Suffering for Doing Right

⁸ Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind.^{(A) 9} Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse, but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called—that you might inherit a blessing.^(B)

³ Be on your guard! If a brother or sister sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive.^{(A) 4} And if the same person sins against you seven times a day and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive.”^(B)

¹⁴ For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died.^{(A) 15} And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for the one who for their sake died and was raised.

¹⁶ From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view;^[a] even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view,^[b] we no longer know him in that way.^{(B) 17} So if anyone is in Christ, there^[c] is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!^{[d](C) 18} All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation;^{(D) 19} that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,^[e] not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.^{(E) 20} So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God.^{(F) 21} For our sake God made the one who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.^(G)