Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

1 Are we starting to recommend ourselves again? Or do we, like some, need letters of recommendation either to you or from you?

2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone.

3 You make it clear that you are a letter from the Messiah placed in our care, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on human hearts.

4 Such is the confidence we have through the Messiah toward God.

5 It is not that we are competent in ourselves to count anything as having come from us; on the contrary, our competence is from God.

6 He has even made us competent to be workers serving a New Covenant, the essence of which is not a written text but the Spirit. For the written text brings death, but the Spirit gives life.

7 Now if that which worked death, by means of a written text engraved on stone tablets, came with glory — such glory that the people of Isra’el could not stand to look at Moshe’s face because of its brightness, even though that brightness was already fading away —

8 won’t the working of the Spirit be accompanied by even greater glory?

9 For if there was glory in what worked to declare people guilty, how much more must the glory abound in what works to declare people innocent!

10 In fact, by comparison with this greater glory, what was made glorious before has no glory now.

11 For if there was glory in what faded away, how much more glory must there be in what lasts.

12 Therefore, with a hope like this, we are very open —

13 unlike Moshe, who put a veil over his face, so that the people of Isra’el would not see the fading brightness come to an end.

14 What is more, their minds were made stonelike; for to this day the same veil remains over them when they read the Old Covenant; it has not been unveiled, because only by the Messiah is the veil taken away.

15 Yes, till today, whenever Moshe is read, a veil lies over their heart.

16 “But,” says theTorah, “whenever someone turns toAdonai, the veil is taken away.”

17 Now, “Adonai” in this text means the Spirit. And where the Spirit ofAdonaiis, there is freedom.

18 So all of us, with faces unveiled, see as in a mirror the glory of the Lord; and we are being changed into his very image, from one degree of glory to the next, byAdonaithe Spirit.

1 God has shown us such mercy that we do not lose courage as we do the work he has given us.

2 Indeed, we refuse to make use of shameful underhanded methods, employing deception or distorting God’s message. On the contrary, by making very clear what the truth is, we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.

3 So if indeed our Good News is veiled, it is veiled only to those in the process of being lost.

4 They do not come to trust because the god of the‘olam hazehhas blinded their minds, in order to prevent them from seeing the light shining from the Good News about the glory of the Messiah, who is the image of God.

5 For what we are proclaiming is not ourselves, but the Messiah Yeshua as Lord, with ourselves as slaves for you because of Yeshua.

6 For it is the God who once said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has made his light shine in our hearts, the light of the knowledge of God’s glory shining in the face of the Messiah Yeshua.

7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it will be evident that such overwhelming power comes from God and not from us.

8 We have all kinds of troubles, but we are not crushed; we are perplexed, yet not in despair;

9 persecuted, yet not abandoned; knocked down, yet not destroyed.

10 We always carry in our bodies the dying of Yeshua, so that the life of Yeshua may be manifested in our bodies too.

11 For we who are alive are always being handed over to death for Yeshua’s sake, so that Yeshua’s life also might be manifested in our mortal bodies.

12 Thus death is at work in us but life in you.

13 TheTanakhsays, “I trusted, therefore I spoke.” Since we have that same Spirit who enables us to trust, we also trust and therefore speak;

14 because we know that he who raised the Lord Yeshua will also raise us with Yeshua and bring us along with you into his presence.

15 All this is for your sakes, so that as grace flows out to more and more people, it may cause thanksgiving to overflow and bring glory to God.

16 This is why we do not lose courage. Though our outer self is heading for decay, our inner self is being renewed daily.

17 For our light and transient troubles are achieving for us an everlasting glory whose weight is beyond description.

18 We concentrate not on what is seen but on what is not seen, since things seen are temporary, but things not seen are eternal.

1 We know that when the tent which houses us here on earth is torn down, we have a permanent building from God, a building not made by human hands, to house us in heaven.

2 For in this tent, our earthly body, we groan with desire to have around us the home from heaven that will be ours.

3 With this around us we will not be found naked.

4 Yes, while we are in this body, we groan with the sense of being oppressed: it is not so much that we want to take something off, but rather to put something on over it; so that what must die may be swallowed up by the Life.

5 Moreover, it is God who has prepared us for this very thing, and as a pledge he has given us his Spirit.

6 So we are always confident — we know that so long as we are at home in the body, we are away from our home with the Lord;

7 for we live by trust, not by what we see.

8 We are confident, then, and would much prefer to leave our home in the body and come to our home with the Lord.

9 Therefore, whether at home or away from home, we try our utmost to please him;

10 for we must all appear before the Messiah’s court of judgment, where everyone will receive the good or bad consequences of what he did while he was in the body.

11 So it is with the fear of the Lord before us that we try to persuade people. Moreover, God knows us as we really are; and I hope that in your consciences you too know us as we really are.

12 We are not recommending ourselves to you again but giving you a reason to be proud of us, so that you will be able to answer those who boast about a person’s appearance rather than his inner qualities.

13 If we are insane, it is for God’s sake; and if we are sane, it is for your sake.

14 For the Messiah’s love has hold of us, because we are convinced that one man died on behalf of all mankind (which implies that all mankind was already dead),

15 and that he died on behalf of all in order that those who live should not live any longer for themselves but for the one who on their behalf died and was raised.

16 So from now on, we do not look at anyone from a worldly viewpoint. Even if we once regarded the Messiah from a worldly viewpoint, we do so no longer.

17 Therefore, if anyone is united with the Messiah, he is a new creation — the old has passed; look, what has come is fresh and new!

18 And it is all from God, who through the Messiah has reconciled us to himself and has given us the work of that reconciliation,

19 which is that God in the Messiah was reconciling mankind to himself, not counting their sins against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

20 Therefore we are ambassadors of the Messiah; in effect, God is making his appeal through us. What we do is appeal on behalf of the Messiah, “Be reconciled to God!

21 God made this sinless man be a sin offering on our behalf, so that in union with him we might fully share in God’s righteousness.”

1 As God’s fellow-workers we also urge you not to receive his grace and then do nothing with it.

2 For he says,

“At the acceptable time I heard you;

in the day of salvation I helped you.”

3 We try not to put obstacles in anyone’s path, so that no one can find fault with the work we do.

4 On the contrary, we try to commend ourselves in every way as workers for God by continually enduring troubles, hardships, calamities,

5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, overwork, lack of sleep and food.

6 We commend ourselves by our purity, knowledge, patience and kindness; by theRuach HaKodesh;by genuineness of love

7 and truthfulness of speech; and by God’s power. We commend ourselves through our use of righteous weapons, whether for pressing our cause or defending it;

8 through being honored and dishonored, praised and blamed, considered deceptive and sincere,

9 unknown and famous. And we commend ourselves as God’s workers headed for death, yet look! we’re alive! as punished, yet not killed;

10 as having reason to be sad, yet always filled with joy; as poor, yet making many people rich; as having nothing, yet having everything!

11 Dear friends in Corinth! We have spoken frankly to you, we have opened our hearts wide.

12 Any constraint you feel has not been imposed by us, but by your own inner selves.

13 So, just to be “fair” (I am using the language of children), open wide your hearts too.

14 Do not yoke yourselves together in a team with unbelievers. For how can righteousness and lawlessness be partners? What fellowship does light have with darkness?

15 What harmony can there be between the Messiah and B’liya‘al? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

16 What agreement can there be between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God — as God said,

“I will house myself in them, . . .

and I will walk among you.

I will be their God,

and they will be my people.”

17 ThereforeAdonaisays,

“‘Go out from their midst;

separate yourselves;

don’t even touch what is unclean.

Then I myself will receive you.

18 In fact, I will be your Father,

and you will be my sons and daughters.’

saysAdonai-Tzva’ot.”

1 Therefore, my dear friends, since we have these promises, let us purify ourselves from everything that can defile either body or spirit, and strive to be completely holy, out of reverence for God.

2 Make room for us in your hearts — we haven’t wronged anyone, we haven’t corrupted anyone, we haven’t exploited anyone.

3 I am not saying this to put blame on you, for I have already said that you have a place in our hearts, whether we live together or die together;

4 that I am very confident in you; that I am very proud of you; that you have filled me with encouragement; and that in spite of all our troubles, I am overflowing with joy.

5 For indeed when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest. On the contrary, we faced all kinds of troubles — altercations without, apprehensions within.

6 But God, who encourages the downhearted, encouraged us with the arrival of Titus!

7 However, it was not only his arrival which encouraged us, but also how encouraged he was about you, as he told us how you long to see me, how distressed you are over my situation, how zealous you are in my defense — this news made me even happier!

8 If I caused you pain by my letter, I do not regret it. Even if I did regret it before — for I do see that that letter did distress you, though only for a short time —

9 now I rejoice not because you were pained, but because the pain led you to turn back to God. For you handled the pain in God’s way, so that you were not harmed by us at all.

10 Pain handled in God’s way produces a turning from sin to God which leads to salvation, and there is nothing to regret in that! But pain handled in the world’s way produces only death.

11 For just look at what handling the pain God’s way produced in you! What earnest diligence, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what readiness to put things right! In everything you have proved yourselves blameless in the matter.

12 So even though I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of either the one who did the wrong or the one wronged, but so that before God you could see for yourselves how deep is your devotion to us.

13 This is the reason we have been encouraged.

Besides our own encouragement, we had the even greater joy of seeing how happy Titus was, because all of you set his mind at rest.

14 For I had boasted somewhat about you to him, and now I have not been made to look foolish. On the contrary, just as everything we have said to you is true, so too our boasting in front of Titus has proved true.

15 And his affection for you is all the greater as he remembers how ready you were to obey and how you received him with reverence and respect.

16 I am glad that I can have such complete confidence in you.

1 Now, brothers, we must tell you about the grace God has given the congregations in Macedonia.

2 Despite severe trials, and even though they are desperately poor, their joy has overflowed in a wealth of generosity.

3 I tell you they have not merely given according to their means, but of their own free will they have given beyond their means.

4 They begged and pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service for God’s people.

5 Also, they didn’t do this in the way we had expected, but first they gave themselves to the Lord, which means, by God’s will, to us.

6 All this has led us to urge Titus to bring this same gracious gift to completion among you, since he has already made a beginning of it.

7 Just as you excel in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in diligence of every kind, and in your love for us — see that you excel in this gift too.

8 I am not issuing an order; rather, I am testing the genuineness of your love against the diligence of others.

9 For you know how generous our Lord Yeshua the Messiah was — for your sakes he impoverished himself, even though he was rich, so that he might make you rich by means of his poverty.

10 As I say, in regard to this matter I am only giving an opinion. A year ago you were not only the first to take action but the first to want to do so. Now it would be to your advantage

11 to finish what you started, so that your eagerness in wanting to commence the project may be matched by your eagerness to complete it, as you contribute from what you have.

12 For if the eagerness to give is there, the acceptability of the gift will be measured by what you have, not by what you don’t have.

13 It is not that relief for others should cause trouble for you, but that there should be a kind of reciprocity:

14 at present your abundance can help those in need; so that when you are in need, their abundance can help you — thus there is reciprocity.

15 It is as theTanakhsays,

“He who gathered much had nothing extra,

and he who gathered little had nothing lacking.”

16 Now I thank God for making Titus as devoted to you as we are;

17 for he not only responded to our urging, but, being so devoted, he is coming to you on his own initiative.

18 And with him we are sending the brother whose work for the Good News is praised in all the congregations;

19 not only that, he has also been appointed by the congregations to travel with us, so that the way we administer this charitable work will bring honor to the Lord and show our eagerness to help.

20 Our aim in this is to show that our conduct in dealing with these substantial sums is above reproach;

21 for we take pains to do what is right not only in the sight of God but also in the sight of other people.

22 With these two we are sending another brother of ours, one whose diligence we have tested many times in many ways, but who is now all the more diligent because of his great confidence in you.

23 As for Titus, he is my partner who works with me on your behalf; and the other brothers with him are emissaries of the congregations and bring honor to the Messiah.

24 So the love you show these men will justify our pride in you to them, and through them to the congregations that sent them.

1 There is really no need for me to write you about this offering for God’s people —

2 I know how eager you are, and I boast about you to the Macedonians. I tell them, “Achaia has been ready since last year,” and it was your zeal that stirred up most of them.

3 But now I am sending the brothers so that our boast about you in this regard will not prove hollow, so that you will be ready, as I said you would be.

4 For if some Macedonians were to come with me and find you unprepared, we would be humiliated at having been so confident — to say nothing of how you would feel.

5 So I thought it necessary to urge these brothers to go on to you ahead of me and prepare your promised gift in plenty of time; this way it will be ready when I come and will be a genuine gift, not something extracted by pressure.

6 Here’s the point: he who plants sparingly also harvests sparingly.

7 Each should give according to what he has decided in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

8 Moreover, God has the power to provide you with every gracious gift in abundance, so that always in every way you will have all you need yourselves and be able to provide abundantly for every good cause —

9 as theTanakhsays,

“He gave generously to the poor;

histzedakahlasts forever.”

10 He who provides both seed for the planter and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of yourtzedakah.

11 You will be enriched in every way, so that you can be generous in everything. And through us your generosity will cause people to thank God,

12 because rendering this holy service not only provides for the needs of God’s people, but it also overflows in the many thanks people will be giving to God.

13 In offering this service you prove to these people that you glorify God by actually doing what your acknowledgement of the Good News of the Messiah requires, namely, sharing generously with them and with everyone.

14 And in their prayers for you they will feel a strong affection for you because of how gracious God has been to you.

15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

1 Now it is I myself, Sha’ul, making an appeal to you with the meekness and forbearance that come from the Messiah, I who am considered timid when face-to-face with you but intimidating from a distance.

2 But I beg you not to force me to be intimidating when I am with you, as I expect to be toward some who regard us as living in a worldly way.

3 For although we do live in the world, we do not wage war in a worldly way;

4 because the weapons we use to wage war are not worldly. On the contrary, they have God’s power for demolishing strongholds. We demolish arguments

5 and every arrogance that raises itself up against the knowledge of God; we take every thought captive and make it obey the Messiah.

6 And when you have become completely obedient, then we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience.

7 You are looking at the surface of things. If anyone is convinced that he belongs to the Messiah, he should remind himself that we belong to the Messiah as much as he does.

8 For even if I boast a little too much about the authority the Lord has given us — authority to build you up, not tear you down — I am not ashamed.

9 My object is not to seem as if I were trying to frighten you with these letters.

10 Someone says, “His letters are weighty and powerful, but when he appears in person he is weak, and as a speaker he is nothing.”

11 Such a person should realize that what we say in our letters when absent, we will do when present.

12 We don’t dare class or compare ourselves with some of the people who advertise themselves. In measuring themselves against each other and comparing themselves with each other, they are simply stupid.

13 We will not boast about what lies outside the area of work which God has given us; rather, we will boast within our assigned area, and that area does reach as far as you.

14 We are not overextending our boasting as if we had not reached as far as you; for we did come all the way to you with the Good News of the Messiah.

15 We do not boast about the area in which others labor; but our hope is that as your trust grows, we will be magnified in your midst in relation to our own area of work, so that we can go on to do even more,

16 namely, to proclaim the Good News in regions beyond you. Our hope is not to boast about the work already done by someone else.

17 So, let anyone who wants to boast, boast aboutAdonai;

18 because it is not the one who recommends himself who is worthy of approval, but the one whom the Lord recommends.

1 I would like you to bear with me in a little foolishness — please do bear with me!

2 For I am jealous for you with God’s kind of jealousy; since I promised to present you as a pure virgin in marriage to your one husband, the Messiah;

3 and I fear that somehow your minds may be seduced away from simple and pure devotion to the Messiah, just as Havah was deceived by the serpent and his craftiness.

4 For if someone comes and tells you about some other Yeshua than the one we told you about, or if you receive a spirit different from the one you received or accept some so-called “good news” different from the Good News you already accepted, you bear with him well enough!

5 For I don’t consider myself in any way inferior to these “super-emissaries.”

6 I may not be a skilled speaker, but I do have the knowledge; anyhow, we have made this clear to you in every way and in every circumstance.

7 Or did I sin in humbling myself so that you could be exalted, in proclaiming God’s Good News to you free of charge?

8 I robbed other congregations by accepting support from them in order to serve you.

9 And when I was with you and had needs, I did not burden anyone: my needs were met by the brothers who came from Macedonia. In nothing have I been a burden to you, nor will I be.

10 The truthfulness of the Messiah is in me, so that this boast concerning me is not going to be silenced anywhere in Achaia.

11 Why won’t I ever accept your support? Is it that I don’t love you? God knows I do!

12 No, I do it — and will go on doing it — in order to cut the ground from under those who want an excuse to boast that they work the same way we do.

13 The fact is that such men are pseudo-emissaries: they tell lies about their work and masquerade as emissaries of the Messiah.

14 There is nothing surprising in that, for the Adversary himself masquerades as an angel of light;

15 so it’s no great thing if his workers masquerade as servants of righteousness. They will meet the end their deeds deserve.

16 I repeat: don’t let anyone think I am a fool. But even if you do, at least receive me as a fool; so that I too may do a little boasting!

17 What I am saying is not in accordance with the Lord; rather, this conceited boasting is spoken as a fool would speak.

18 Since many people boast in a worldly way, I too will boast this way.

19 For since you yourselves are so wise, you gladly put up with fools!

20 You put up with it if someone makes slaves of you, exploits you, takes you in, puffs himself up, slaps you in the face.

21 To my shame, I must admit that we have been too “weak” to do such things!

But if anyone dares to boast about something — I’m talking like a fool! — I am just as daring.

22 Are they Hebrew-speakers? So am I. Are they of the people of Isra’el? So am I. Are they descendants of Avraham? So am I.

23 Are they servants of the Messiah? (I’m talking like a madman!) I’m a better one! I’ve worked much harder, been imprisoned more often, suffered more beatings, been near death over and over.

24 Five times I received “forty lashes less one” from the Jews.

25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea.

26 In my many travels I have been exposed to danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the desert, danger at sea, danger from false brothers.

27 I have toiled and endured hardship, often not had enough sleep, been hungry and thirsty, frequently gone without food, been cold and naked.

28 And besides these external matters, there is the daily pressure of my anxious concern for all the congregations.

29 Who is weak without my sharing his weakness? Who falls into sin without my burning inside?

30 If I must boast, I will boast about things that show how weak I am.

31 God the Father of the Lord Yeshua — blessed be he forever — knows that I am not lying!

32 When I was in Dalmanuta, the governor under King Aretas had the city of Dalmanuta guarded in order to arrest me;

33 but I was lowered in a basket through an opening in the wall and escaped his clutches.

1 I have to boast. There is nothing to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.

2 I know a man in union with the Messiah who fourteen years ago was snatched up to the third heaven; whether he was in the body or outside the body I don’t know, God knows.

3 And I know that such a man — whether in the body or apart from the body I don’t know, God knows —

4 was snatched into Gan-‘Eden and heard things that cannot be put into words, things unlawful for a human being to utter.

5 About such a man I will boast; but about myself I will not boast, except in regard to my weaknesses.

6 If I did want to boast, I would not be foolish; because I would be speaking the truth. But, because of the extraordinary greatness of the revelations, I refrain, so that no one will think more of me than what my words or deeds may warrant.

7 Therefore, to keep me from becoming overly proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from the Adversary to pound away at me, so that I wouldn’t grow conceited.

8 Three times I begged the Lord to take this thing away from me;

9 but he told me, “My grace is enough for you, for my power is brought to perfection in weakness.” Therefore, I am very happy to boast about my weaknesses, in order that the Messiah’s power will rest upon me.

10 Yes, I am well pleased with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and difficulties endured on behalf of the Messiah; for it is when I am weak that I am strong.

11 I have behaved like a fool, but you forced me to do it — you who should have been commending me. For I am in no way inferior to the “super-emissaries,” even if I am nothing.

12 The things that prove I am an emissary — signs, wonders and miracles — were done in your presence, despite what I had to endure.

13 Is there any way in which you have been behind any of the other congregations, other than in my not having been a burden to you? For this unfairness, please forgive me!

14 Look, I am ready this third time to come and visit you; and I will not be a burden to you; for it is not what you own that I want, but you! Children are not supposed to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.

15 And as for me, I will most gladly spend everything I have and be spent myself too for your sakes. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?

16 Let it be granted, then, that I was not a burden to you; but, crafty fellow that I am, I took you with trickery!

17 Was it perhaps through someone I sent you

18 that I took advantage of you? I urged Titus to go and sent the brother with him; Titus didn’t take advantage of you, did he? Didn’t we live by the same Spirit and show you the same path?

19 Perhaps you think that all this time we have been defending ourselves before you. No, we have been speaking in the sight of God, as those united with the Messiah should; and, my dear friends, it is all for your upbuilding.

20 For I am afraid of coming and finding you not the way I want you to be, and also of not being found the way you want me to be. I am afraid of finding quarreling and jealousy, anger and rivalry, slander and gossip, arrogance and disorder.

21 I am afraid that when I come again, my God may humiliate me in your presence, and that I will be grieved over many of those who sinned in the past and have not repented of the impurity, fornication and debauchery that they have engaged in.