Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 6

We then, as workers together with him, beseech you . . .—The thought of the marvel of the atoning love fills St. Paul’s heart with an almost passionate desire to see its purpose realized in those he has taught.

And so, he renews his plea as a “fellow-worker with Him.” The pronoun “Him” in this phrase could grammatically refer to either God or Christ. However, the general tone of the context and St. Paul’s language elsewhere (1 Corinthians 12:6; Ephesians 1:11; Ephesians 1:20; Philippians 2:13) are decisive in favor of the former—that is, God.

The language he uses is significant in every way. Those to whom he wrote had believed and been baptized, and so they had “received the grace.”

However, the freedom of the will to choose good or evil remained. If they chose evil, they would frustrate the purpose that the grace was intended to accomplish. (Compare the language of 1 Corinthians 9:27; 1 Corinthians 15:10).

I have heard you in a time accepted . . .—Better, perhaps, acceptable. The meaning of the pronoun “He,” as referring to God, is determined by the preceding verse. The tense of the Greek is better expressed by, I heard you . . . I helped you.

As with other citations, it is a natural inference that St. Paul had the context, as well as the words actually cited, in his mind, and it is interesting, accordingly, to remember that context. The words (Isaiah 49:8) are among those addressed at first to the servant of Jehovah, as “the light of the Gentiles;” then, apparently, in His name, as the Holy One, and in that of Jehovah, to Israel as a nation. In God’s dealings with His people through Christ, the Apostle saw the true fulfillment of Isaiah’s words. Never, in spite of all outward calamities, had there been a time so acceptable, a day so full of deliverance.

Behold, now is the accepted time . . .—The word for “accepted” is much stronger than in the previous clause. Entirely acceptable is, perhaps, its best equivalent. The solemnity of the words was, it may be, intensified in St. Paul’s thoughts by what seemed to him the nearness of the impending judgment. Opportunities, as we should say, were offered which might never again recur.

But the prolonged experience of the longsuffering of God has given to the words a yet more profound significance. There is, so to speak, a “now” running through the ages. For each church and nation, for each individual soul, there is a golden present which may never again recur, and in which lie boundless possibilities for the future. The words of the Apostle are, as it were, the transfigured expression of the generalization of a wide experience which tells us that—

“There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune:
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.”

—Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, iv. 3.

Giving no offence...—The participial construction is resumed from 2 Corinthians 6:1, 2 Corinthians 6:2 being treated as parenthetical. A subtle distinction in the two forms of the Greek negative suggests the thought that he is here giving, as it were, his own estimate of his aim and endeavour in his work. He avoids all occasion of offence, not because he fears censure for himself, but that the ministry be not blamed.

But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God.—Better, as keeping up the connection with 2 Corinthians 3:1; 2 Corinthians 5:12, as ministers of God commending ourselves. He harps, as it were, upon that phrase.

Yes, he does commend himself; but how? He looks back on his life of labour and sufferings and challenges comparison. Can others, with their letters of commendation, point to anything like this?

The word “ministers” in the Greek is in the nominative case, while the English rendering at least suggests that it is in the objective case after the verb. What he means is that he, as the minister of God should do, commends himself by acts and not by words.

It is obvious that what follows was likely to expose him to a repetition of the cynical sneer, but his generous indignation makes him nobly regardless of this.

In much patience...—Better, as elsewhere, endurance. The word has a much stronger meaning than our English “patience.” (See Notes on Luke 8:15; Luke 21:19.)

The general term is naturally followed by a specification of details. It is not, perhaps, easy to specify what he refers to under each head.

Possibly he used such words, as we habitually use them, without a formal classification. The root-idea of the first word of the triad is that of being pressed upon; of the second, that of a constraint that leaves no choice of action; and of the third, that of being so hemmed in that there is no room to move.

In stripes . . .—The list becomes more specific. “Stripes” we have seen at Philippi (Acts 16:23), and 2 Corinthians 11:23–24 show that there were other instances. Of “imprisonment,” that at Philippi is, so far, the only recorded instance (Acts 16:24); but there may well have been others, as in 2 Corinthians 11:23. “Tumults” (the same word as in Luke 21:9) at Antioch in Pisidia (Acts 13:50), Lystra (Acts 14:5–19), Thessalonica (Acts 17:5), Corinth itself (Acts 18:12), and Ephesus (Acts 19:23–41).

“Labours” describe the usual tenor of his life, the daily work of his calling as a tent-maker, as well as that connected with his ministry. “Watchings” and “fastings” are, probably, both of them (compare 2 Corinthians 11:27) to be referred to voluntary acts—nights of vigil and self-imposed abstinence—rather than to privations incidental to his work.