Second Letter to the Corinthians 6

¹ As his fellow workers, we beg you once again not to neglect the grace of God that you have received.

² For he says: At the favourable time, I have listened to you; on the day of salvation I came to your help.[*a] Well, now is the favourable time; this is the day of salvation.

³ We do nothing that people might object to, so as not to bring discredit on our function as God’s servants.

⁴ Instead, we prove we are servants of God by great fortitude in times of suffering: in times of hardship and distress;

⁵ when we are flogged, or sent to prison, or mobbed; labouring, sleepless, starving.

⁶ We prove we are God’s servants by our purity, knowledge, patience and kindness; by a spirit of holiness, by a love free from affectation;

⁷ by the word of truth and by the power of God; by being armed with the weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left,

⁸ prepared for honour or disgrace, for blame or praise; taken for impostors while we are genuine;

⁹ obscure yet famous; said to be dying and here are we alive; rumoured to be executed before we are sentenced;

¹⁰ thought most miserable and yet we are always rejoicing; taken for paupers though we make others rich, for people having nothing though we have everything.

¹¹ Corinthians, we have spoken to you very frankly; our mind has been opened in front of you.

¹² Any constraint that you feel is not on our side; the constraint is in your own selves.

¹³ I speak as if to children of mine: as a fair exchange, open your minds in the same way.

¹⁴ Do not harness yourselves in an uneven team with unbelievers. Virtue is no companion for crime. Light and darkness have nothing in common.

¹⁵ Christ is not the ally of Beliar, nor has a believer anything to share with an unbeliever.

¹⁶ The temple of God has no common ground with idols, and that is what we are – the temple of the living God. We have God’s word for it: I will make my home among them and live with them; I will be their God and they shall be my people.[*b]

¹⁷ Then come away from them and keep aloof, says the Lord. Touch nothing that is unclean,[*c] and I will welcome you

¹⁸ and be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Almighty Lord.[*d]