Now Is the Day of Salvation
Paul offers his credentials, and they are beatings, prisons, sleepless nights and slander. Then he drops the argument and simply pleads: his heart is wide open, theirs is closed. He asks them to come out from idols and live as the Father's own sons and daughters.
6 1As his co-workers, we urge you not to receive our Father's grace in vain.
2For he says, "At the right time I heard you; on the day of salvation I helped you." Look, now is the right time; look, now is the day of salvation.
3We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry. 4Instead, we commend ourselves in everything as servants of our Father: with great endurance, in sufferings, in hardships, in distresses, 5in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in labors, in sleepless nights, in hunger; 6by purity, by knowledge, by patience, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by genuine love, 7by truthful speech, by our Father's power, with weapons of righteousness for right hand and left, 8through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9as unknown, yet well known; as dying, and look, we live; as punished, yet not killed; 10as grieving, yet always joyful; as poor, yet enriching many; as owning nothing, yet possessing everything.
11We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open to you. 12You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own hearts. 13In return—I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts also.
Come Home to the Father's Family
14Don't team up with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and lawlessness share? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? 15What harmony exists between Christ and the devil? What does a believer share with an unbeliever?
16What partnership does our Father's temple have with idols? For we are the temple of the living Father, as he said: "I will live among them and walk among them; I will be their Father, and they will be my children." 17Therefore, "Come out from among them and be separate, says our Father, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, 18and I will be a Father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to me, says our Father, the Almighty." a a v18 The promise our Father once made to David's royal son he here opens to every believer — he becomes Father to all who come to him, and we become his sons and daughters.
