1 As co-workers we plead with you not to waste the favor you received from God. 2 He says, “At the right time I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” Look, now is the right time; now is the day of salvation!
Perseverance through hardship
3 We put no obstacles in front of anyone, so that that our service would not be blamed. 4 Instead, in everything we commend ourselves as servants of God: in endurance, in many pressures, in stress, in harrowing circumstances, 5 in beatings, in jails, in riots, in hard work, in sleeplessness, in fasting, 6 in purity, in knowledge, in great patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in a love that is not hypercritical, 7 in the word of truth, in the power of God, through the weapons of righteousness in both hands, 8 through honor and shame, through false rumors and good reports, through lies and truth, 9 as being misunderstood and well known, as dying and yet somehow living, as being disciplined and avoiding the death penalty, 10 as grieving and yet always happy, as poor yet enriching many, as having nothing yet having everything.
Reconciliation is a two-way street
11 Corinthians, we have made ourselves vulnerable to you; we have opened our hearts wide. 12 If things are strained between us, it is only on your part. 13 I should only have to say this to children, but now you too must open up!
No reconciliation with unbelievers
14 Do not allow yourselves to be harnessed together with unbelievers, for what do righteousness and lawlessness have in common? What partnership can there be between light and darkness? 15 Especially, to what agreement can Christ and Belial come? What?! What connection is there between a believer and an unbeliever? 16 And what could join the temple of God with that of idols? For we are the living temple of God, just as he said: “I will take up residence with them and walk among them; I will be their God and they will be my people.” 17 Therefore, “ ‘Come out from among them and be separate,’ says the Master, ‘and touch nothing unclean, and I will accept you. 18 I will be a father to you and you will be sons and daughters to me,’ says the Almighty Master.”