2 Corinthians 6:1-13 - Afflictions Of God's Servants
1 As a worker with him I beseech you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he said: In an acceptable time have I heard thee, And in the day of salvation have I succored thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time! behold, now is the day of salvation!
3 I am giving no one a cause of stumbling in order that my ministry may not be discredited; 4 but in every way I am striving to commend myself as God's minister by stedfast endurance, by afflictions, by troubles, by distresses, 5 by floggings, by imprisonment; in riots, in labors, in sleepless watching, in hunger and thirst; 6 with purity, understanding, patience, and kindness; by the Holy Spirit, by love sincere, 7 by a true teaching and an energy divine; by the weapons of righteousness, for attack or for defense, 8 amid honor or dishonor, amid evil report and good report; as a deceiver and yet true; 9 as unknown and yet well known; as at death's door, yet, strange to tell, I live on; as chastened, but not killed; 10 as grieved, but always glad; as poor, but making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.
11 O Corinthians, I am unsealing my lips to you; my heart is wide open to you. 12 There is no narrowness in my love; but the narrowness is in your own. 13 I pray you, therefore, in fair exchange (I speak as to my children), let your hearts also be wide open to me.