Preparations for Building the Temple^(A)

5 ^[a]King Hiram of Tyre sent his officials to Solomon when he heard that Solomon had been anointed king to succeed his father. Hiram had always been David’s friend.

² Solomon sent word to Hiram, by saying, ³ “You know that my father David was surrounded by war. He couldn’t build a temple for the name of the Lord our God until the Lord let him defeat his enemies. ⁴ But the Lord my God has surrounded me with peace. I have no rival and no trouble. ⁵ Now I’m thinking of building a temple for the name of the Lord my God as the Lord spoke to my father David: ‘Your son, whom I will put on your throne to succeed you, will build a temple for my name.’ ⁶ So order men to cut down cedars from Lebanon for me. My workers will work with your workers. I will pay you whatever wages you ask for your workers. You know we don’t have any skilled lumberjacks like those from Sidon.”

⁷ Hiram was very glad to hear what Solomon had said. Hiram responded, “May the Lord be praised today. He has given David a wise son to rule this great nation.”

⁸ Hiram sent men to Solomon to say, “I’ve received the message you sent me. I will do everything you want in regard to the cedar and cypress logs. ⁹ My workers will bring logs from Lebanon to the sea, and I will have them make them into rafts to go by sea to any place you specify. There I will have them taken apart, and you can use them. You can pay me by providing food for my palace.” ¹⁰ So Hiram gave Solomon all the cedar and cypress wood he wanted. ¹¹ Solomon gave Hiram 120,000 bushels of wheat and 120,000 gallons of pure olive oil. Solomon paid Hiram this much every year.

¹² The Lord gave Solomon wisdom as he had promised. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they made a treaty with one another.

¹³ King Solomon forced 30,000 men from all over Israel to work for him. ¹⁴ He sent a shift of 10,000 men to Lebanon for a month. They would spend one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of forced labor.

¹⁵ Solomon had 70,000 men who carried heavy loads, 70,000 who quarried stone in the mountains, ¹⁶ and 3,300 foremen who were in charge of the workers. ¹⁷ The king commanded them to quarry large, expensive blocks of stone in order to provide a foundation of cut stone for the temple. ¹⁸ Solomon’s workmen, Hiram’s workmen, and men from Gebal quarried the stone and prepared the logs and stone to build the temple.

²³ I appeal to God as a witness on my behalf, that I stayed away from Corinth because I wanted to spare you. ²⁴ It isn’t that we want to have control over your Christian faith. Rather, we want to work with you so that you will be happy. Certainly, you are firmly established in the Christian faith.

2 I decided not to visit you again while I was distressed. ² After all, if I had made you uncomfortable, how could you have cheered me up when you were uncomfortable?

³ This is the very reason I wrote to you. I didn’t want to visit you and be distressed by those who should make me happy. I’m confident about all of you that whatever makes me happy also makes you happy.

⁴ I was deeply troubled and anguished. In fact, I had tears in my eyes when I wrote to you. I didn’t write to make you uncomfortable but to let you know how much I love you.

Forgive the Person Who Sinned

⁵ If someone caused distress, I’m not the one really affected. To some extent—although I don’t want to emphasize this too much—it has affected all of you. ⁶ The majority of you have imposed a severe enough punishment on that person. ⁷ So now forgive and comfort him. Such distress could overwhelm someone like that if he’s not forgiven and comforted. ⁸ That is why I urge you to assure him that you love him. ⁹ I had also written to you to test you. I wanted to see if you would be obedient in every way.

¹⁰ If you forgive someone, so do I. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did in the presence of Christ for your benefit. ¹¹ I don’t want Satan to outwit us. After all, we are not ignorant about Satan’s scheming.

Paul’s Mission as Christ’s Spokesman

¹² When I went to the city of Troas, the Lord gave me an opportunity to spread the Good News about Christ. ¹³ But I didn’t have any peace of mind, because I couldn’t find Titus, our brother, there. So I said goodbye to the people in Troas and went to the province of Macedonia.

¹⁴ But I thank God, who always leads us in victory because of Christ. Wherever we go, God uses us to make clear what it means to know Christ. It’s like a fragrance that fills the air. ¹⁵ To God we are the aroma of Christ among those who are saved and among those who are dying. ¹⁶ To some people we are a deadly fragrance, while to others we are a life-giving fragrance.

Who is qualified to tell about Christ? ¹⁷ At least we don’t go around selling an impure word of God like many others. The opposite is true. As Christ’s spokesmen and in God’s presence, we speak the pure message that comes from God.