II Corinthians 6-8

II Corinthians 6

¹But as fellow-workmen, we also beseech that ye receive not the grace of God in vain:

²(for he says, I have listened to thee in an accepted time, and I have helped thee in a day of salvation: behold, now is the well-accepted time; behold, now the day of salvation:)

³giving no manner of offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed;

⁴but in everything commending ourselves as God's ministers, in much endurance, in afflictions, in necessities, in straits,

⁵in stripes, in prisons, in riots, in labours, in watchings, in fastings,

⁶in pureness, in knowledge, in longsuffering, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in love unfeigned,

⁷in the word of truth, in the power of God; through the arms of righteousness on the right hand and left,

⁸through glory and dishonour, through evil report and good report: as deceivers, and true;

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

¹⁰as grieved, but always rejoicing; as poor, but enriching many; as having nothing, and possessing all things.

¹¹Our mouth is opened to you, Corinthians, our heart is expanded.

¹²Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your affections;

¹³but for an answering recompense, (I speak as to children,) let *your* heart also expand itself.

¹⁴Be not diversely yoked with unbelievers; for what participation is there between righteousness and lawlessness? or what fellowship of light with darkness?

¹⁵and what consent of Christ with Beliar, or what part for a believer along with an unbeliever?

¹⁶and what agreement of God's temple with idols? for *ye* are the living God's temple; according as God has said, I will dwell among them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be to me a people.

¹⁷Wherefore come out from the midst of them, and be separated, saith the Lord, and touch not what is unclean, and *I* will receive you;

¹⁸and I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

II Corinthians 7

¹Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us purify ourselves from every pollution of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in God's fear.

²Receive us: we have injured no one, we have ruined no one, we have made gain of no one.

³I do not speak for condemnation, for I have already said that ye are in our hearts, to die together, and live together.

⁴Great is my boldness towards you, great my exulting in respect of you; I am filled with encouragement; I overabound in joy under all our affliction.

⁵For indeed, when we came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted in every way; without combats, within fears.

⁶But he who encourages those that are brought low, even God, encouraged us by the coming of Titus;

⁷and not by his coming only, but also through the encouragement with which he was encouraged as to you; relating to us your ardent desire, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I the more rejoiced.

⁸For if also I grieved you in the letter, I do not regret it, if even I have regretted it; for I see that that letter, if even it were only for a time, grieved you.

⁹Now I rejoice, not that ye have been grieved, but that ye have been grieved to repentance; for ye have been grieved according to God, that in nothing ye might be injured by us.

¹⁰For grief according to God works repentance to salvation, never to be regretted; but the grief of the world works death.

¹¹For, behold, this same thing, your being grieved according to God, how much diligence it wrought in *you*, but what excusing of yourselves, but what indignation, but what fear, but what ardent desire, but what zeal, but what vengeance: in every way ye have proved yourselves to be pure in the matter.

¹²So then, if also I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of him that injured, nor for the sake of him that was injured, but for the sake of our diligent zeal for you being manifested to you before God.

¹³For this reason we have been encouraged. And we the rather rejoiced in our encouragement more abundantly by reason of the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.

¹⁴Because if I boasted to him anything about you, I have not been put to shame; but as we have spoken to you all things in truth, so also our boasting to Titus has been the truth;

¹⁵and his affections are more abundantly towards you, calling to mind the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling ye received him.

¹⁶I rejoice that in everything I am confident as to you.

II Corinthians 8

¹But we make known to you, brethren, the grace of God bestowed in the assemblies of Macedonia;

²that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty has abounded to the riches of their free-hearted liberality.

³For according to their power, I bear witness, and beyond their power, they were willing of their own accord,

⁴begging of us with much entreaty to give effect to the grace and fellowship of the service which was to be rendered to the saints.

⁵And not according as we hoped, but they gave themselves first to the Lord, and to us by God's will.

⁶So that we begged Titus that, according as he had before begun, so he would also complete as to you this grace also;

⁷but even as ye abound in every way, in faith, and word, and knowledge, and all diligence, and in love from you to us, that ye may abound in this grace also.

⁸I do not speak as commanding it, but through the zeal of others, and proving the genuineness of your love.

⁹For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sakes he, being rich, became poor, in order that *ye* by *his* poverty might be enriched.

¹⁰And I give my opinion in this, for this is profitable for you who began before, not only to do, but also to be willing, a year ago.

¹¹But now also complete the doing of it; so that as there was the readiness to be willing, so also to complete out of what ye have.

¹²For if the readiness be there, a man is accepted according to what he may have, not according to what he has not.

¹³For it is not in order that there may be ease for others, and for you distress,

¹⁴but on the principle of equality; in the present time your abundance for their lack, that their abundance may be for your lack, so that there should be equality.

¹⁵According as it is written, He who gathered much had no excess, and he who gathered little was nothing short.

¹⁶But thanks be to God, who gives the same diligent zeal for you in the heart of Titus.

¹⁷For he received indeed the entreaty, but, being full of zeal, he went of his own accord to you;

¹⁸but we have sent with him the brother whose praise is in the glad tidings through all the assemblies;

¹⁹and not only so, but is also chosen by the assemblies as our fellow-traveller with this grace, ministered by us to the glory of the Lord himself, and a witness of our readiness;

²⁰avoiding this, that any one should blame us in this abundance which is administered by us;

²¹for we provide for things honest, not only before the Lord, but also before men.

²²And we have sent with them our brother whom we have often proved to be of diligent zeal in many things, and now more diligently zealous through the great confidence he has as to you.

²³Whether as regards Titus, he is my companion and fellow-labourer in your behalf; or our brethren, they are deputed messengers of assemblies, Christ's glory.

²⁴Shew therefore to them, before the assemblies, the proof of your love, and of our boasting about you.