1As a worker with him I beseech you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2For he said. In an acceptable time have I heard thee, And in the day of salvation have I succored thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time! behold, now is the day of salvation! 3I am giving no one a cause of stumbling in order that my ministry may not be discredited; 4but in every way I am striving to commend myself as God’s minister by stedfast endurance, by afflictions, by troubles, by distresses, 5by floggings, by imprisonment; in riots, in labors, in sleepless watching, in hunger and thirst; 6with purity, understanding, patience, and kindness; by the Holy Spirit, by love sincere, 7by a true teaching and an energy divine; by the weapons of righteousness, for attack or for defense, 8amid honor or dishonor, amid evil report and good report; as a deceiver and yet true; 9as unknown and yet well known; as at death’s door, yet, strange to tell, I live on; as chastened, but not killed; 10as grieved, but always glad; as poor, but making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.¶ 11O Corinthians, I am unsealing my lips to you; my heart is wide open to you. 12There is no narrowness in my love; but the narrowness is in your own. 13I pray you, therefore, in fair exchange (I speak as to my children), let your hearts also be wide open to me. 14Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? what communion has light with darkness? 15What concord has Christ with Belial? What portion has a believer with an unbeliever? 16And what compact has God’s temple with idols? For we are a temple of the living God, as he has said. I will dwell among them, and walk about among them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. 17Therefore, Come out from among them and separate yourselves, saith the Lord, touch not what is unclean; 18then I will receive you and will be to you a Father, and you shall be to me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.¶