Fourth Sunday after Trinity, Year B — exegesis on the Epistle, 2 Corinthians 6:1-13, part 1

The Fourth Sunday after Trinity, the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, is June 23, 2024.

Readings for Year B can be found here.

The exegesis for the Gospel, Mark 4:35-41, can be found here.

The Epistle is as follows (emphases mine):

2 Corinthians 6:1-13

6:1 As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain.

6:2 For he says, “At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.” See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!

6:3 We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry,

6:4 but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities,

6:5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger;

6:6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love,

6:7 truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left;

6:8 in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true;

6:9 as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see–we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed;

6:10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

6:11 We have spoken frankly to you Corinthians; our heart is wide open to you.

6:12 There is no restriction in our affections, but only in yours.

6:13 In return–I speak as to children–open wide your hearts also.

Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.

Last week’s epistle was 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, (11-13), 14-17. Those who missed it can read my exegesis: parts 1 and 2.

In today’s reading, Paul tells us about his ministry, lessons from which can be gleaned throughout history to the present day.

Matthew Henry says:

In these verses we have an account of the apostle’s general errand and exhortation to all to whom he preached in every place where he came, with the several arguments and methods he used.

John MacArthur notes the themes about Paul’s ministry in this reading, beginning with:

the privilege of his ministry. He came to the end of his life and he finished strong. He said, “I’ve finished the course, I’ve kept the faith. I’ve run the race.” But he was always in awe of his privilege …

And he was so overwhelmed by the fact that God saved him and called him into the ministry when he was such a wretched sinner that he closes that little testimony in 1 Timothy 1 by saying, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” And then he turns to Timothy and says, “Timothy, don’t shirk the privilege God has given you, it’s too great.”

This is just a reminder that Paul considered it less egotistical to use what we call the royal ‘we’; he shied away from using ‘I’ in referring to himself.

Paul tells the Corinthians that as he works together with ‘him’ — God — he urges the Corinthians not to accept the grace of God in vain (verse 1).

Matthew Henry says that this means believing in the Gospel message and acting upon it:

The gospel is a word of grace sounding in our ears; but it will be in vain for us to hear it, unless we believe it, and comply with the end and design of it. And as it is the duty of the ministers of the gospel to exhort and persuade their hearers to accept of grace and mercy which are offered to them, so they are honoured with this high title of co-workers with God. Note, 1. They must work; and must work for God and his glory, for souls and their good: and they are workers with God, yet under him, as instruments only; however, if they be faithful, they may hope to find God working with them, and their labour will be effectual. 2. Observe the language and way of the spirit of the gospel: it is not with roughness and severity, but with all mildness and gentleness, to beseech and entreat, to use exhortations and arguments, in order to prevail with sinners and overcome their natural unwillingness to be reconciled to God and to be happy for ever.

MacArthur says that this verse indicates the second theme of Paul’s ministry — passion:

Let’s look at a second perspective. A perspective on ministry that fixes on passion. And privilege leads to passion, and the two are really inseparable. But in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, Paul says in that same first verse, “Like God we also urge you,” – you have God entreating back in verse 20; that’s the same word, parakaleō, God beseeching, God begging, God urging, God entreating, here’s the same word – “we also” – parakaleō, beseech, urge – “exhort you not to receive the grace of God in vain for He says at the acceptable time I listened to you at the day of salvation I helped you, behold, now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation.”

Here we find there’s more than just privilege in the heart of Christ’s ambassador. And not just the minister, but any faithful Christian. There’s more than just privilege in being a coworker with God. There is passion. There is zeal. There is persistence. And Paul says we also beg you, urge you, entreat you, beseech you, exhort you along with God. Listen. The preacher is a pleader. He is a beggar. And admittedly there is a certain monotony with the preacher. He is a drone. He keeps harping on the same stuff. He keeps pleading for the same commitment. That’s his passion.

God is a beggar and God’s representative is a beggar too. And he’s beseeching and pleading. And what is it we plead for? “That you not receive the grace of God for nothing.” Boy, that is a very important statement … And Paul is pleading here for the Corinthians not to turn away from the grace of God which had been so faithfully preached to them. Don’t make all those efforts a waste.

Paul urges on the Corinthians by referring to Isaiah 49:8, ‘At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you’, telling them that now is the acceptable time, the time for salvation (verse 2).

In other words, there is no time to waste.

This is Isaiah 49:8:

Restoration of Israel

⁸ This is what the Lord says:

‘In the time of my favour I will answer you,
    and in the day of salvation I will help you;
I will keep you and will make you
    to be a covenant for the people,
to restore the land
    and to reassign its desolate inheritances,

Henry reinforces the urgency of salvation:

The gospel day is a day of salvation, the means of grace the means of salvation, the offers of the gospel the offers of salvation, and the present time the only proper time to accept of these offers: To-day, while it is called to-day. The morrow is none of ours: we know not what will be on the morrow, nor where we shall be; and we should remember that present seasons of grace are short and uncertain, and cannot be recalled when they are past. It is therefore our duty and interest to improve them while we have them, and no less than our salvation depends upon our so doing.

MacArthur posits the reasons why Paul would have written that verse, particularly to the Corinthians, besieged by false teachers who infiltrated the congregation after the Apostle left:

Paul was feeling that at this particular time with regard to the Corinthian church because there was so much that was wrong there. He’s pleading for the Corinthians not to turn away from the grace of God which been – which had been so faithfully proclaimed to them. The apostle had given his soul to the Corinthians. He had given them his heart. He had given them twenty months or so of his life, day in and day out. He had given the truth of the gospel, the truth of God, and he is fearful that their current attitude, their current conduct indicates that they are being lured away from that truth. They are falling into sin and a whole effort was sort of for nothing. That’s tragic …

What you have then here is some people coming and preaching a false Jesus, a false gospel, a false spirit. Some of them were buying into it. Some of them were being deceived, falling away from simplicity of devotion to Jesus Christ. See, Paul can’t stand still for that. He can’t just let that happen. He can’t let people flop over into a false gospel. He can’t let them fall into a false path of sanctification …

What is he referring to? As I noted, he could be concerned with the salvation issue, that the grace of God expressed in the gospel of salvation has been preached to them but some of them aren’t truly saved. Some of them haven’t really believed. They have the knowledge about the gospel, but they do not have saving faith. I think that’s true. I think that is the case and that is why in Corinth, in chapter 13 verse 5, he says, “Test yourself to see if you’re in the faith, examine yourselves.” Because there were people in that congregation who were socially a part of it for whatever reason but who had not come to faith. And all the gospel preaching and all the grace of God in salvation proclaimed to them up to now was for nothing.

And along came another group of false teachers preaching another Jesus, another Spirit, another gospel and they were following that. And Paul is saying “Have I preached you the true grace of God in vain?” …

On the second hand, he could be concerned about not a salvation issue but a sanctification issue. That the grace of God which had saved them and they were redeemed was now going to be set aside for a new kind of sanctification. In this case it was the circumcision party, the Judaizing kind of element, and they were going to turn in living in the Spirit for living in the flesh by legalism …

Paul says I can’t stand this, I can’t stand this defection. Here’s the reason. Look at verse 2. “For He says, ‘At the acceptable time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you.’ Behold, now is ‘the acceptable time,’ behold, now is ‘the day of salvation.’” You know what galled the apostle Paul about this error? What galled him was it meant that people who followed a false gospel, people who followed a false path of sanctification were useless in a crisis hour for proclaiming the gospel. That’s what he is saying.

It is time for the ministry of reconciliation. It is time for the word of reconciliation. It is time to be an ambassador for Christ. Unsaved people confused about the gospel can’t do that. Unsanctified people can’t do that. And this is not the time for that confusion because now it is God’s time to save. And to make the point he quotes Isaiah 49:8. and it says, “For He says” – He, capital H, God – remember we’re fellow workers with God. And God said in Isaiah 49:8, “At the acceptable time I listened to you and on the day of salvation I helped you.” God said through the Old Testament prophet Isaiah there is a time when I will hear. Not always. Genesis 6:3, “My Spirit will not always strive with man.” Isaiah 55:6, “Seek the Lord while He may be” – What? – “found and call upon Him while He is near, He isn’t always found and He isn’t always near” …

Paul says Isaiah the prophet recorded for us that God said there is a time, there is a certain time, a time when He listens to sinners, a time when He helps repentant sinners. And Paul comes right back under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and says, this is that time. Now. Now, he says twice. Twice he says behold, that’s an exclamation. There’s a startled reaction. Behold, he says, now is the that acceptable time. Now is that day of salvation when God will listen to repentant sinners and when God will help. And it’s not always so. It’s not always so. Some people say this is the age of grace. It is. Paul says to the Corinthians, “This is the time, this is the time.”

Jesus understood it, did He ever. He understood that there was a time in which salvation would be offered and there would be an end to that time. It wasn’t going to happen always. There is a time in God’s economy and Jesus said, “Work while it is” – What? – “day, for the night comes when no man can work.” It’s now. This is the time. And that’s why Paul was so passionate. And, people, we have the same situation. This is the hour. This is the time.

Paul says that he put no obstacle in anyone’s way in order that no one could find fault with his ministry (verse 3).

Henry interprets this as Paul’s caution in avoiding offending either Jew or Gentile in his ministry:

The apostle had great difficulty to behave prudently and inoffensively towards the Jews and Gentiles, for many of both sorts watched for his halting, and sought occasion to blame him and his ministry, or his conversation; therefore he was very cautious not to give offence to those who were so apt to take offence, that he might not offend the Jews by unnecessary zeal against the law, nor the Gentiles by unnecessary compliances with such as were zealous for the law. He was careful, in all his words and actions, not to give offence, or occasion of guilt or grief. Note, When others are too apt to take offence, we should be cautious lest we give offence; and ministers especially should be careful lest they do any thing that may bring blame on their ministry or render that unsuccessful.

MacArthur says that this verse indicates the third theme of Paul’s ministry, the protection of the Gospel message:

… the perspective of protection, protection. If there are those who reject the grace of God, and there are, Paul wants to be certain that it is not because he has put a stumbling block in their path. That’s his concern. He doesn’t want to be guilty of what God indicted the Jews for in Romans 2:24 when He says to them what is the most tragic indictment of all indictments against Israel, verse 24 of Romans 2, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you” …

Paul wants no such indictment on his life. And so he says in verse 3, “Giving no cause for offense in anything in order that the ministry be not discredited, but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God.” There is a tremendous sense of protection in his life. The faithful ambassador of Christ does nothing that would discredit the vital ministry of reconciliation. He is protective of the integrity of his mission, the integrity of the gospel, the integrity of the God he represents …

In other words, the whole issue in evangelism is – is the virtue of the church … And the grace of God which comes with a saving purpose builds that saving purpose on the integrity of the church. Protecting one’s purity, protecting one’s virtue is crucial and that is exactly what Paul says. On the negative side, we give no cause for offense. On the positive side, we commend ourselves as servants of God.

In the remaining verses, Paul describes his own travails in ministry, which were many. He endured indescribable physical pain in order to preach the Gospel. He also suffered emotionally when people refused his preaching.

It is possible that he invokes the Twelve when he says that, ‘as servants of God’, we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities (verse 4).

Note Paul’s use of the word ‘endurance’, a favourite of his. It is no wonder as everyone would have been acquainted with the athleticism of the day, men running races.

Henry discusses the Apostolic ministry of the Twelve and of Paul:

The apostles met with honour and dishonour, good report and evil report: good men in this world must expect to meet with some dishonour and reproaches, to balance their honour and esteem; and we stand in need of the grace of God to arm us against the temptations of honour on the one hand, so as to bear good report without pride, and of dishonour on the other hand, so as to bear reproaches without impatience or recrimination. It should seem that persons differently represented the apostles in their reports; that some represented them as the best, and others as the worst, of men: by some they were counted deceivers, and run down as such; by others as true, preaching the gospel of truth, and men who were true to the trust reposed in them. They were slighted by the men of the world as unknown, men of no figure or account, not worth taking notice of; yet in all the churches of Christ they were well known, and of great account: they were looked upon as dying, being killed all the day long, and their interest was thought to be a dying interest; “and yet behold,” says the apostle, “we live, and live comfortably, and bear up cheerfully under all our hardships, and go on conquering and to conquer.” They were chastened, and often fell under the lash of the law, yet not killed: and though it was thought that they were sorrowful, a company of mopish and melancholy men, always sighing and mourning, yet they were always rejoicing in God, and had the greatest reason to rejoice always.

MacArthur begins by looking at what ‘a servant of God’ means:

In verse 3 is the negative side, what he didn’t do, and verse 4 is the positive side, what he did do, “In everything commending ourselves as servants of God.”

The greatest gift that any pastor, including myself, can give you, the greatest gift I can give the church or this community is not a good sermon, not even an occasional powerful sermon, and maybe a – an occasional life-changing one, the greatest gift I can give you is not simply the understanding of what the Bible teaches or sound theology. The greatest gift that I can give to you is personal virtue. That’s the greatest gift because that makes everything else believable …

MacArthur then looks at Paul’s endurance:

Paul says that faithful servants of God are commended – listen to this – by their ability to endure. See it there in verse 4. “But in everything commending ourselves as servants of God in much endurance.”

In much endurance. That’s the only one in the list that has an adjective added. So it stands out as a singular point which is then defined by what comes after it …

… the commendation is the same, the man endures through all of them. It doesn’t matter what the attack is. It doesn’t matter what the difficulty is, he endures.

… Paul is here defining ministry that is willing to make sacrifice, to endure hostility, to be unpopular, to live as the gospel demands, not as the culture suggests. What commands the loyal ambassador is not popularity. It is endurance. And the word “endurance” here, hupomonē, that remarkable untranslatable word in the Greek that means to triumph under difficulty, to endure with a triumphant attitude under hardship. That’s what commends him.

MacArthur discusses what Paul endured in verse 4. MacArthur’s Bible translation uses ‘distresses’ in place of ‘calamities’:

And look at the things that he lists that define that endurance. He was in much endurance in afflictions. That’s the word thlipsis. It means anything that expresses pressure, the exerts pressure, physical, emotional, spiritual pressure. Those crushing experiences. Those vicissitudes that weigh us down and burden the heart, those crushing disappointments, those pains of life. It’s the same word Paul used in Acts 20 when he said he was going to Jerusalem bound in his spirit.

And then he says “hardships.” What is that? It’s a general word for difficulties. It could refer to all of his persecutions, the struggles of life in a fallen environment. It has to do with difficulties that have no relief. Difficulties that have no exit. And then he adds the word “distresses,” a very interesting word. It literally means “to confine in a very narrow place where someone can’t turn around.” Those confining things, those frustrating narrow places, suffocating, unrelenting difficulty with no escape and no way to get comfortable.

Paul had that kind of pressure, hardship and distress, things just burdening his heart, binding his spirit, crushing him. Difficulties without any relief, confining things where he couldn’t even find a way out, he couldn’t even find a way to turn around and get comfortable. The unrelenting concern of all those things that were on his heart.

Paul gets specific about the physical persecution and everyday difficulties that he endured: beatings, imprisonments, riots (against him), labours, sleepless nights, hunger (verse 5).

Henry says:

Note, Ministers of the gospel should look upon themselves as God’s servants or ministers, and act in every thing suitably to that character. So did the apostle, (1.) By much patience in afflictions. He was a great sufferer, and met with many afflictions, was often in necessities, and wanted the conveniences, if not the necessaries, of life; in distresses, being straitened on every side, hardly knowing what to do; in stripes [beatings] often (ch. 11 24); in imprisonments; in tumults raised by the Jews and Gentiles against him; in labours, not only in preaching the gospel, but in travelling from place to place for that end, and working with his hands to supply his necessities; in watchings and in fastings, either voluntary or upon a religious account, or involuntary for the sake of religion: but he exercised much patience in all, v. 4, 5. Note, [1.] It is the lot of faithful ministers often to be reduced to great difficulties, and to stand in need of much patience. [2.] Those who would approve themselves to God must approve themselves faithful in trouble as well as in peace, not only in doing the work of God diligently, but also in bearing the will of God patiently.

MacArthur has more and points out that these hardships were with Paul until the day he died as a martyr:

… he moves to some external things in the second list of three. It’s a series of three groupings. He says then in verse 5, “In beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults.” “Beatings” mean mutilating whippings. He describes them in chapter 11. “Imprisonments,” obvious, and he experienced more of those even than beatings. Commonly was he in prison. And then he adds “tumults,” which have to do with riots, civil disorders and mob violence. And you can find that in Acts 13, 14, 19, 21. He faced rabble mobs in Damascus, Jerusalem, Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, Thessalonica, Berea, Corinth, Ephesus already when he wrote this and there was more to come.

You see, the badge of his faithfulness was not his wealth. It was not the fact that he had succeeded so much in the ministry he was very, very popular and very wealthy and that proved God’s blessing on his life. No, the badge of his faithfulness was not wealth, it wasn’t even health. His outer man was – was wearing. He speaks of himself as Paul the aged and he’s not that old. His body was fast failing. It wasn’t earthly success. It wasn’t prosperity. The measure and badge of his commending faithfulness was the fact that he endured suffering and never flinched and never changed his message and never held back and never grew weary.

Now he adds to the internal and external matters that he endured, some self-inflicted trials. Notice them there at the end of verse 5, “In labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger.” And that really wasn’t pushed upon him. That was by choice. The word “labors” is kopos. It means to work to the point of sheer exhaustion. It is the toil that takes everything you have and you’ve got nothing left. And that’s how he worked, sometimes with his hands to provide a living for himself and everybody that traveled with him, sometimes in the preaching of the gospel. But he toiled and labored to the point of anguish by choice.

And then he mentions “sleeplessness.” He didn’t have to work day and night. He didn’t have to minister day and night as he says he did. He didn’t have to stay up all night in prayer and intercession on behalf of the church. He didn’t have to spend the darkness of the night sleeplessly trying to work out a ministry strategy and prepare what he might say. He didn’t have to endure the insomnia of overwork, the aching muscles without the relief of any kind of medication in that day, those aches that allow you to stay awake all night and find no rest. That was by choice.

He didn’t have to go without food. It’s just that he put himself in circumstances and conditions where it wasn’t readily available. But for the sake of the ministry he was willing to do it. And the whole point of this is he commended himself by his endurance through all this hostility and all this difficulty. That’s the measure of a man’s commendation. It is not his popularity in the world. And, frankly, it’s not even his popularity in the church because you find Paul at this particular point in his life extremely unpopular with the world – they want to kill him, both the Jews and the Romans – and extremely unpopular with the church. They want to get rid of him, too.

But here was a man who proved his character by his endurance. Here was a man who would say, “I know what may happen to me at Jerusalem but it doesn’t move me because I don’t count my life dear to myself, I just want to finish the ministry the Lord has given me.” Here is a man who could say, “Because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, everything else in my life is rubbish.” Here was a man who could say, “I know how to – how to have and how not to have, how to be abased and how to abound, and in all of it, I just commit myself to the Lord and my trust is in Him who strengthens me.”

Here was a man who could say, “The sufferings of this world are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be ours.” Here is a man who, back in chapter 4 of this same letter said, verse 17, “A momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory, and we’re not looking at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen.” Here is a man who can come to the end of his life with nothing but a prison cell to show for it and about to lay his head on a block and have it chopped off and say, “I’ve – I have run the race, I have fought the fight, I’ve kept the faith.”

And so, on the negative side he had endured all these hostilities. He had faced the enemy. He had fought the battle. He had faced the lions and they hadn’t torn him to ribbons. He endured in the worst possible conditions. And that’s the commendable character of the man manifest. But there’s a positive side, and again you have three groups of three. A positive side comes in verse 6.

The second part of this exegesis, scheduled to appear on Sunday, June 23, will discuss with verses 6 through 9.