2 Corinthians 6
Butler1. WE then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace 2 of God in vain. (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) 3 Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed: but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; by 4 pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love un- 5 feigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the 6 right hand and on the left, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as de- 7 ceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as 8 chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many 9 rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. 10 O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. Now for a recompense in the same, 11 (I speak as unto my children.) be ye also enlarged. Be ye not unequally yoked together 12 with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what 13 communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or 14 what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of 15 God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in 16 them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore 17 come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean 18 thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and 19 daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let 20 us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear 21 of God.
HAVING glanced from the earthly tabernacle to the “house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” from the “light affliction” befalling the “outward” man that faints and perishes to the “eternal weight of glory” yet invisible, showing how, in every soul that is new-created in Christ Jesus, “mortality is swallowed up of life,” because that “inward man is renewed day by day,” and then setting forth the mighty motive to that conversion, viz., that “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself,” he comes at last to that close point in the process where he defines the essential contradiction between the spiritual and the earthly man. By a succession of quick, sharp questions, the sword of his doctrine cuts asunder the sophistry which would mix up worldly self-will with Christian consecration, and shows the world to be made up of two sorts of persons. “What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” And then, the crowning conclusion: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing, saith the Lord”; for it is this, “Thus saith the Lord,” that seals the promise. “And I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” . . . In order to a Christian position there must be a special act—an act so personal, positive, and comprehensive, that it determines on which side of one fixed line the rest of our actions shall stand. You may call it by whatever name bears most significance to your own mind. The Scriptures furnish as great a variety as you can desire: “renewal of the mind,” “conversion,” “believing on the Lord Jesus Christ,” “getting a new heart and spirit,” “putting off the works of darkness and putting on the armor of light,” “forsaking idols,” “coming out and being separate”—these are the Biblical terms for a single fact. What is essential is that conscious choice of the soul by which it gathers up its powers and resolves—God’s grace helping it, as He ever will help—to be on Christ’s side in this fronting of armies and this awful battle of our life. F. D. H.
1. Workers together with him.** These words seem to express the idea of true labor, such as God calls us to, and in the doing of which there is a great reward. They imply that the living God has a work to do on earth, in men and by men; that in this work he has—if I may so express it—a deep personal interest, because it is one worthy of himself, and for the advancement of his own glory, and the good and happiness of man. And it is only when we know God’s work on earth, and when, from a will and character brought into harmony with his, we see how excellent the work is, that we can be, not laborers only, but “fellow-laborers” with God; not workers only, but workers together with him. N. M.—God does not need our help. Why then does he put us to the trouble of working for him, why put us to the strain of giving for him, why put us to the long endurance of patiently planning and waiting that we may accomplish his design? Because thus he develops us. The man who has wrought and planned and endured for the accomplishment of God’s plan in the world sees the greatness of it, the divinity and glory of it, and is himself more perfectly assimilated to it. R. S. S.
There is a special ministry of the word, beginning with the apostles, descending from them to those who are now preachers of righteousness, and destined to endure to the end of time. But there is also a wider ministry of the universal brotherhood of believers. We are all of us ambassadors of Christ. Just so soon as we are brought, by the grace of God, to a saving knowledge of the gospel, we are called to be dispensers of it to others; taking first those who are nearest to us, but pausing not till we have touched the farthest boundaries of the globe. In these Christian cities there is a frightful waste of heathenism weltering at our very feet. We must subdue it to the cross of Christ. Over the seas are millions of heathen, darkening the continents. To them also must we send the light of life. Such is the commandment of our Lord. Such is the service laid upon us, to be the test and measure of our faith. R. D. H.
Grace of God in vain. As long as thou hast but good resolutions thou art still fostering a secret confidence in thine own strength. As a naked and unprotected sinner, who can bring to our dear God nothing that is good, and as one who is unable to answer Him in anything, must thou entreat for grace and forgiveness of sins, and as a sinner must thou suffer thyself to be pardoned. Hollaz.
2. The accepted time is the time of bounty, the time of grace, when we are not called upon to answer for our sins nor to suffer punishment; but besides being released from it, to enjoy innumerable blessings, righteousness, sanctification, and everything else. Let us draw near at such a time as this, in which such exuberant bounty is poured forth. Chrys.—The word of life is in your dwellings and in your hands; the lamp of salvation shines on your way. There will be no new prophet sent into the world; there will be no new miracle; no voice will be uttered from heaven to remove your perplexity; and the dead will not be raised to resolve your doubts. You have Moses, and the prophets and the apostles, and the Redeemer; and were the dead to rise, if you will not hear the risen Son of God, you would not be persuaded though a man should come now from the tomb. A. B.—The question is not, “How long may I put off being blessed with peace and glory in Christ Jesus, and then have it after all?” but it is, “How soon may I make sure of that power and that peace, and let that glory fall in on my saved and thankful heart?” It is a present command; not for yesterday, not for to-morrow; not a message of despair that the great work was not done sooner; not a message of delay, as if it could as well be done later. It is for the passing hour. F. D. H.—The only moment of duration in which our Sovereign promises and pledges himself to exert his mercy and his power is the present moment. Concerning the next instant, or the morrow, he has given no assurance or certainty whatever. Shedd.
3-10. Throughout three most memorable chapters, the 3d, 4th, and 5th, the apostle expatiates on the ministry which he had received, and which sustained him in every place, so that he fainted not. It was of the New Testament excelling the Old Covenant in life and glory. It was a dispensation of light and clearness, not of veiled faces. Paul was intrusted with a manifestation of the truth in men’s consciences—a message of reconciliation to their hearts. Invested with such a ministry, he bore all things for Jesus’ sake. D. F.
10. A believing man is a man of large possessions. Silver and gold he may have none; but not the less on that account are his possessions great. “Having nothing, and yet possessing all things,” is the apostle’s description of him. There is no end, no measure of his possessions, for they are summed up in the fullness of him that filieth all in all. Bonar.
11-13. They were his “children.” How could he resent even unmerited reproach from them, bound as they were to him by so dear a tie? He had suffered for them; he pardoned them, for they did it ignorantly. His spirit sought for them the only excuse it could. How worthy a successor of his Master’s spirit! What a well-spring of love, inexhaustible in its freshness as in its life! And this is the true test of gracious charity. Hold fast to love. If men wound your heart, let them not sour or embitter it; let them not shut up or narrow it; let them only expand it more and more, and be able always to say with Paul, “My heart is enlarged.” F. W. R.
15. On one side we must be, Christ’s or Belial’s. Righteousness refuses fellowship with unrighteousness. Light offers no hospitality to darkness. If idols have our heart’s secret worship, the true temple of God shuts its doors upon us. We must touch and handle the unclean thing or let it alone. We do assort with the unbelievers, or come out from among them and be separate; and the Judge knows which we do. F. D. H.—The atheist is not merely he who professes unbelief, but, strictly speaking, every one who lives without God in the world. And the heretic is not merely he who has mistaken some Christian doctrine, but rather he who causes divisions among the brethren. And the idolater is not merely he who worships images, but he who gives his heart to something which is less than God; for a man’s god is that which has his whole soul and worship, that which he obeys and reverences as his highest. F. W. R.
We take our names from Christ and the Scriptures; but we take our views from the world, i. e., from that class of people among whom our lives are spent. We are “disciples,” but we do not follow Christ at any inconvenience. We are soldiers, but we do not run any risks in fighting for him. We are a priesthood—where are our sacrifices? We are fellow-workers with God—what are we doing with God? Many of us hardly ever think of the obligation to labor for the Lord. Fashion can command us. Pleasure can command us. Money can command us. Society can command us. God speaks to us, and we are deaf. J. Hall.—Is there a new heart; a new life; a new conversation? Are there new hopes; new joys; new objects of pursuit? Or is there some plan for compromising matters with God, and an inquiry how the hold on the world may be continued? Is there still a purpose, while the decedent of the Christian profession shall be maintained, to grasp still as much of the world as possible; to be as gay and as happy in the world as may possibly consist with the Christian profession? I tremble when I think of such an endeavor to make a compromise with God, and a league with the world; attempting to make light and darkness meet. A. B.
17. Come out, be separate. Both a beginning and a continuing; both a revolution and a habit; both a new principle and a new life is this great decisive act of the Christian. A coming out from irreligious associations is one part; it implies energy of purpose kindled by faith. Being separate implies the maintenance of the ground thus taken against all opponents, whether they frown or laugh, sneer or slight, reason or threaten. “Come out” from the bonds of vicious compliance and ungodly habit is a call to the courage and faith of the awakened heart. “Be separate” from sin is a command to the persevering will. “Touch not” the renounced pollution is an adjuration to the sanctified conscience. And these are the three daily heroisms in the discipline of the soldier of Jesus Christ.
18. Sons and daughters! What a power of personal endearment is lodged in that particularity of speech! Not “children” merely, losing individual consolation in the generality of the family! God uses names that come nearer to personal affection, and meet a personal want. F. D. H.—Meditate often and deeply on his Fatherhood, and on the filial relation in which we stand to him. This of itself is sufficient to stir in the heart an emotion of love toward him. But when God is presented to us as the gospel presents him—when we are assured that his love was so true, so clinging, that even when we were in the depths of our degradation and ruin, fighting against him with all the force of our will, he gave his Only-begotten Son to be the propitiation for our sins, then indeed the sentiment of love to him begins to claim for itself a supremacy over the will, and to establish itself as a principle of action. E. M. G.—Then you will put your faith into honest and faithful work, and, being in the world, will not be of the world. The stamp of another loyalty will be upon you. The spring of another joy and liberty will be in you. And then, not till then, will the great end and object of your creation as a spiritual being, a son or daughter of God, begin to be realized in your life. F. D. H.
1. The real Christian is not merely satisfied with outward reformation, but pants also for inward purity. His desire is not only to keep the flesh and body free from the show of sin, but the heart pure from the guilt of sin. Paul dissuades his converts from sin by reminding them of the promises of God; which promises are, that he will work with them by his Spirit and give them “a new heart and a new spirit”; and “renew them in the spirit of their minds.” “Having, therefore,” he says, “such promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit.” T. M.—Observe the gospel principle of action. It is not, Separate yourself from all uncleanness in order that you may get a right of sonship; but, Because ye are sons of God,
therefore be pure. It is not, Work in order to be saved; but, Because you are saved, therefore work out your salvation. It is not, Labor that you may be accepted; but, Labor because you are accepted in the beloved. F. W. R.