The trail of 2 Corinthians 6:2 is set in the
context of the apostle Paul defending his ministry.
The apostle Paul was collecting money to be given to
the poor in Jerusalem. However, the collection effort in Corinth raised doubts
about Paul's integrity among some members of that community who believed that
Paul was using the collection as a pretext to steal their hard–earned
cash. Therefore, in the context passage,
we see the expressions of “the discrediting of the ministry” and “the branding
as deceivers”. In this same letter to the Corinthians church, he mentioned
several times of his integrity.
In 2 Corinthians 2:17, the apostle Paul stated that he was
not like many who peddled God’s word for monetary gains by shortchanging and
adulterating God’s message. This brings
to mind 2 Timothy 4:3-4 where it is said that “The time will come when people will not
tolerate sound doctrine and accurate instruction that challenges them
with God’s truth. Instead, they would want to have their ears tickled with
something pleasing and would accumulate for themselves many teachers to satisfy
their own desires and to support the errors they hold. They would turn their ears away from the
truth and will wander off into myths and man-made fictions and would
accept the unacceptable.” In 2 Corinthians 11:14-15, the apostle
Paul called those teachers the servants of Satan who masquerade themselves as
servants of righteousness.
The apostle Paul also mentioned in 2 Corinthians 4:2 that he did not
practice trickery by adulterating the word of God, but stated the truth. In 2 Corinthians 7:2, he maintained that he did not
defraud anyone. To substantiate his claims, the apostle Paul refused patronage
from the Corinthian church as recorded in 2 Corinthians 11:7-13. It
was also to cut off the claim of imposters pretending to be minsters of
grace. It can be inferred that these imposters were preaching mainly for
financial gains. From 2 Corinthians 11:22-23, we see that
there were many who come with self-proclaimed credentials based on human
accomplishments and were gladly received by the Corinthian believers.
Inasmuch as the Lord has directed that those who
preach the gospel were to get their living from the gospel as recorded in 1 Corinthians 9:14, Paul would
rather preach the message of grace for free to the Corinthian church than to be
used by these imposters who claimed to be like him with fraudulent intent. From 2 Corinthians 11:20, we see the
frustration of the apostle Paul with the Corinthian believers for allowing
themselves to be defrauded by those imposters.
There is a sense of urgency in 2 Corinthians 6:2 as can be seen
from the repetition of the word “now”.
It urges all to receive the gift of salvation. Hence, the crux of the
verse is:
“Urgency
of accepting the gift of salvation”.
Ephesians 5:16
says to redeem the time because the days are evil or take advantage of each
opportunity. Hebrews 3:15, which is set in the
context of the peril of unbelief, says, “Today,
while there is still opportunity if you hear His voice, do not harden your
heart”. Hebrews 3:12 explains the
“hardening of the heart” to mean a wicked and unbelieving heart
which refuses to trust and rely on the Lord; a heart that turns away from the
living God. Pharaoh refused to believe
in God to let His people go. The heart
of pharaoh has drifted very far from God as a consequence of Adam’s initial
disobedience. It was a regression of the
human nature; an effect of death. As we
have seen in Volume 1, God took the blame for Pharaoh’s hardened heart.
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