2 Corinthians 6

1. We are workers together with God. So we beg you: Do not let take the grace that you received from God and then ignore it.

Do not take God’s grace as if it was nothing.  When God gives you the power to live through a bad situation and you pay no attention, then a poison can grow inside of you. This poison does not only hurt you but all the people around you.

Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, destroying many. Hebrews 12:15

2. God says, “I heard your prayers at the right time, and I gave you help on the day of salvation.” I tell you that the “right time” is now. The “day of salvation” is now.

There are other places in Scripture that say that we should act in the day that we hear about something. The Corinthians should make up their minds that it is time to stop being divided and get on with God’s work. Isaiah 49:8

3. We do not want anyone to find anything wrong with our work. So we do nothing that will be a problem for anyone.

Paul does everything to prove that his ministry really is from God and not his own ideas.

4 – 6

But in every way we show that we are servants of God: in accepting many hard things, in troubles, in difficulties, and in great problems.  We are beaten and thrown into prison. Men become upset and fight us.

We work hard, and sometimes we get no sleep or food.  We show that we are servants of God by living a pure life, by our understanding, by our patience, and by our kindness. We show this by the Holy Spirit, by true love,

You can find all these things that happened to Paul in the book of Acts.  Most men would have been feeling sorry for themselves and quit a long time ago.

7. We faithfully preach the truth. God’s power is working in us. We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left hand for defense.

We hold our sword in the right-hand and our shield in the left. See Ephesians 6:12-18

8. Some people honor us, but other people shame us. Some people say good things about us, but other people say bad things. Some people say we are liars, but we speak the truth.

Paul’s enemies said that he was working against the people. Sometimes when we are trying to help people and we are building a bridge for them, do not tell them everything we know about their situation. This may make some people speak against us.

9. We are not known, but we are well-known. We seem to be dying, but look we continue to live. We are punished, but we are not killed.

Paul was called a nobody but he does not care because he does not look at what his enemies say.  He tells himself, “I will look at what God is doing and I do not even want to look at what they are saying or doing.”

10. We have much sadness, but we are always rejoicing. We are poor, but we are making many people rich in faith. We have nothing, but really we have everything.”

Paul shows us how to look at what really matters in life. He thinks it was all worth it because there is more good than bad in the work of the ministry.

11 – 12

We have spoken freely to you in Corinth. We have opened our hearts to you. Our feelings of love for you have not put you in a narrow place. It is you that have put yourselves in a narrow place.

Paul could be saying, “I did not start this argument, but you did. I have no hard feelings against you.”

13. I speak to you as if you were my children. Do to us as we have done—open your hearts to us.

Paul says, “I am not holding back are you?”

14. You are not the same as those who do not believe. So do not yoke yourselves to them. Good and bad do not belong together. Light and darkness cannot share together.

When you put a cow and a donkey in the same yoke, the donkey will hold back and let the cow do all the work.  The cow will work himself to death.

This can apply to a business partnership or a marriage. Many people will say that this does not apply to them, and later they will say, “I wish I had listened because now I am living in hell.”

15. How can Christ and the devil, have any agreement? What can a believer have together with a non-believer?

Someone who does not know Christ is living for a different reason than we are.  Remember that the devil does not agree with Jesus about anything. When we spend more time with the things of the world than we spend with the things of God, then we are asking Jesus to share time with the devil.

16. The temple of God cannot have any agreement with idols. And we are the temple of the living God. As God said: “I will live with them and walk with them. And I will be their God. And they will be My people.”

We use our eyes and ears and hands and feet as an offering on the altar of God. We do not eat or drink things that can hurt our body because it is the temple of God.

17. “Leave those people, and make yourselves pure, says the Lord. Touch nothing that is unclean, and I will accept you.”

The Pharisees used Isaiah’s words to say that they needed to stay far away from anyone who is not a Jew.  What God is really saying is that we should not let the things of the world live in us. Isaiah 52:11; Ezekiel 20:34, 41

18. “I will be your Father, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord All-Powerful.”

When a father falls down in his Christian walk, it brings the whole family down. The children will sometimes turn against God because the devil says, “If God is like a father, and your father has done wrong then God must also not be a good father.” This is called a father-wound and can only be healed by prayer and fasting. 2 Samuel 7:14; 7:8