Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

²I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions just as I handed them on to you.

³But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the husband is the head of his wife, and God is the head of Christ.

⁴Any man who prays or prophesies with something on his head disgraces his head,

⁵but any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled disgraces her head — it is one and the same thing as having her head shaved.

⁶For if a woman will not veil herself, then she should cut off her hair; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or to be shaved, she should wear a veil.

⁷For a man ought not to have his head veiled, since he is the image and reflection of God; but woman is the reflection of man.

⁸Indeed, man was not made from woman, but woman from man.

⁹Neither was man created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man.

¹⁰For this reason a woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.

¹¹Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man or man independent of woman.

¹²For just as woman came from man, so man comes through woman; but all things come from God.

¹³Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head unveiled?

¹⁴Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is degrading to him,

¹⁵but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering.

¹⁶But if anyone is disposed to be contentious — we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.

¹⁷Now in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse.

¹⁸For, to begin with, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you; and to some extent I believe it.

¹⁹Indeed, there have to be factions among you, for only so will it become clear who among you are genuine.

²⁰When you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord’s supper.

²¹For when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk.

²²What! Do you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I commend you? In this matter I do not commend you!

²³For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread,

²⁴and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

²⁵In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

²⁶For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

²⁷Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.

²⁸Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

²⁹For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves.

³⁰For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

³¹But if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged.

³²But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

³³So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.

³⁴If you are hungry, eat at home, so that when you come together, it will not be for your condemnation. About the other things I will give instructions when I come.

¹Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.

²You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak.

³Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.

⁴Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit;

⁵and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord;

⁶and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.

⁷To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

⁸To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit,

⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,

¹⁰to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

¹¹All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

¹²For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

¹³For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

¹⁴Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.

¹⁵If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.

¹⁶And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.

¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?

¹⁸But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.

¹⁹If all were a single member, where would the body be?

²⁰As it is, there are many members, yet one body.

²¹The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”

²²On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,

²³and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect;

²⁴whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member,

²⁵that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another.

²⁶If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

²⁷Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

²⁸And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues.

²⁹Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?

³⁰Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?

³¹But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

¹If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

²And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

³If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant

⁵or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

⁶it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.

⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.

⁹For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part;

¹⁰but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.

¹¹When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.

¹²For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.

¹³And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

¹Pursue love and strive for the spiritual gifts, and especially that you may prophesy.

²For those who speak in a tongue do not speak to other people but to God; for nobody understands them, since they are speaking mysteries in the Spirit.

³On the other hand, those who prophesy speak to other people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.

⁴Those who speak in a tongue build up themselves, but those who prophesy build up the church.

⁵Now I would like all of you to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. One who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.

⁶Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I speak to you in some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?

⁷It is the same way with lifeless instruments that produce sound, such as the flute or the harp. If they do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is being played?

⁸And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle?

⁹So with yourselves; if in a tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is being said? For you will be speaking into the air.

¹⁰There are doubtless many different kinds of sounds in the world, and nothing is without sound.

¹¹If then I do not know the meaning of a sound, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me.

¹²So with yourselves; since you are eager for spiritual gifts, strive to excel in them for building up the church.

¹³Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret.

¹⁴For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unproductive.

¹⁵What should I do then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also; I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will sing praise with the mind also.

¹⁶Otherwise, if you say a blessing with the spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say the “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since the outsider does not know what you are saying?

¹⁷For you may give thanks well enough, but the other person is not built up.

¹⁸I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you;

¹⁹nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.

²⁰Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking; rather, be infants in evil, but in thinking be adults.

²¹In the law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people; yet even then they will not listen to me,” says the Lord.

²²Tongues, then, are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is not for unbelievers but for believers.

²³If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your mind?

²⁴But if all prophesy, an unbeliever or outsider who enters is reproved by all and called to account by all.

²⁵After the secrets of the unbeliever’s heart are disclosed, that person will bow down before God and worship him, declaring, “God is really among you.”

²⁶What should be done then, my friends? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.

²⁷If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn; and let one interpret.

²⁸But if there is no one to interpret, let them be silent in church and speak to themselves and to God.

²⁹Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said.

³⁰If a revelation is made to someone else sitting nearby, let the first person be silent.

³¹For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged.

³²And the spirits of prophets are subject to the prophets,

³³for God is a God not of disorder but of peace. (As in all the churches of the saints,

³⁴women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says.

³⁵If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.

³⁶Or did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only ones it has reached?)

³⁷Anyone who claims to be a prophet, or to have spiritual powers, must acknowledge that what I am writing to you is a command of the Lord.

³⁸Anyone who does not recognize this is not to be recognized.

³⁹So, my friends, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues;

⁴⁰but all things should be done decently and in order.

¹Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand,

²through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you — unless you have come to believe in vain.

³For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures,

⁴and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures,

⁵and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

⁶Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.

⁷Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

⁸Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

⁹For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them — though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

¹¹Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

¹²Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?

¹³If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised;

¹⁴and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.

¹⁵We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ — whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.

¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised.

¹⁷If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

¹⁸Then those also who have died in Christ have perished.

¹⁹If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

²⁰But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.

²¹For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being;

²²for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.

²³But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

²⁴Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power.

²⁵For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

²⁶The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

²⁷For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is plain that this does not include the one who put all things in subjection under him.

²⁸When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all.

²⁹Otherwise, what will those people do who receive baptism on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?

³⁰And why are we putting ourselves in danger every hour?

³¹I die every day! That is as certain, brothers and sisters, as my boasting of you — a boast that I make in Christ Jesus our Lord.

³²If with merely human hopes I fought with wild animals at Ephesus, what would I have gained by it? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

³³Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

³⁴Come to a sober and right mind, and sin no more; for some people have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

³⁵But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?”

³⁶Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

³⁷And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.

³⁸But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

³⁹Not all flesh is alike, but there is one flesh for human beings, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.

⁴⁰There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is another.

⁴¹There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory.

⁴²So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.

⁴³It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.

⁴⁴It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.

⁴⁵Thus it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

⁴⁶But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual.

⁴⁷The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.

⁴⁸As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven.

⁴⁹Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.

⁵⁰What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

⁵¹Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed,

⁵²in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

⁵³For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

⁵⁴When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

⁵⁵“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

⁵⁷But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

¹Now concerning the collection for the saints: you should follow the directions I gave to the churches of Galatia.

²On the first day of every week, each of you is to put aside and save whatever extra you earn, so that collections need not be taken when I come.

³And when I arrive, I will send any whom you approve with letters to take your gift to Jerusalem.

⁴If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me.

⁵I will visit you after passing through Macedonia — for I intend to pass through Macedonia —

⁶and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may send me on my way, wherever I go.

⁷I do not want to see you now just in passing, for I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits.

⁸But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost,

⁹for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.

¹⁰If Timothy comes, see that he has nothing to fear among you, for he is doing the work of the Lord just as I am;

¹¹therefore let no one despise him. Send him on his way in peace, so that he may come to me; for I am expecting him with the brothers.

¹²Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers, but he was not at all willing to come now. He will come when he has the opportunity.

¹³Keep alert, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong.

¹⁴Let all that you do be done in love.

¹⁵Now, brothers and sisters, you know that members of the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints;

¹⁶I urge you to put yourselves at the service of such people, and of everyone who works and toils with them.

¹⁷I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence;

¹⁸for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. So give recognition to such persons.

¹⁹The churches of Asia send greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, greet you warmly in the Lord.

²⁰All the brothers and sisters send greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

²¹I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand.

²²Let anyone be accursed who has no love for the Lord. Our Lord, come!

²³The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.

²⁴My love be with all of you in Christ Jesus.

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God that is in Corinth, including all the saints throughout Achaia:

²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation,

⁴who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.

⁵For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ.

⁶If we are being afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; if we are being consoled, it is for your consolation, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we are also suffering.

⁷Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our consolation.

⁸We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself.

⁹Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

¹⁰He who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us; on him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again,

¹¹as you also join in helping us by your prayers, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

¹²Indeed, this is our boast, the testimony of our conscience: we have behaved in the world with frankness and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God — and all the more toward you.

¹³For we write you nothing other than what you can read and also understand; I hope you will understand until the end —

¹⁴as you have already understood us in part — that on the day of the Lord Jesus we are your boast even as you are our boast.

¹⁵Since I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a double favor;

¹⁶I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on to Judea.

¹⁷Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to ordinary human standards, ready to say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time?

¹⁸As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been “Yes and No.”

¹⁹For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not “Yes and No”; but in him it is always “Yes.”

²⁰For in him every one of God’s promises is a “Yes.” For this reason it is through him that we say the “Amen,” to the glory of God.

²¹But it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us,

²²by putting his seal on us and giving us his Spirit in our hearts as a first installment.

²³But I call on God as witness against me: it was to spare you that I did not come again to Corinth.

²⁴I do not mean to imply that we lord it over your faith; rather, we are workers with you for your joy, because you stand firm in the faith.

¹So I made up my mind not to make you another painful visit.

²For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained?

³And I wrote as I did, so that when I came, I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice; for I am confident about all of you, that my joy would be the joy of all of you.

⁴For I wrote you out of much distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.

⁵But if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but to some extent — not to exaggerate it — to all of you.

⁶This punishment by the majority is enough for such a person;

⁷so now instead you should forgive and console him, so that he may not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

⁸So I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.

⁹I wrote for this reason: to test you and to know whether you are obedient in everything.

¹⁰Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ.

¹¹And we do this so that we may not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.

¹²When I came to Troas to proclaim the good news of Christ, a door was opened for me in the Lord;

¹³but my mind could not rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said farewell to them and went on to Macedonia.

¹⁴But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him.

¹⁵For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing;

¹⁶to the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

¹⁷For we are not peddlers of God’s word like so many; but in Christ we speak as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God and standing in his presence.

¹Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we?

²You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all;

³and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

⁴Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.

⁵Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God,

⁶who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷Now if the ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stone tablets, came in glory so that the people of Israel could not gaze at Moses’ face because of the glory of his face, a glory now set aside,

⁸how much more will the ministry of the Spirit come in glory?

⁹For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, much more does the ministry of justification abound in glory!

¹⁰Indeed, what once had glory has lost its glory because of the greater glory;

¹¹for if what was set aside came through glory, much more has the permanent come in glory!

¹²Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness,

¹³not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside.

¹⁴But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside.

¹⁵Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds;

¹⁶but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

¹⁸And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

¹Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.

²We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.

³And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

⁴In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

⁵For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake.

⁶For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

⁷But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.

⁸We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;

⁹persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;

¹⁰always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.

¹¹For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh.

¹²So death is at work in us, but life in you.

¹³But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture — “I believed, and so I spoke” — we also believe, and so we speak,

¹⁴because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence.

¹⁵Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

¹⁶So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.

¹⁷For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure,

¹⁸because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

¹For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

²For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling —

³if indeed, when we have taken it off we will not be found naked.

⁴For while we are still in this tent, we groan under our burden, because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

⁵He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

⁶So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord —

⁷for we walk by faith, not by sight.

⁸Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

⁹So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

¹⁰For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.

¹¹Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others; but we ourselves are well known to God, and I hope that we are also well known to your consciences.

¹²We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart.

¹³For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.

¹⁴For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died.

¹⁵And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.

¹⁶From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.

¹⁷So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation;

¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

²⁰So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

²¹For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

¹As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain.

²For he says, “At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.” See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!

³We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry,

⁴but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities,

⁵beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger;

⁶by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love,

⁷truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left;

⁸in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true;

⁹as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see — we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed;

¹⁰as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

¹¹We have spoken frankly to you Corinthians; our heart is wide open to you.

¹²There is no restriction in our affections, but only in yours.

¹³In return — I speak as to children — open wide your hearts also.

¹⁴Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship is there between light and darkness?

¹⁵What agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share with an unbeliever?

¹⁶What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

¹⁷Therefore come out from them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you,

¹⁸and I will be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

¹Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God.

²Make room in your hearts for us; we have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one.

³I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.

⁴I often boast about you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with consolation; I am overjoyed in all our affliction.

⁵For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted in every way — disputes without and fears within.

⁶But God, who consoles the downcast, consoled us by the arrival of Titus,

⁷and not only by his coming, but also by the consolation with which he was consoled about you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.

⁸For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it (though I did regret it, for I see that I grieved you with that letter, though only briefly).

⁹Now I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance; for you felt a godly grief, so that you were not harmed in any way by us.

¹⁰For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death.

¹¹For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves guiltless in the matter.

¹²So although I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong, nor on account of the one who was wronged, but in order that your zeal for us might be made known to you before God.

¹³In this we find comfort. In addition to our own consolation, we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus, because his mind has been set at rest by all of you.

¹⁴For if I have been somewhat boastful about you to him, I was not disgraced; but just as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting to Titus has proved true as well.

¹⁵And his heart goes out all the more to you, as he remembers the obedience of all of you, and how you welcomed him with fear and trembling.

¹⁶I rejoice, because I have complete confidence in you.