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As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. ²For he says,

“At an acceptable time I have listened to you,

and on a day of salvation I have helped you.”

See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! ³We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, ⁴but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, ⁵beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; ⁶by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, ⁷truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; ⁸in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; ⁹as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; ¹⁰as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

¹¹ We have spoken frankly to you Corinthians; our heart is wide open to you. ¹²There is no restriction in our affections, but only in yours. ¹³In return—I speak as to children—open wide your hearts also.

The Temple of the Living God

¹⁴ Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship is there between light and darkness? ¹⁵What agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share with an unbeliever? ¹⁶What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,

“I will live in them and walk among them,

and I will be their God,

and they shall be my people.

Therefore come out from them,

and be separate from them, says the Lord,

and touch nothing unclean;

then I will welcome you,

and I will be your father,

and you shall be my sons and daughters,

says the Lord Almighty.”

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

7. By the armor of righteousness By righteousness you must understand — rectitude of conscience, and holiness of life. He employs the metaphor of armor, because all that serve God require to fight, inasmuch as the devil is always on the alert, to molest them. Now they must be completely armed, because, if he does not succeed in one onset, he thereupon makes a new attempt, and attacks them at one time from before, at another from behind — now on this side, and then on that. ⁵⁹³⁵⁹³ “Here the spiritual arms are not particularized; yet the terms τῶν δεξιῶν καὶ ἀριστερῶν, (on the right hand and the left,) are very comprehensive, referring to the complete armor and arms, on both sides, with which the ὁπλίτης, or completely armed soldier was furnished, who was thus said to be ἀμφιδέξιος (ambidexter.) Thus the general sense is: ‘We employ no other arms than the panoply of righteousness.’” — Bloomfield. — Ed.

⁵⁹³ “Here the spiritual arms are not particularized; yet the terms τῶν δεξιῶν καὶ ἀριστερῶν, (on the right hand and the left,) are very comprehensive, referring to the complete armor and arms, on both sides, with which the ὁπλίτης, or completely armed soldier was furnished, who was thus said to be ἀμφιδέξιος (ambidexter.) Thus the general sense is: ‘We employ no other arms than the panoply of righteousness.’” — Bloomfield. — Ed.