2 Corinthians 6:1-13 ▼

1 And you also we, as God's fellow workers, entreat not to be found to have received His grace to no purpose.

2 For He says, "At a time of welcome I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have succoured you." Now is the time of loving welcome! Now is the day of salvation!

3 We endeavour to give people no cause for stumbling in anything, lest the work we are doing should fall into discredit.

4 On the contrary, as God's servants, we seek their full approval--by unwearied endurance, by afflictions, by distress, by helplessness;

5 by floggings, by imprisonments; by facing riots, by toil, by sleepless watching, by hunger and thirst;

6 by purity of life, by knowledge, by patience, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love;

7 by the proclamation of the truth, by the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness, wielded in both hands;

8 through honour and ignominy, through calumny and praise. We are looked upon as impostors and yet are true men;

9 as obscure persons, and yet are well known; as on the point of death, and yet, strange to tell, we live; as under God's discipline, and yet we are not deprived of life;

10 as sad, but we are always joyful; as poor, but we bestow wealth on many; as having nothing, and yet we securely possess all things.

11 O Corinthians, our lips are unsealed to you: our heart is expanded.

12 There is no narrowness in our love to you: the narrowness is in your own feelings.

13 And in just requital--I speak as to my children--let your hearts expand also.