2 Corinthians 6

Staying at Our Post

1-10 Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don't squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us. God reminds us, I heard your call in the nick of time; The day you needed me, I was there to help. Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don't put it off; don't frustrate God's work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we're doing. Our work as God's servants gets validated—or not—in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly . . . in hard times, tough times, bad times; when we're beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating; with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; when we're telling the truth, and when God's showing his power; when we're doing our best setting things right; when we're praised, and when we're blamed; slandered, and honored; true to our word, though distrusted; ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all.

11-13 Dear, dear Corinthians, I can't tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn't fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren't small, but you're living them in a small way. I'm speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!

14-18 Don't become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That's not partnership; that's war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God's holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives. God himself put it this way:
"I'll live in them, move into them; I'll be their God and they'll be my people. So leave the corruption and compromise; leave it for good," says God. "Don't link up with those who will pollute you. I want you all for myself. I'll be a Father to you; you'll be sons and daughters to me." The Word of the Master, God.

2 Corinthians 6

1 And working together with him we entreat also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain2 (for he saith, At an acceptable time I hearkened unto thee, And in a day of salvation did I succor thee: behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation):3 giving no occasion of stumbling in anything, that our ministration be not blamed;4 but in everything commending ourselves, as ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,5 in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings;6 in pureness, in knowledge, in long suffering, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in love unfeigned,7 in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,8 by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true;9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed;10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.11 Our mouth is open unto you, O Corinthians, our heart is enlarged.12 Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own affections.13 Now for a recompense in like kind (I speak as unto my children), be ye also enlarged.14 Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? or what communion hath light with darkness?15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what portion hath a believer with an unbeliever?16 And what agreement hath a temple of God with idols? for we are a temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.17 Wherefore Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, And touch no unclean thing; And I will receive you,

18 And will be to you a Father, And ye shall be to me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.