Week 11 Day 1

2 Corinthians 6
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%206&version=NIV


6:1–10 To receive grace in vain (6:1) is similar to the concept of emptying the cross of its power (1 Cor. 1:17). It would thwart the full intended purpose of God’s redemption in Christ—in this case, renouncing God’s ways of true glory through weakness and suffering. In 2 Corinthians 6:2 Paul quoted the Septuagint translation of Isaiah 49:8 to provide scriptural support for the exhortation of 6:1. Isaiah promised that God would hear and help his people. Paul interpreted and applied the promise to his own day. Isaiah’s words to Israel become God’s words to the church. Note the context of Isaiah’s frustration in ministering to Israel (Isa. 49:4).

The descriptions of Paul’s life (“that no one will be hindered,” 6:3; “show that we are true ministers,” 6:4; “live close to death,” 6:9; “give spiritual riches to others,” 6:10; “have everything,” 6:10) all hinge on the “we beg” of 6:1 and show the manner of the exhortation. Paul provided very personal insight into his own experiences in his service for Christ. All that Paul said and did took into account the readers’ best interests

6:11–13 Paul’s reconciliation with the Corinthians was based on purity from sin (6:11–7:4). Paul provided an example of restraint in affection (cf. 6:12). He made a plea for full fellowship (6:11–13) based on his character of good faith (6:1–10). The real problem in Paul’s relationship with the Corinthians lay, not with Paul’s attitude or qualifications, but with the Corinthians’ own affections—their inner attitudes toward Paul (6:12).

6:14–7:1 The unbelievers in view (6:14) were the false apostles who were trying to take over the affections of the Corinthian believers (11:3–4, 12–15, 18–21). Much of the trouble at Corinth stemmed from the believers’ association with impure believers and unbelievers. The five questions of 6:14–16 all expected a negative answer and were intended to stress the incompatibility of Christianity with heathenism. The Devil (6:15; “Belial,” niv) is a transliterated Hebrew term that means “worthlessness.” In later Jewish writings the term became a proper name for Satan.

In 6:16 Paul quoted Leviticus 26:11–12 which gave God’s promise to move into a new stage of intimacy with his people as he came to dwell in his tabernacle. See Leviticus 26:1 for the need to separate from idolatry and Leviticus 26:13 for the concept of yoke (cf. also Deut. 22:10; Lev. 19:19 for unequal yokes).

In 6:17 Paul quoted Isaiah 52:11, which was a call to Israel to come out from the impurity of the Babylonian captivity and reenter the holiness of life in the Promised Land. It was a second exodus from bondage into life centered around the presence of God in the temple.

Paul’s third quotation (6:18) was from 2 Samuel 7:14 which originally was God’s promise to take the sons of David and give them a special Father-son relationship with God as they served as kings of Israel. Paul broadened out the thought by the addition of “and daughters” to show that what was originally a promise to the male Davidic line of kings had, in Christ, become a reality of divine relationship for male and female believers.

Paul claimed that the above Old Testament quotations were promises for the Christian as well (7:1). In Christ, God’s presence in the temple (6:16), his call for purity after release from bondage (6:17), and his relationship as Father to his children (6:18) are all realities (cf. 1:20). As God was present with Israel in the Old Testament tabernacle, so the presence of God through the Spirit is seen in the church. As God brought Israel out from bondage in Babylon, God would also bring about the greater exodus from sin and death into purity through Christ’s sacrificial death. As God had chosen to bless the royal line of David, God would also view believers as royal sons and daughters. This grand understanding of the Old Testament promises as they relate to New Testament believers illustrates the truth that in Christ every believer is a “new person” with a “new life” (5:16–17). God had taken what was old and made it new in Christ.

Discussion question

How can a believer be a friend and witness to an unbeliever without becoming “yoked?”

Reflection question

How can you today “be separate” from the secular world?