Study Desk

10 For we are all to stand before the judgment-seat of the Messiah, that each may receive retribution in the body, [fn] what he hath done in it, whether of good, or whether of evil.

For if we are extravagant, it is for God: and if we are discreet, it is for you.

For the love of the Messiah constraineth us to reason thus: One died for all; therefore are all dead.

And he died for all, that they who live should not live to themselves, but to him who died for them and rose again.

For God was in the Messiah, who hath reconciled the world with his majesty, and did not reckon to them their sins; and who hath placed in us the word of reconciliation.

20 We are therefore ambassadors for the Messiah, and it is as if God was beseeching you by us. In behalf of the Messiah, therefore, we beseech [fn] , be ye reconciled to God.

For, on your account, he hath made him who knew no sin to be sin, that we might by him become the righteousness of God.

For he hath said, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in the day of life I have aided thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time ! and behold, now is the day of life !

And be ye not yoke-fellows with them that believe not: for what fellowship hath righteousness with iniquity? or what communion hath light with darkness?

or what agreement hath the temple of God with that of demons? For ye are the temple of the living God; as it is said, I will dwell among them, and walk among them, and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

3 I speak [fn] , not to condemn you; for I have said before, that ye are treasured in our hearts, to die and to live together.

For, after we came to Macedonia, there was no rest for our body, but we were distressed in every thing; without was conflict, and within was fear.

And not merely by his arrival, but also by the refreshing with which he was refreshed by you. For he told us of your love towards us, and of your grief, and of your zeal in our behalf: and when I heard it, my joy was great.

And although I made you sad by the epistle, I do not regret it, though I did regret it; for I see that that epistle, though for a time it made you sad,

yet it procured me joy, not because ye had sorrow, but because your sorrow brought you to repentance; for ye sorrowed in godly sorrow; so that ye received no detriment from us.

For, sorrowing on account of God, worketh a conversion of the soul which is not reversed, and a turning unto life: but the sorrowing of the world worketh death.

11 For behold this same thing, that ye were distressed on account of God, what solicitude it wrought in you, and apologizing and indignation, and fear, and love, and zeal, and revenge? And in all things ye have shown, that ye are [fn] pure in that matter.

12 And it will be [fn] that I wrote to you, not for the sake of him who did the wrong, nor for the sake of him who received the wrong, [fn] but that your solicitude in respect to us might be known before God.

Wherefore we were comforted; and with our consolation, we were the more joyful for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all:

For I testify that, according to their ability, and beyond their ability, in the spontaneity of their mind,