2 Corinthians 7-10

Complete Jewish Bible

7 Therefore, my dear friends, since we have these promises, let us purify ourselves from everything that can defile either body or spirit, and strive to be completely holy, out of reverence for God.

² Make room for us in your hearts — we haven’t wronged anyone, we haven’t corrupted anyone, we haven’t exploited anyone. ³ I am not saying this to put blame on you, for I have already said that you have a place in our hearts, whether we live together or die together; ⁴ that I am very confident in you; that I am very proud of you; that you have filled me with encouragement; and that in spite of all our troubles, I am overflowing with joy.

⁵ For indeed when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest. On the contrary, we faced all kinds of troubles — altercations without, apprehensions within. ⁶ But God, who encourages the downhearted, encouraged us with the arrival of Titus! ⁷ However, it was not only his arrival which encouraged us, but also how encouraged he was about you, as he told us how you long to see me, how distressed you are over my situation, how zealous you are in my defense — this news made me even happier!

⁸ If I caused you pain by my letter, I do not regret it. Even if I did regret it before — for I do see that that letter did distress you, though only for a short time — ⁹ now I rejoice not because you were pained, but because the pain led you to turn back to God. For you handled the pain in God’s way, so that you were not harmed by us at all. ¹⁰ Pain handled in God’s way produces a turning from sin to God which leads to salvation, and there is nothing to regret in that! But pain handled in the world’s way produces only death. ¹¹ For just look at what handling the pain God’s way produced in you! What earnest diligence, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what readiness to put things right! In everything you have proved yourselves blameless in the matter. ¹² So even though I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of either the one who did the wrong or the one wronged, but so that before God you could see for yourselves how deep is your devotion to us. ¹³ This is the reason we have been encouraged.

Besides our own encouragement, we had the even greater joy of seeing how happy Titus was, because all of you set his mind at rest. ¹⁴ For I had boasted somewhat about you to him, and now I have not been made to look foolish. On the contrary, just as everything we have said to you is true, so too our boasting in front of Titus has proved true. ¹⁵ And his affection for you is all the greater as he remembers how ready you were to obey and how you received him with reverence and respect. ¹⁶ I am glad that I can have such complete confidence in you.

8 Now, brothers, we must tell you about the grace God has given the congregations in Macedonia. ² Despite severe trials, and even though they are desperately poor, their joy has overflowed in a wealth of generosity. ³ I tell you they have not merely given according to their means, but of their own free will they have given beyond their means. ⁴ They begged and pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service for God’s people. ⁵ Also, they didn’t do this in the way we had expected, but first they gave themselves to the Lord, which means, by God’s will, to us.

⁶ All this has led us to urge Titus to bring this same gracious gift to completion among you, since he has already made a beginning of it. ⁷ Just as you excel in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in diligence of every kind, and in your love for us — see that you excel in this gift too. ⁸ I am not issuing an order; rather, I am testing the genuineness of your love against the diligence of others. ⁹ For you know how generous our Lord Yeshua the Messiah was — for your sakes he impoverished himself, even though he was rich, so that he might make you rich by means of his poverty. ¹⁰ As I say, in regard to this matter I am only giving an opinion. A year ago you were not only the first to take action but the first to want to do so. Now it would be to your advantage ¹¹ to finish what you started, so that your eagerness in wanting to commence the project may be matched by your eagerness to complete it, as you contribute from what you have. ¹² For if the eagerness to give is there, the acceptability of the gift will be measured by what you have, not by what you don’t have. ¹³ It is not that relief for others should cause trouble for you, but that there should be a kind of reciprocity: ¹⁴ at present your abundance can help those in need; so that when you are in need, their abundance can help you — thus there is reciprocity. ¹⁵ It is as the Tanakh says,

¹⁶ Now I thank God for making Titus as devoted to you as we are; ¹⁷ for he not only responded to our urging, but, being so devoted, he is coming to you on his own initiative. ¹⁸ And with him we are sending the brother whose work for the Good News is praised in all the congregations; ¹⁹ not only that, he has also been appointed by the congregations to travel with us, so that the way we administer this charitable work will bring honor to the Lord and show our eagerness to help. ²⁰ Our aim in this is to show that our conduct in dealing with these substantial sums is above reproach; ²¹ for we take pains to do what is right not only in the sight of God but also in the sight of other people.^{[b] 22} With these two we are sending another brother of ours, one whose diligence we have tested many times in many ways, but who is now all the more diligent because of his great confidence in you. ²³ As for Titus, he is my partner who works with me on your behalf; and the other brothers with him are emissaries of the congregations and bring honor to the Messiah. ²⁴ So the love you show these men will justify our pride in you to them, and through them to the congregations that sent them.

9 There is really no need for me to write you about this offering for God’s people — ² I know how eager you are, and I boast about you to the Macedonians. I tell them, “Achaia has been ready since last year,” and it was your zeal that stirred up most of them. ³ But now I am sending the brothers so that our boast about you in this regard will not prove hollow, so that you will be ready, as I said you would be. ⁴ For if some Macedonians were to come with me and find you unprepared, we would be humiliated at having been so confident — to say nothing of how you would feel. ⁵ So I thought it necessary to urge these brothers to go on to you ahead of me and prepare your promised gift in plenty of time; this way it will be ready when I come and will be a genuine gift, not something extracted by pressure.

⁶ Here’s the point: he who plants sparingly also harvests sparingly. ⁷ Each should give according to what he has decided in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.^{[c] 8} Moreover, God has the power to provide you with every gracious gift in abundance, so that always in every way you will have all you need yourselves and be able to provide abundantly for every good cause — ⁹ as the Tanakh says,

¹⁰ He who provides both seed for the planter and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your tzedakah. ¹¹ You will be enriched in every way, so that you can be generous in everything. And through us your generosity will cause people to thank God, ¹² because rendering this holy service not only provides for the needs of God’s people, but it also overflows in the many thanks people will be giving to God. ¹³ In offering this service you prove to these people that you glorify God by actually doing what your acknowledgement of the Good News of the Messiah requires, namely, sharing generously with them and with everyone. ¹⁴ And in their prayers for you they will feel a strong affection for you because of how gracious God has been to you. ¹⁵ Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

10 Now it is I myself, Sha’ul, making an appeal to you with the meekness and forbearance that come from the Messiah, I who am considered timid when face-to-face with you but intimidating from a distance. ² But I beg you not to force me to be intimidating when I am with you, as I expect to be toward some who regard us as living in a worldly way. ³ For although we do live in the world, we do not wage war in a worldly way; ⁴ because the weapons we use to wage war are not worldly. On the contrary, they have God’s power for demolishing strongholds. We demolish arguments ⁵ and every arrogance that raises itself up against the knowledge of God; we take every thought captive and make it obey the Messiah. ⁶ And when you have become completely obedient, then we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience.

⁷ You are looking at the surface of things. If anyone is convinced that he belongs to the Messiah, he should remind himself that we belong to the Messiah as much as he does. ⁸ For even if I boast a little too much about the authority the Lord has given us — authority to build you up, not tear you down — I am not ashamed. ⁹ My object is not to seem as if I were trying to frighten you with these letters. ¹⁰ Someone says, “His letters are weighty and powerful, but when he appears in person he is weak, and as a speaker he is nothing.” ¹¹ Such a person should realize that what we say in our letters when absent, we will do when present.

¹² We don’t dare class or compare ourselves with some of the people who advertise themselves. In measuring themselves against each other and comparing themselves with each other, they are simply stupid. ¹³ We will not boast about what lies outside the area of work which God has given us; rather, we will boast within our assigned area, and that area does reach as far as you. ¹⁴ We are not overextending our boasting as if we had not reached as far as you; for we did come all the way to you with the Good News of the Messiah. ¹⁵ We do not boast about the area in which others labor; but our hope is that as your trust grows, we will be magnified in your midst in relation to our own area of work, so that we can go on to do even more, ¹⁶ namely, to proclaim the Good News in regions beyond you. Our hope is not to boast about the work already done by someone else.

¹⁷ So, let anyone who wants to boast, boast about Adonai;^{[e] 18} because it is not the one who recommends himself who is worthy of approval, but the one whom the Lord recommends.