Our speech has been open to you, people of Corinth; our hearts are open to you. You are not inhibited by us, your inhibitions are in your own vitals. Give us what we give you; I speak to you as my children; and open your hearts also.
Do not be mismated with unbelievers. For what common ground is there for righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship between light and darkness? What agreement is there between Christ and Belial, or what is shared by believer and unbeliever? How can the temple of God make truce with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said: I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they will be my people. Therefore go forth from among those others, and be apart from them, says the Lord; and do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you in; and I will be as a father to you, and you shall be as sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.
Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from every poHution of the flesh and spirit, completing our sanctification in the fear of God.
Make room for us. We have injured no one, corrupted no one, taken advantage of no one. I do not say this to fault you; I have told you before that you are in our hearts, to live and die together. I have great confidence in you, I take great pride in you; I ^ filled with comfort, I ^ overflowing with joy, through all our affliction.
For when we arrived in Macedonia, our flesh got no relief, but we were afflicted in every way; outward quarrels, inward fears; but God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us through the arrival of Titus; not only by his presence, but in the comfort he had received concerning you; for he told us of your longing, your sorrowing, your enthusiasm for me; so that I rejoiced the more. Even if I did grieve you by that letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it; I see that that letter did grieve you, if only for a while; but now I rejoice: not because you were grieved but because your grief led to repentance, because you were grieved according to God's will, so that you have lost nothing with us. For grief by God's will causes repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the world's grief causes death. This very fact of your being grieved by God's will—see what activity it has caused in you: what defensiveness, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what vindic- tiveness. In every way you have established your innocence in this matter. But if I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the wrongdoer, or of the one who was wronged, but in order to make plain to you, in the sight of God, your own concern for us. Therefore, I have been comforted. And in addition to this, I have been all the more filled with joy over the happiness of Titus, because his spirit was set at rest by all of you. If I have ever boasted of you to him, I have not been put to shame for it; but just as everything I said to you was true, so also our boasting before Titus has proved to be true; and his heart is fully given to you as he remembers the obedient spirit in all of you, how you received him with fear and trembling. I am happy that I have full confidence in you.
We would have you know, brothers, of the grace of God which was granted in the churches of Macedonia; that through a great ordeal of affliction the abundance of their joy, even though their poverty was extreme, overflowed into lavish generosity. I bear you witness that, to the extent of their means, and even beyond their means, of their own free will, they begged us with much entreaty to let them share in our ministering to the saints. And this was not as we had expected, but first they gave themselves, by God's will, to the Lord and to us; so that we asked Titus that, as he had originated this gift of grace, he should go to you to bring it to completion. Then, as you are lavishly endowed with faith and eloquence and understanding and every kind of enthusiasm, and in the love we have inspired in you, be lavish also in this work of grace.
In saying this I am not giving you an order; but by the example of others' eagerness I am trying to prove the genuineness of your own love; for you know the gra- ciousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, and how, when he was rich, he made himself poor so that by his poverty you might become rich. And in this matter, here is my opinion. This is to your advantage. You made a good beaming last year, not only in what you did but in your willingness to do it. Now finish the work, so that your willingness to give may be matched by your actual giving, within your means. For the will is acceptable if one gives what he has, not beyond what he has. It should not be relief for others and hardship for you; but as it is now your surplus should be matched against their deficit, so that when they have a surplus it may meet your deficit, and aU be made equal. As it is written: He who got much had no excess, and he who got little did not go short.
Thanks be to God, who granted that the same zealous concern for you should be in the heart of Titus, who accepted our plea and, in an excess of zeal, goes of his own accord to you. With we are sending the brother whose preaching of the gospel is praised in all the churches; in addition to which he was elected by the churches to journey with us on this mission of grace which is being administered by us, for the glory of the Lord and to satisfy our own urge. We have this in mind, to avoid harsh criticism for the lavishness of this contribution administered by us; for we look for honor, not only in the judgment of God but in that of men. With them we are sending one of our brothers whom we have proved often in many circumstances to be enthusiastic, and who will be all the more so, by far, by reason of his great confidence in you. As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for you; as for our brothers, they are apostles of the churches, the glorification of Christ. Give proof of your love for them, and the truth of the claims we made to them about you, in the presence of the congregations.
11 It would be superfluous for me to write to you concerning contribution for the saints; for I know your great enthusiasm, a thing about which I have boasted to the Macedonians, saying that Achaea has been ready since last year; and your zeal stirred up most of them. But I ^ sending the brothers, to keep the boasts I have made about you in this matter from being proved empty; so that you may be ready, as I told them you were; to save us, not to mention you, from being embarrassed by your condition, supposing that some Macedonians were to arrive along with me and find you unprepared. So we thought it necessary to ask the brothers to go on to you before us and arrange for that bounty which has already been promised, so that it will be ready as a bountiful gift, not as something extorted. Consider this: He who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and he who sows abundantly will reap abundantly. Let each give as he thinks right in his heart, not painfully, not forcibly, since God loves a cheerful giver. God has the power to make every grace abound for you, so that, always having full sufficiency in every way, you may have enough for every good work; as it is written: He scattered his bounty abroad, he gave to the poor; his righteousness abides into eternity. He who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your store of seed and increase the products of your righteousness. You will be rich enough for all that generosity which, through us, brings about thanksgiving to God; because the ministering of this service not only is the supplying of the saints' needs, but also overflows into thanksgiving to God by many. Through the proof of this ministry you will be glorifying God, in addition to the obedience of your confession to the gospel of the Christ, and the generosity of your sharing with them and with all; and to their prayers for your sakes when they love you for the surpassing grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.