Study Desk

All this comes from God. He is the One Who brought us to Himself when we hated Him. He did this through Christ. Then He gave us the work of bringing others to Him.

God was in Christ. He was working through Christ to bring the whole world back to Himself. God no longer held men's sins against them. And He gave us the work of telling and showing men this.

We are Christ's missionaries. God is speaking to you through us. We are speaking for Christ and we ask you from our hearts to turn from your sins and come to God.

Christ never sinned but God put our sin on Him. Then we are made right with God because of what Christ has done for us.

We are working together with God. We ask you from our hearts not to receive God's loving-favor and then waste it.

We do not want to put anything in the way that would keep people from God. We do not want to be blamed.

We have spoken the truth. We have God's power. We have the sword of being right with God in the right hand and in the left hand.

How can the house of God get along with false gods? We are the house of the living God. God has said, "I will live in them and will walk among them. I will be their God and they will be My people."

I will be a Father to you. You will be My sons and daughters, says the All-powerful God."

Since we have these great promises, dear friends, let us turn away from every sin of the body or of the spirit. Let us honor God with love and fear by giving ourselves to Him in every way.

But God gives comfort to those whose hearts are heavy. He gave us comfort when Titus came.

I am happy now. It is not because you were hurt by my letter, but because it turned you from sin to God. God used it and you were not hurt by what we did.

The sorrow that God uses makes people sorry for their sin and leads them to turn from sin so they can be saved from the punishment of sin. We should be happy for that kind of sorrow, but the sorrow of this world brings death.

See how this sorrow God allowed you to have has worked in you. You had a desire to be free of that sin I wrote about. You were angry about it. You were afraid. You wanted to do something about it. In every way you did what you could to make it right.

Christian brothers, we want you to know how the loving-favor of God has been shown in the churches in the country of Macedonia.

I thank God that He gave Titus the same desire to help you.

We want to do the right thing. We want God and men to know we are honest.

Each man should give as he has decided in his heart. He should not give, wishing he could keep it. Or he should not give if he feels he has to give. God loves a man who gives because he wants to give.

God can give you all you need. He will give you more than enough. You will have everything you need for yourselves. And you will have enough left over to give when there is a need.

The Holy Writings say, "He has given much to the poor. His right-standing with God lasts forever."