2 Corinthians 6:1–4

¹⁵Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

⁹For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.

¹⁰As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

¹⁸And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

¹⁹To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

²⁰Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.

²¹I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

¹I BESEECH you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

¹MOREOVER, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia;

²How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.

¹¹I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

¹²Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.

²⁵See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

³Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands.

⁴Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.

³⁷O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

¹¹For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

¹NOW I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you:

⁸How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.

⁸Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;

⁷Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

¹³But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

²To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

⁷Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,

⁴²Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.

⁴³For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,

⁴⁴And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

¹⁹To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

⁸Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine.

¹³Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.

¹²If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.

³²Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:

³³Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.

²²To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

²⁷Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.

⁶But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

²³All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

²⁴Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth.

⁹But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.

¹⁰For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols;

¹¹And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?

¹²But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.

¹³Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.

¹²For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.

²⁰Avoiding this, that no man should blame us in this abundance which is administered by us:

¹⁰Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

⁸We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

²⁷In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

¹¹Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace;

¹²And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:

³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

³⁶As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

³And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

⁴And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

¹¹Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

¹²I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

⁵Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?

¹²Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.

⁶Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

¹⁷Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?

⁹I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

¹⁰Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

¹LET a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.

¹⁰But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,

¹¹Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.

¹²Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

⁷Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

⁸Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

⁹Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.

¹⁰Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.

¹¹If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?

³For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile:

⁴But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.

⁵For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness:

⁶Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ.

⁷But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children:

⁸So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.

⁹For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.

¹⁰Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe:

¹¹As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children,

²And sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith:

³That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.

¹⁴Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.

¹⁵Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.

⁶If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.

¹¹But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

²³Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.

⁹And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself.

¹⁷For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

²But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

¹¹For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

⁸Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;

²⁴And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,

⁵But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

²²Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:

²³Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.

²⁴But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

³⁴Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.

¹⁶For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.

¹¹Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;

²⁴Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

¹WHEREFORE seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

⁶But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.

⁹The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord’s ministers, mourn.

¹⁹In your patience possess ye your souls.

¹⁸For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.

¹⁰Salute Apelles approved in Christ. Salute them which are of Aristobulus’ household.

⁸But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

⁷Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith:

¹⁷For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.