November 15 Click on verses for Full Scripture

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Today's Pathway: II Corinthians 6:2-4 (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed: But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,

Yesterday we spent very little time looking at verse 2 (which refers back to Isaiah 49:8), so I want to come back to it briefly today. Previously we approached it from the standpoint that unsaved people in the Corinthian church needed to get saved right away. However, there is a second way to look at it, which fits with the idea that Paul is trying to motivate his readers not to waste the grace that God has given to them. If the time was right for church members to get saved, it was also the right time for the unchurched to be saved, and the Corinthian believers needed to use this opportunity to share the Gospel with them. John MacArthur wrote,

"The day of salvation is when God will listen to repentant sinners. Now, when the fields are ripe for the harvest, is not the time to waste gospel opportunity, or to be feeble, vacillating, or deceived by false teachers. It is the time to hold fast to the truth and faithfully proclaim it. 'I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day,' Jesus admonished. “The night cometh, when no man can work' (John 9:4). Knowing the urgency of the times Paul, true to the urgency of his calling, passionately pleaded with the Corinthians not to let God’s grace in their lives be in vain."

In verses 3-10 Paul spells out what it takes to carry out the ministry of reconciliation. He is sharing his own testimony, and at the same time challenging the Corinthians believers to be willing to follow his example. He opens in verse 3 with the statement that ambassadors for Christ should not do anything that would be considered offensive because they should not want to bring reproach upon the ministry. Please note that he is not telling the Corinthians to water down or compromise the message that mankind needs to hear. The Gospel message will always be offensive to the ungodly. Matthew 13:57 tells us that when Jesus taught at the synagogue in Nazareth the townspeople "were offended in Him". Peter referred to Jesus as "a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence" (I Peter 2:8). While our message is offensive, our actions should never be. Paul put it his way back in I Corinthians 10:31-33:

"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved."

In verse 4 Paul writes that he, and others, were "approving themselves" as servants of God. He asked back in II Corinthians 3:1,

"Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?"

"A minister is not commended by his seminary degree, theology, popularity, personality, or success. His life is the only letter of commendation that matters, the only one that people will read."