1Therefore, because I am working together with God himself, I say this to you very strongly: God has already kindly forgiven you because Christ died for you, so do not now say “It does not matter if I live just to please myself.”

2For God said long ago in the Scriptures: When it is the right time for me to help you, you will ask me to help you, and I will hear you. Then I will send a Savior to help you. So listen to what I am telling you: God has sent his Savior, so now is the time when God is ready to save people from the guilt of their sins.

In spite of much suffering, we have lived as servants of God should live.

3Neither I nor the men working with me do anything that would hinder people from trusting in Christ, and so we cannot be accused {no one can accuse us} of not serving God properly.

4Instead, in everything that we(exc) say and do, we show people that we serve God faithfully. We patiently endure all the things that happen to us. People cause us many troubles and, as a result, we are anxious and often do not know what to do.

5Sometimes we have been beaten and bound {People have beaten us and tied us} with chains in prison. Angry mobs have attacked us, wanting to kill us. We have continued working for God until we had no more strength to work. We have had many sleepless nights, and we have often been without food.

6All that we think about and all that we do is pure in God’s sight. Knowing how God wants us to conduct our lives, we do what pleases him. We are patient with those who oppose us. We are kind to everyone. We depend on the Holy Spirit to help us. We love people sincerely as God wants us to love them.

7We faithfully teach the true message about Christ, and God gives us his power as we teach it. Like soldiers using weapons [MET] in a battle, we, by living righteously, defend God’s message and refute those who attack it.

8We serve God faithfully, whether people praise us (exc) or whether they despise us, whether people say bad things about us(exc) or whether they say good things about us. We keep teaching the truth, even though some people say that we are deceiving people.

9Some people know well that we are true servants of God, and yet others, who know us, refuse to believe that. People have often tried to kill us (inc), yet we are still alive. We have often been beaten, but we have not been killed {People have often beaten us (exc), but they have not killed us}.

10Although we (exc) are often very sad because people have rejected our message, we are always joyful because of all that God has done for us. Even though we (exc) are poor, we make it possible for many people to be spiritually rich. It is true that in this world we (exc) have nothing valuable [HYP], but because we belong to God’s family, all that God has belongs to us.

I ask you to accept us and love us as we love you.

11You fellow believers in Corinth, I have been completely honest with you. I have told you exactly how we(exc) feel about you, that we love you very much [IDM].

12We are not treating you as though we do not love you, but you are treating us as though you do not love us.

13In return for our loving you, will you not love us [IDM] just as much as we love you? I am writing to you as if you were my own children.

Do not get involved with people who do not honor God.

14Do not ◄team up/have a close relationship► with anyone who does not trust in Christ. I say this because we who trust in Christ and do what is right should not [RHQ] want to do things with wicked people. Or to say it in another way, just like light and darkness never join together, so those who belong to Christ and those who belong to Satan should never join together [RHQ].

15There is no [RHQ] agreement of any kind between Christ and Satan. So, believers have no [RHQ] common spiritual interests with unbelievers.

16Just as no one would dare to bring idols into the Temple in Jerusalem, believers should never [RHQ] join with those who worship idols. I say that because [MET] the Holy Spirit is in us, and so we are like the Temple of the all-powerful God. It is as God himself said in the Scriptures: I will live in my people.
I will always be with/helping them.
They will say to me, “You are our God,” and
I will say to them, “You are my people.”

17In another place in the Scriptures we read that the Lord said: Get away from those who do evil things;
keep yourselves separated from them.
Do nothing sinful that would make you unacceptable to me.
Then I will welcome you as members of my family.

18The Lord also said: I will care for you as [MET] a loving father cares for his children,
and it will be as though you are my own sons and daughters.
I, the all-powerful Lord, am saying this to you.