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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.¹⁴ Do not come into close association with unbelievers, like oxen yoked with asses. For what is there in common between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what partnership has light with darkness?¹⁵ Where can harmony between Christ and Belial be found? Or what participation has a believer with an unbeliever?¹⁶ And what compact has the Temple of God with idols? For *we* are the Temple of the ever-living God; as God has said, "I will dwell among them, and walk about among them; and will be their God, and it is they who shall be My people."¹⁷ Therefore, "`Come out from among them and separate yourselves,' says the Lord, `and touch nothing impure; and I will receive you, and will be a Father to you,¹⁸ and you shall be My sons and daughters,' says the Lord the Ruler of all."