Hebrew Names Version HNV
The Message Bible MSG
1 Working together, we entreat also that you not receive the grace of God in vain,
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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.
2 for he says, "At an acceptable time I listened to you, In a day of salvation I helped you." Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
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God reminds us, I heard your call in the nick of time; The day you needed me, I was there to help.
3 We give no occasion of stumbling in anything, that our service may not be blamed,
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Don't put it off; don't frustrate God's work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we're doing.
4 but in everything commending ourselves, as servants of God, in great endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses,
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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;
5 in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in labors, in watchings, in fastings;
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when we're beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating;
6 in pureness, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Ruach HaKodesh, in sincere love,
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with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love;
7 in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,
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when we're telling the truth, and when God's showing his power; when we're doing our best setting things right;
8 by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true;
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when we're praised, and when we're blamed; slandered, and honored; true to our word, though distrusted;
9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and not killed;
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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;
10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
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immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all.
11 Our mouth is open to you, Corinthians. Our heart is enlarged.
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Dear, dear Corinthians, I can't tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life.
12 You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.
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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.
13 Now in return, I speak as to my children, you also be enlarged.
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I'm speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!
14 Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? Or what communion has light with darkness?
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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?
15 What agreement has Messiah with Beliya`al? Or what portion has a believer with an unbeliever?
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Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands?
16 What agreement has a temple of God with idols? For you 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 will be my people."
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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.
17 Therefore, "'Come out from among them, And be separate,' says the Lord, 'Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you.
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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.
18 I will be to you a Father. You will be to me sons and daughters,' says the Lord Almighty."
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I'll be a Father to you; you'll be sons and daughters to me."
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.