II Corinthians 6, Ministering in Purity

Paul continues to describe his motives for ministry.

2 Corinthians 6: 1-2, Please heed our call
As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.

Be sensitive to God's grace, Paul pleads, and heed Christ's call for forgiveness. Paul is quoting from Isaiah 49:8, a passage about the restoration of Israel.

2 Corinthians 6: 3-10, We ministered to you in purity
We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

In one long pulsing sentence Paul drums quickly through his many experiences, good and bad, in ministering to the people of Corinth.

2 Corinthians 6: 11-13, So open up to us!
We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. As a fair exchange--I speak as to my children--open wide your hearts also.

Paul speaks as a lover betrayed, passionately begging that his care and affection be reciprocated!

2 Corinthians 6: 14-18, Separation from evil
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? 

For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people." "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." 

Like the prophets of old, Paul calls out for the believers to set themselves apart as true citizens of God's kingdom.

This ringing call is often misinterpreted.  In another passage (I Corinthians 5: 9-11), Paul says that one cannot, indeed should not, separate from those outside the church or else "you would have to leave this world".  Paul is not arguing about mere personal associations, but something much deeper. Some note the word "yoked" in verse 14 as indicating a deep involvement with an unbeliever, but I see a general theme that follows Matthew 6: 24, we cannot serve two masters and so a decision must be made: to whom (or what) do we owe allegiance?

According to the NIV Footnotes, the Greek word in verse 15 is really Beliar, a variant of Belial, a term for Satan.

Paul has a string of three quotations in verses 16-18 echoing Old Testament passages.  The first comes from similar passages such Leviticus 26:12, Jeremiah 32:38, and Ezekiel 37:27; the second from Isaiah 52:11 or Ezekiel 20:34,41, and finally, most likely, the third quote is from 2 Samuel 7:14. (The Greek text had no way to indicate quotations so the quotation marks in appearing in the NIV English translation represent an interpretation of the translators.  The prelude, "As God as said," surely indicates that Paul is quoting from the Old Testament here.)

Paul continues his emphasis on purity in the next chapter.