2 Corinthians 6–7

6In our work together with God, then, we beg you who have received God’s grace not to let it be wasted. ^2*Hear what God says:

“When the time came for me to show you favour

I heard you;

when the day arrived for me to save you,

I helped you.”

Listen! This is the hour to receive God’s favour; today is the day to be saved!

³We do not want anyone to find fault with our work, so we try not to put obstacles in anyone’s way. ⁴Instead, in everything we do we show that we are God’s servants by patiently enduring troubles, hardships, and difficulties. ^5*We have been beaten, imprisoned, and mobbed; we have been overworked and have gone without sleep or food. ⁶By our purity, knowledge, patience, and kindness we have shown ourselves to be God’s servants—by the Holy Spirit, by our true love, ⁷by our message of truth, and by the power of God. We have righteousness as our weapon, both to attack and to defend ourselves. ⁸We are honoured and disgraced; we are insulted and praised. We are treated as liars, yet we speak the truth; ⁹as unknown, yet we are known by all; as though we were dead, but, as you see, we live on. Although punished, we are not killed; ¹⁰although saddened, we are always glad; we seem poor, but we make many people rich; we seem to have nothing, yet we really possess everything.

¹¹Dear friends in Corinth! We have spoken frankly to you; we have opened our hearts wide. ¹²It is not we who have closed our hearts to you; it is you who have closed your hearts to us. ¹³I speak now as though you were my children: show us the same feelings that we have for you. Open your hearts wide!

Warning against Pagan Influences

¹⁴Do not try to work together as equals with unbelievers, for it cannot be done. How can right and wrong be partners? How can light and darkness live together? ¹⁵How can Christ and the Devil agree? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? ^16*How can God’s temple come to terms with pagan idols? For we are the temple of the living God! As God himself has said:

“I will make my home with my people

and live among them;

I will be their God,

and they shall be my people.”

^17*And so the Lord says,

“You must leave them

and separate yourselves from them.

Have nothing to do with what is unclean,

and I will accept you.

^18*I will be your father,

and you shall be my sons and daughters,

says the Lord Almighty.”

7All these promises are made to us, my dear friends. So then, let us purify ourselves from everything that makes body or soul unclean, and let us be completely holy by living in awe of God.

Paul’s Joy

²Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one; we have ruined no one, nor tried to take advantage of anyone. ³I do not say this to condemn you; for, as I have said before, you are so dear to us that we are always together, whether we live or die. ⁴I am so sure of you; I take such pride in you! In all our troubles I am still full of courage; I am running over with joy.

^5*Even after we arrived in Macedonia, we had no rest. There were troubles everywhere, quarrels with others, fears in our hearts. ⁶But God, who encourages the downhearted, encouraged us with the coming of Titus. ⁷It was not only his coming that cheered us, but also his report of how you encouraged him. He told us how much you want to see me, how sorry you are, how ready you are to defend me; and so I am even happier now.

⁸For even if that letter of mine made you sad, I am not sorry I wrote it. I could have been sorry when I saw that it made you sad for a while. ⁹But now I am happy—not because I made you sad, but because your sadness made you change your ways. That sadness was used by God, and so we caused you no harm. ¹⁰For the sadness that is used by God brings a change of heart that leads to salvation—and there is no regret in that! But sadness that is merely human causes death. ¹¹See what God did with this sadness of yours: how earnest it has made you, how eager to prove your innocence! Such indignation, such alarm, such feelings, such devotion, such readiness to punish wrongdoing! You have shown yourselves to be without fault in the whole matter.

¹²So, even though I wrote that letter, it was not because of the one who did wrong or the one who was wronged. Instead, I wrote it to make plain to you, in God’s sight, how deep your devotion to us really is. ¹³That is why we were encouraged.

Not only were we encouraged; how happy Titus made us with his happiness over the way in which all of you helped to cheer him up! ¹⁴I did boast of you to him, and you have not disappointed me. We have always spoken the truth to you, and in the same way the boast we made to Titus has proved true. ¹⁵And so his love for you grows stronger, as he remembers how all of you were ready to obey his instructions, how you welcomed him with fear and trembling. ¹⁶How happy I am that I can depend on you completely!