If the foot says, “Since I am not a hand, I am not part of the body,” it does not lose its membership in the body because of that.

And if the ear says, “Since I am not an eye, I am not part of the body,” it does not lose its membership in the body because of that.

It is written in the law: “By people with strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, yet not even in this way will they listen to me,” says the Lord.

Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand,

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

For I do not want to see you now in passing, since I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord allows.

So then, let no one treat him with contempt. But send him on his way in peace so that he may come to me. For I am expecting him with the brothers.

For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow toward us, so also our comfort through Christ overflows to you.

For we do not write you anything other than what you can read and also understand. But I hope that you will understand completely

But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and who makes known through us the fragrance that consists of the knowledge of him in every place.

For we are not like so many others, hucksters who peddle the word of God for profit, but we are speaking in Christ before God as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God.

And we all, with unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, which is from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that the extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.

We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, so that you may be able to answer those who take pride in outward appearance and not in what is in the heart.

And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

For he says, “I heard you at the acceptable time, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” Look, now is the acceptable time; look, now is the day of salvation!

Therefore “come out from their midst, and be separate,” says the Lord, “and touch no unclean thing, and I will welcome you,

For even when we came into Macedonia, our body had no rest at all, but we were troubled in every way – struggles from the outside, fears from within.

Now I rejoice, not because you were made sad, but because you were made sad to the point of repentance. For you were made sad as God intended, so that you were not harmed in any way by us.

because I know your eagerness to help. I keep boasting to the Macedonians about this eagerness of yours, that Achaia has been ready to give since last year, and your zeal to participate has stirred up most of them.