now is “the acceptable time”! Now is “the
day of salvation”!
We give no one cause for offense in anything, so that our ministry may not be blamed.
But we have commended ourselves as servants of
God in everything: in great endurance, in tribulations, in hardships, in distresses,
in
beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in troubles, in sleepless nights, in hunger,
by purity, by knowledge, by patience, by kindness, by holy spirit, by
genuine love,
by the Gospel-word of truth, by the power of God, by the weapons of
uprightness in the right hand and the left,
by glory and dishonor, by slander and praise, considered to be deceivers and yet genuine;
as
unknown and yet well-known, as dying and in fact we still live, as punished but not killed;
as sad but always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as
having nothing, and yet possessing everything!
We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is open wide.
Our
affection for you is not restrained, but you are restrained in your affection for
us.
Now open your hearts to us in return. I speak as to my children.
Do not be bound together with unbelievers.
For what partnership does
right have with wrong? What fellowship does light have with darkness?
Or
what agreement does Messiah have with Belial? What does a believer have in
common with an unbeliever?
And what agreement does a temple of God have with idols? For we are a temple of the living God, just as God said, “I will live in them and walk with them. I will be their God, and they will be My people.”
So “Come out from among them, and be separate,” says the Lord. “Do not touch anything unclean, and I will welcome you.
And I will be a Father
to you, and you will be sons and daughters to Me,” says the Lord
Almighty.
2 Corinthians