2 Corinthians 6

1We are workers together with God. So we beg you: Do not let the grace that you received from God be for nothing. 2God says,

“I heard your prayers at the right time,

and I gave you help on the day of salvation.” Isaiah 49:8

I tell you that the “right time” is now. The “day of salvation” is now.

3We do not want anyone to find anything wrong with our work. So we do nothing that will be a problem for anyone. 4But in every way we show that we are servants of God: in accepting many hard things, in troubles, in difficulties, and in great problems. 5We are beaten and thrown into prison. Men become upset and fight us. We work hard, and sometimes we get no sleep or food. 6We show that we are servants of God by living a pure life, by our understanding, by our patience, and by our kindness. We show this by the Holy Spirit, by true love, 7by speaking the truth, and by God’s power. We use our right living to defend ourselves against everything. 8Some people honor us, but other people shame us. Some people say good things about us, but other people say bad things. Some people say we are liars, but we speak the truth. 9We are not known, but we are well-known. We seem to be dying, but look—we continue to live. We are punished, but we are not killed. 10We have much sadness, but we are always rejoicing. We are poor, but we are making many people rich in faith. We have nothing, but really we have everything.

11We have spoken freely to you in Corinth. We have opened our hearts to you. 12Our feelings of love for you have not stopped. It is you that have stopped your feelings of love for us. 13I speak to you as if you were my children. Do to us as we have done—open your hearts to us.

Warning About Non-Christians

14You are not the same as those who do not believe. So do not join yourselves to them. Good and bad do not belong together. Light and darkness cannot share together. 15How can Christ and Belial, the devil, have any agreement? What can a believer have together with a non-believer? 16The temple of God cannot have any agreement with idols. And we are the temple of the living God. As God said: “I will live with them and walk with them. And I will be their God. And they will be my people.”# Quotation from Leviticus 26:11–12; Jeremiah 32:38; Ezekiel 37:27.

17“Leave those people,

and make yourselves pure, says the Lord.

Touch nothing that is unclean,

and I will accept you.” Isaiah 52:11; Ezekiel 20:34, 41

18“I will be your father,

and you will be my sons and daughters,

says the Lord All-Powerful.” 2 Samuel 7:14; 7:8

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2 Corinthians 6

1Since we are co-laboring, we also urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.

2For He says, “At a favorable time I listened to you, in a day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.

3We give no cause for offense in anything, so that our ministry may not be blamed.

4But as God’s servants, we are commending ourselves in every way—in great endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses,

5in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in troubles, in sleeplessness, in hunger;

6in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Ruach ha-Kodesh, in genuine love,

7in truthful speech, in the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left;

8through honor and dishonor, through evil report and good report. We are regarded as deceivers and yet true;

9as unknown and yet well-known; as dying, yet behold, we live; as disciplined yet not put to death;

10as grieving yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing yet possessing everything.

11We have spoken openly to you, O Corinthians; our heart is open wide!

12You are not restricted by us, yet you are restricted in your own feelings.

13Now in return—I speak as to my children—open wide to us also.

Preserving Sanctity in God’s Living Temple

14Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?

15What harmony does Messiah have with Belial? Or what part does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

16What agreement does God’s Temple have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God—just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

17Therefore, come out from among them, and be separate, says Adonai. Touch no unclean thing. Then I will take you in.

18I will be a father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says Adonai-Tzva’ot.”

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