Through My Bible Yr 03 – December 31

2 Corinthians 5

¹¹ So, since we know the fear of the Lord, we are trying to persuade people. Now, we are well known by God, and I hope that we are also well known in your consciences. ¹² We are not commending ourselves to you again, but we are giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you have a reply for those who boast about outward appearance rather than what is in the heart.

¹³ Actually, if we were out of our minds, it was for God. If we are in our right minds, it is for you. ¹⁴ For the love of Christ compels ^[1] us, because we came to this conclusion: One died for all; therefore, all died. ¹⁵ And he died for all, so that those who live would no longer live for themselves but for him, who died in their place and was raised again.

God Was in Christ Reconciling the World

¹⁶ As a result, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we knew Christ according to the flesh, we no longer know him that way. ¹⁷ So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. The new has come! ^{[2] 18} And all these things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. ¹⁹ That is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. And he has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, inasmuch as God is making an appeal through us. We urge you, on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

2 Corinthians 6

¹ As fellow workers we also urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. ² For he says:

Look, now is the favorable time! See, now is the day of salvation!

³ We are giving no one a reason to stumble in any way, so that our ministry will not be blamed. ⁴ Rather, in every way we show ourselves to be God’s ministers: in great endurance, in troubles, in hardships, in difficulties, ⁵ in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in hard work, in sleepless nights, in times of hunger; ⁶ in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in sincere love, ⁷ in the word of truth, in the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness on the right and on the left; ⁸ through glory and dishonor, through bad report and good report; treated as deceivers yet being honest, ⁹ treated as unknown and yet being well known; as dying, and yet look—we live; as punished yet not put to death; ¹⁰ as grieving yet always rejoicing; as poor yet making many rich; as having nothing yet possessing everything.