2 Corinthians 6:1-10 Part 1 Bible Teaching

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2nd Corinthians 6:1-10 Part I
December 16th 2018
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We remember a couple things about our study of 2nd Corinthians as we enter into chapter 6 today and that is one:

Paul seems to use a good deal of its content to justify his position as an Apostle. The reasons for this, according to our better commentators, appears to be that some or someone in Corinth was really badmouthing the man – and some of Paul’s reactions to this even came out in 1st Corinthians.

As a result of this it is generally agreed by scholars that 2nd Corinthians gives us more of a personal insight into the life and person of Paul than any other epistle.

We will find this especially true in the first ten verses of this chapter today. So, let’s read them and see what Paul has to say to them/then, and what principles apply to us today.

Before we begin, I want to point out (yet again) that the very first word of chapter 6 – “we” refers to Paul, the other apostles and those who labor with them and not to us or the believers then.

So let’s read as Paul says:

2nd Corinthians 6:1 We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.
2 (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:
4 But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,
5 In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings;
6 By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,
7 By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,
8 By honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true;
9 As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed;
10 As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

Okay, back to verse one.

2nd Corinthians 6:1 We then, as workers together with Him (as joint laborers with God), beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.

The word translated, workers together properly means, as I said, co-laborers with God.

Of course that is what the Apostles were. But I would suggest that is what all of us are who are His.

Think about the job we have a parents. Especially as believing parents. We certainly labor on behalf of our children, do we not? We keep the house – the laundry, the meals, the mortgage or rent paid, gas in the cars, rides to school – its endless the labors a parent does on behalf of their children. And those labors require sacrifices, don’t they?

But in the Christian home a parent readily recognizes that they are in partnership with God in raising those kids, right? We are co-laborers in raising them for while we do our part in providing for their immediate needs, we realize it is God that enables and allows us to perform such tasks; and while we may provide (with his provision) for their immediate needs, we also realize that it is God who leads and protects and works with the children once they are out and about in the world.

In other words, we trust Him to fill in all the many gaps and gashes we create as His partner in raising them.

If this is the case as parents, it was certainly the case with the Apostles in the early church. And Paul opens up this chapter (as it were) with this fact –

We then, as workers together with Him (as joint laborers with God), beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.

This last line in verse one is a continuation of the thought he gave us in chapter five – that while Christ has taken the whole world into his death, and God who was in him reconciled the world to himself, did this so that

“we,” the believers who rise up with him, “might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

That was how chapter five ended. So continuing on with this mindset, Paul, explaining that He and the others are joint laborers with God now . . .

“beseech you (the believers at Corinth and us the reader today) also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.”

Again, the implication is more than clear – people can receive the grace of God in vain.

This is the implication of the parable of the sower. It is the implication of the parable of the vine and the branch. It is the implication of the parable of the talents, and it is the direct warning of all the apostles who wrote. Again,

That ye receive not the grace of God in vain.

God has reconciled the world to himself. When you come to understand and hear this good news, and realize by and through Jesus Christ God has done this through the world, reconcile YOURSELVES to God – and submit yourself to Him and His will – and not your own.

In so doing, you – as a new creature in Christ – will not have received the grace of God in vain but will produce the fruits of His righteousness through the living sacrifice of your body, bearing fruits of love as He bore the same in His.

“Be reconciled to God and let His grace bear fruit in you,” seems to be another way to say this. And at this point Paul does something that he does in other places – he cites a passage from the Old Testament, but he does not use it in a direct cross-over application.

Instead, he takes the principle made manifest in the passage and uses it to support his meaning. The passage he cites in verse 2 is Isaiah 49:8 which says

Isaiah 49:8 Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;

This is a messianic prophecy where God promises the Messiah that he would show him favor and that he would hear him when he prayed to him, that he would make him the medium of establishing a covenant with his own people, and of spreading the Good news on earth.

As stated, Paul quotes the passage here but does not use it in exactly the same sense or with reference to the exact same design for which it was originally spoken, but as expressing the idea that in accordance with the general principle implied in Isaiah, God would, because the Apostles were “under the Messiah” hear them, and work in tandem with their sharing the Good News wherein mercy was shown to the Jew and Gentile alike.

So, this being the main idea of the passage as used by Paul from what I can tall, Paul now writes:

2 (For he saith, (Again, he who Paul and the Apostles work in tandem with) 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.)

Note that that last line that Paul assigns to him and his day, “behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation,” was truly applicable and fulfilled in Paul’s life.

Under the Messiah, God would be willing to show mercy in that acceptable time. That time, says Paul, has arrived.

Not only has the Messiah come, and done the work of propitiation for sin and the reconciling of the world to God, in this time God is willing to pardon and save before the end of that time came.

And the doctrine in this verse is, that under the Messiah, or in the time of Christ, God is willing to show mercy unto all men of that age who are being called to repentance.

Isaiah referred to an accepted time that would come – Paul is applying that verse to himself saying albeit indirectly, that the time had come.

And at this point – verses 3-10 – Paul is going to describe what He and perhaps other apostles and servants with them, who were working in partnership with the Lord to call all to Christ in that accepted time, were about – were willing to be, and do and suffer.

I have made a chart on the white board and on the far left column all I have listed is how Paul describes himself and or the apostles.

In the column to the right I have left a blank to see how Paul’s description of himself as a Christian applies to who we are today as individual Christians.

So he says at verse 3 (which is summarized in our first box)

3 Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed:

That word offense best means, a stumbling.

As ministers of the Gospel Paul says that he has not been the cause of a stumbling in anything.

I like that better because offense is too politically correct and in our day is incorrect to Paul and his ministry because he offended people and the sufferings he endured prove it.

I think that what Paul is suggesting is that in his work as a co-heir with God in the ministry Paul never gave reason to anyone that the ministry he represented should be suspect, that he and his fellow-apostles labored in such a way that nobody could bring reproach to what they represented.

This came by and through his self-denial in a number of ways which he will explain in the verses to come.

We remember that he made tents so as to be above reproach. Things like that.

He says that he/they did this so that the ministry be not blamed – but the word ministry appears to mean more than “Paul’s Ministry” but to what the Lord Jesus Christ established through His life, teachings, death and resurrection.

Now, we arrive at something kind of interesting. In scripture, we have a hierarchy on display in how God reached the world then and today.

In the Old Testament we have God working in and through Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and then the Nation of Israel.

Then we have God in Christ working through His own. In that case there is not too much by way of direct description of the Lord and Savior – we extract a lot of who and what He was through the narrative of his life.

(Meaning we read the son of Man has no place to rest his head, and we interpret that to say that He was not wealthy and that he was humble. Of course there are direct descriptions of His character but we also extrapolate from the description things about him.)

When we get to his chosen apostles, who are the first human disciples of His, we read what is possible for us.

Its not that its not possible for us to be many things that God and Jesus were in their relation to the world, but most of us are not going to be able to resist all temptation and few of us will walk on water.

But in the Apostles, who were fully human and not one wit different than us – not one whit – we have many more detailed direct descriptions of what they were able to be in do in the cause of ministry.

So in some sense, what we read about them is really more reasonably application to the rest of us than EVERYTHING we read about in Jesus life.

It seems like Paul knew and understood this, so while he is extremely self-effacing toward his person before knowing Christ, we discover in him attributes that are possible for someone who truly serves Christ. And I have taken the time to write these THIRTY descriptions on the board which he himself presents here.

Now, these are NOT to make us look to Paul as anything – he is a brother. But it might be to see what Christ was able to do in Paul (our brother) as he reconciled himself to God).

So, in the first box I have established that Paul was a worker together or a partner with God in ministry – and we must see ourselves as the same – no matter the expression.

Secondly, we see in verse four the following

4 But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,

So this is the next thing Paul says about Himself (and others with him) is that they did nothing to stumble others in the faith but in all things they were “approving themselves as ministers of God” (and then he describes exactly in what ways they were approving themselves as ministers of God.”

Now the interesting thing – at least to me – that I see in his list is that there is a loose model presented in how he writes the next seven verses.

Let me explain on the board.

In ministry partnership with God they have done “no stumbling of others in ministry” but “in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God in . . .”

So, we have Paul presenting us with three lists labeled the IN’s, the BY’s and the As’s
“In patience, by the Holy Spirit, then seen as (or being as) having nothing but possessing all things.”
We can summarize it perhaps by suggesting that Paul is saying that in all things we will be approved as servants IN (box one) which comes BY (box two) and will results in us being seen as (box three).

PAUL (and others in ministry)
Principles for believers today
As workers together with him . . .
Begins with being in ministry with God.
“No stumbling of other of ministry” but “in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God in . . .”

Much patience

Afflictions

Necessities

Distresses

Stripes

Imprisonments

Tumults

In labors

In watchings

In fastings

By pureness

By knowledge

By longsuffering

By kindness

By the Holy Spirit

By love unfeigned

By the word of Truth

By the Power of God

By the armor of righteousness on the left and right

By honor and dishonor

By evil report and good report

As Deceivers yet true

As unknown, yet well known

As dying, yet behold we live

As chastened, yet not killed

As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing

As poor, yet making many rich

As having nothing, yet possessing all things

So let’s take a minute and talk about the specifics Paul lists in the IN BY AS things he provides us as, remember, descriptions of his own life as a living HUMAN apostle.

IN . . . much patience.

To me, and I could be wrong, but I think everything that follows in the IN category is the result of showing patience.

In other words, everything that Paul experiences in the IN box occurs in the confines of patience.

And I gotta tell you, the Lord has worked wonders in me in this area BY his spirit, and as a result of His relentless efforts upon my person He has dug through about an eighth of an inch of the six feet think impatience that abides in my flesh.

It is so utterly difficult for some to abide in patience with situations, with others, with the societal challenges of our world, with civilization and its discontents.

It seems to me that all of our advances to make life today easier have made patience even more elusive and so perhaps in our day possessing patience was different than even in Paul’s.

What we can say, however, it patience is one of the sure evidences of either a high level of serotonin, THC, or the Holy Spirit.

Because I see Patience as listed first and everything that follows as requiring it, I want to spend a moment on it.

Bottom line, “patience” implies suffering, enduring, waiting, longsuffering, and suffering the loss of some of the self in the face of others.

The presence of it automatically says, “I will allow you to be/go first – which in some ways mirrors the Christian ethos of selflessness every time it’s present.

Interestingly, patience is a virtue is not in the Bible but the call on all seekers of God to wait on the Lord implies the value of patience in our relationship with him and then the world around us.

Patience implies suffering things that we might other wise be able to fix through some other means – therefore Patience is relegated to personal choice.

If I am in a long line at the store I can exercise patience or I can start screaming at the clerk to move faster.

If I am waiting on the Lord to bring me comfort and sooth my soul, and he appears to linger, I can impatiently turn to other gods and worship them.

Patience is pretty much synonymous with suffering. Also interesting is the fact that the word, patience, does not occur in the Old Testament, but the word patiently in Psalm 40:1 which is a translation of the Hebrew which means, “to wait.”

“Patience” does occur frequently in the Apocrypha. And in the Apostolic Record it bears with its use either the idea of endurance, continuance, stedfastness, and longsuffering or the actual word patience itself.

Interestingly, the Greek word translated patience in the Record cannot just mean suffering.

In fact, when I am suffering and in traffic, and expressing my suffering, I am not exercising patience.

The Greek word is “hoop-om-on-ay’ and do you know what it really means?

“Cheerful endurance.” And it is a word that is used 35 times in the Record

God is called the God of Patience (in Romans 15:5) and this seems to suggest that God will grant us patience as we request it of him.

In relation to all Paul describes below in the IN box, it seems that he is saying that he and the others were, in the midst of all the things listed below, able to abide them with “cheerful patience.”

Submissive suffering . . . kind endurance . . . pleasant long-suffering.

The antithesis to such, of course, would be murmuring, complaining, bitchiness, quick to anger, rebellious, attacking, accusatory, condemning and the like.

So Paul says that as a joint worker with God in the ministry he has shown himself approved in
Patience and then he adds:

In afflictions – “which I again believe he is saying that he has been patient “in afflictions.” (when else would patience be able to better present itself?)

And patient in “necessities,” is what the King James says.

This is a stronger term than afflictions and means in want of their immediate needs.

It is one form of patience toward God when you don’t have a retirement plan, its another form when you don’t have gainful employments, right?

Necessities seems to speak to the latter.

Then he takes us to the next level – patience in afflictions, then necessities, then in distresses – which is a word that means in anguishes.

Its one thing to lack the 401K
Its another to lack gainful employment.
Its quite another when your child hasn’t eaten in a couple of days. That is distress. That’s anguish – which is perhaps the better translation of the word.

In the rest of the list of “IN’S” Paul seems to be speaking of things that are referenced in the Record itself.

Patience in
stripes,
imprisonments,
tumults,
labors,
watchings,
fastings;

In this book of 2nd Corinthians 11:23-25, Paul says that he had been scourged five times by the Jews, and had been thrice beaten with rods.

In imprisonments – we know that Paul was imprisoned for a couple years at least.

In “tumults” (which means in tossings to and fro) like a stormy sea. The Greek word means instability, therefore disorder, commotion and all we have to do is read the book of Acts to see the tumults Paul was caught up in as we find them occurring in Corinth, (Acts 18:6;) at Philippi, (Acts 16:19,20;) at Lystra and Derbe, (Acts 14:19;) at Ephesus, (Acts 19:1-41;) and in a number of other places.

In labors, referring in all probability to the incessant labors and duties of the ministry, and in watchings – which best means in “wakefulness,” which probably means in “want of sleep.”

He speaks of this again in 2nd Corinthians 11:27. Finally he adds, “IN fastings.”

Which could refer to frequent fasts to which he voluntarily submitted as acts of devotion, but also to the fact that in his travels, when abroad and among strangers, he was often destitute of food.

In all of these Paul was exposed and endured patiently. How?

Now we come to the “by’s. And he says

6 By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,
7 By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,

In the first box Paul explained the sufferings in some pretty good detail – and while he admits that He was patient through them all he now tells us how, or by what means, he was able to endure those things with a cheerful endurance.

This is a much more practical and applicable laundry list for us as we all enter into different trials and difficulties but the HOWS to experience them with cheerful endurance is the real question.

So, he tells us that he entered them, first, by . . . pureness.

The Greek is hagnotace, which means clean or blameless, which comes from hagnos, which means modest and innocent, which comes from hagios, which means sacred and holy.

Bottom line – Paul kept himself from the things of the world that so easily pollute us. In so doing, he was able to patiently endure the things that were heaped upon him.

I think that there is something to this, always remembering that Paul’s ability to be clean and free from blame was the result of God in Him and not appealing to the Law to govern his wretched flesh.

The suffering listed above, then, were directly related to his holy life, and His holt life to his sufferings.

This is describing consecration – which comes through suffering and ultimately renders a person like Paul to be able to suggest that he was pure.

He then says, “by knowledge” which will be our final word for the day.

There has been a wide range of interpretation on what Paul means by this here.

Some suggest that he meant “personal prudence,” others suggest that he means “a knowledge of the law,” and some think that Paul is suggesting that in his sharing the knowledge of the Gospel with others he was able to abide in the sufferings that accompanied them.

All of these things could be true – and we really don’t know.

What we do know is that the Greek is gnosis and it means knowledge and because Paul says,

“by knowledge,”

I have the tendency to believe that is exactly what he meant.

In the Gospels Jesus said:

“and this is life eternal, to know the only true and living God and His son whom he has sent.”

I believe that Paul, over the course of his ministry grew daily in knowledge of them and in so doing was able to cheerfully endure the insufferable conditions of his apostolic life.

And while I may beat this drum to heavily, I cannot more urgently support this view.

Knowledge in and of itself cannot save anyone. In fact, in and of itself, knowledge often gets in the way of really knowing God and His truths – strange as that may sound.

But when knowledge of God is gained by and with the Spirit, there is nothing more substantive in helping believers mature in the faith, which also goes a long way in helping us bear with difficulties.

Three more quick ones – some similar to what he has already delivered –

By long-suffering.
By kindness.
By the holy Spirit.

When he writes “By longsuffering this is, in my estimation, a reiteration of patience.

By kindness – similar to the cheerfulness requisite in the definition of patience, but kindness seems to implore gentleness always and since it is one of the ways that God’s love is presented we see its usefulness in individual Christians and their service to God.

The final “by” Paul mentions (that I will mention today is and By the Holy Spirit,” which we will cover next week.

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