2 Corinthians 6:1-2 - Homiletics

"We then, as workers together," etc. There are three topics here for meditation.

I. A SUBLIME MISSION . "Workers together with him." What is the grand work in which God is engaged and in which we can cooperate? He is engaged in numerous works—works of creation, government, conservation, in which we can have no hand. The work here is evidently the work spoken of in the preceding chapter—the work of reconciling man to himself, the work which he does in Christ. Now, all genuine ministers cooperate with him in this; their grand endeavour is to bring alienated souls into friendship with him. Blessed partnership this.

II. A SOLEMN POSSIBILITY . "Receive not the grace of God in vain." The grace of God here evidently refers to the offer of this reconciliation. This may be looked upon objectively or subjectively. Objectively it is the gospel, which is called the "gospel of the grace of God;" subjectively it is personal Christianity. It may be received "in vain" in two forms. Many have the offer of reconciliation and reject it, and to them the offer has been received "in vain." It is possible for those who have personally experienced it to lose it. The free agency of man, the exhortations of the Scriptures, and the facts of apostasy—as in the case of David, Peter, etc.—show the possibility of losing this. No greater calamity can happen to a man than to receive this "grace in vain;" hence the earnestness of the apostle.

III. A SUPREME OPPORTUNITY . "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." To use the words of a modern writer, "There is, so to speak, a 'now' running through the ages. For each Church and nation, for each individual soul, there is a golden present that may never again recur, and in which lie boundless possibilities for the future. The words of the apostle are, as it were, the transfigured expression of the generalization of a wide experience, which tells us that there is a tide in the affairs of men.'"

2 Corinthians 6:3-8 - The highest office injured by its officer.

"Giving no offence in any thing," etc. Paul was engaged in the highest office—the office of reconciling men to God; in this he was a coworker with the Infinite, and here he refers to—

I. AN EVIL TO WHICH MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL ARE LIABLE . The evil referred to is bringing blame upon the ministry. "Giving no offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed." So perverse is man that he often degrades some of the highest offices he is called to sustain. There are merchants that degrade commerce, doctors that degrade medicine, judges that degrade justice, statesmen that degrade legislation, kings that degrade the throne; but, what is worse far, there have been ministers who have degraded the ministry, and there are such still, ignorant men, intolerant men, worldly men, unspiritual men, blatant dogmatists. Ah me! how the pulpit is often degraded!

II. AN EVIL WHICH MUST BE AVOIDED AT ANY COST . See what Paul did and suffered to avoid this stupendous evil. "But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses," etc. Mark:

1 . How he suffered in order to maintain the honour of the ministry. "Afflictions," "necessities," "distresses," "stripes," "imprisonments," "tumults," "labours," "watchings," "fastings," etc.

2 . How he wrought in order to maintain the honour of the ministry. By "pureness," "knowledge," "long suffering," "kindness," etc. He learned to labour and to wait. "Neither count I my life dear unto myself, that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." The ministry in these days is too often degraded into a trade, a profession, a medium for the gratification of the vanity, ambition, and the greed of men. The millions have come to call churches and chapels "preaching shops." One of the greatest trades carried on in this commercial age is, perhaps, the trade in the gospel

2 Corinthians 6:9 , 2 Corinthians 6:10 - "Things are not what they seem."

"As unknown, and yet well known," etc. Against misrepresentations and slanders, Paul, in the context, vindicates his apostolic authority, and proclaims at the same time the unworldly principle which animated both him and his fellow workers. These words present to us the two opposite sides of a good man's life—the secular and the spiritual The side revealed, as seen by man, and the side in the sight of God.

I. TO THE SECULAR EYE HE WAS UNKNOWN ; TO THE SPIRITUAL WELL KNOWN . "As unknown, and yet well known." The world has never yet rightly interpreted and understood the real life of a genuine disciple of Christ. To the world, Paul appeared an ignominious fanatic. John says, "The world knoweth us not." The world does not understand self-sacrificing love, the animating, shaping, directing principle of a godly man's life. It understands ambition, greed, revenge, but not this. Hence men in every age, so far as they have come under the rule of this "new commandment," have been regarded as monsters unworthy of life. This explains martyrdom, ay, and the crucifixion of Christ. But, though thus unknown to men, they are well known to others.

1 . Well known to Christ . "I know my sheep." Christ knows all his disciples.

2 . Well known to heavenly spirits . They are famous in heaven. At their conversion heaven rejoiced, and over every step of their subsequent history heaven watches with a loving care.

II. TO THE SECULAR EYE HE WAS DYING ; TO THE SPIRITUAL HE WAS LIVING , "As dying, and, behold, we live." To worldly men Paul appeared as mortal as other men; with a frame scourged by persecution, shattered by perils, wasted by labour and want, he was nothing but a dying man. His contemporaries knew that he would soon run himself out, and mingle with the dust of all departed men. But spiritually he was living. "Behold, we live." The soul within that dying body of his was living a wonderful life—a life of Christly inspiration and aims, a life of communion with heaven; a life destined to become more sunny, vigorous, and beautiful with every aspiration and act. Living is not body breathing, but spirit acting, acting according to the Divine laws of our constitution.

III. TO THE SECULAR EYE HE WAS MUCH TRIED ; TO THE SPIRITUAL HE WAS NOT DESTROYED . "Chastened, and not killed." The word "chastened" here refers, I think, to his various scourgings, suffered in the synagogues and elsewhere. To worldly spectators he, with all his wounds, would appear a dead man; but he was spiritually alive. The hardships and the strifes did not touch his soul; his spiritual purposes, enjoyments, and hopes were not killed. Spiritual life is unkillable; like certain plants in the vegetable kingdom, which have their germs or roots so deep down in the soil, and so thoroughly mixed up with it, that, though you cut down the trunk, or pull up the roots from the earth, their life will break out again.

IV. TO THE SECULAR EYE HE WAS VERY SORROWFUL ; TO THE SPIRITUAL HE WAS ALWAYS REJOICING . "As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing." As if Paul had said, "Under our sufferings, we seem to be very cast down and sad; dreary, degraded, and wretched does our life seem to the worldly men around us." So it often is with the life of a Christian man. But, on the spiritual side, a truly godly man is "always rejoicing," rejoicing in a good conscience, rejoicing in a stream of pure and noble thoughts, rejoicing in a consciousness of Divine favour.

V. TO THE SECULAR EYE HE WAS VERY POOR ; TO THE SPIRITUAL HE WAS WEALTH GIVING . "As poor, yet making many rich." Paul and his colleagues were poor; they had suffered the loss of all things. Yet spiritually they were not only rich, but made others rich.

1 . The highest work of man is to impart spiritual riches to his brother man.

2 . Worldly poverty does not disqualify a man for the discharge of this sublime mission.

VI. TO THE SECULAR EYE HE WAS DESTITUTE ; TO THE SPIRITUAL HE WAS ENORMOUSLY RICH . "Having nothing, and yet possessing all things." Nothing of this world's good, yet "possessing all things," not legally, but morally . Christliness gives us an interest in all things. "All things are yours."

Do not estimate life by appearances—things are not what they seem. Christliness with poverty, persecution, and suffering, is infinitely to be preferred to wickedness with the whole world at its command.

2 Corinthians 6:11-13 - Genuine Christian love.

"O ye Corinthians," etc. Notice—

I. ITS POWER . What does it do? It enlarges the heart. "Our heart is enlarged" The heart means the whole spiritual nature, and this spiritual nature is capable of indefinite expansion and Christian love, and nothing else can effect this. A man's intellect may be expanded by ideas, but his heart, out of which are "the issues of life," only by love. What a difference between the heart of a miser or a bigot to the heart of a Paul, a Howard, or a Fenelon! Selfishness contracts the soul into a grub, love expands it into a seraph. Therefore "covet earnestly the best gift," that is, love.

II. ITS IRREPRESSIBILITY . "Our mouth is open unto you." A large heart is so full of loving sympathies and aims that speech becomes a necessity. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." The language of love is the language of nature, the language of eloquence, the language of inspiration.

III. ITS HUNGER . What does it hunger for? "Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels ['affections,' or 'hearts']," etc. Paul states that their hearts towards him were "straitened," or narrow, compared with his to them. He entreats them to be "enlarged," and thus "recompense" or return his affections. Love, by a necessity of its nature, hungers for a return of its affections from the object on which it is bestowed. Paul did not ask them for their money, or their patronage or praise, but simply for a return of the love which he had for them.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 - Unequally yoked.

"Be ye not unequally yoked," etc. Observe here three things.

I. THERE IS AN ESSENTIAL SPIRITUAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THOSE WHO ARE TRULY CONVERTED TO CHRISTIANITY AND THOSE WHO ARE NOT . The line of demarcation is broad and conspicuous. The difference is the difference:

1 . Between "righteousness and unrighteousness."

2 . Between "light and darkness."

3 . Between Christ and Satan. "What concord hath Christ with Belial?"

4 . Between faith and infidelity. "What part hath he that believeth with an infidel?"

5 . Between the "temple of God" and the "temple of idols."

II. NOTWITHSTANDING THE SPIRITUAL DIFFERENCE , THE CONVERTED ARE IN DANGER OF BEING ASSOCIATED WITH THE UNCONVERTED . Hence the command, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." Also the command, "Come out from among them." Alas! we find such association in almost every department of life—in the matrimonial, the commercial, the political, etc.

III. FROM SUCH AN ASSOCIATION IT IS THE DUTY OF THE CONVERTED TO EXTRICATE THEMSELVES . "Wherefore come out from among them," etc. Observe two things.

1 . The nature of the separation. "Come out from among them." It must be:

2 . The encouragement to the separation. "I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters." As a Father, what does God do for his children?