The Book of 2 Corinthians

Word Study

"accepted," Greek dektos (δεκτός). The word means acceptable, welcome, favorable. It stands in the prophecy Paul quotes, Isaiah 49:8, "in a time accepted... in the day of salvation." The "accepted time" is the season of God's favor, the open window in which He hears and saves. What God calls acceptable is not what men find convenient; it is the hour He Himself has welcomed and appointed, and outside of it no one sets terms with God.

"accepted," Greek euprosdektos (εὐπρόσδεκτος). The fuller form of the same word carries the same sense of what is acceptable, welcome, and favorable, and it is the word Paul uses as he applies the prophecy to the present: "behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." Paul's point is urgency: that window is now. The grace of God has come, the day of salvation has dawned in Christ, and it must not be received "in vain," welcomed in word but never truly laid hold of, or let slip while the door stands open. There is a "now" to salvation; God's acceptable time is the present moment, not some imagined tomorrow. So the gospel always comes with urgency: today, while it is called today, while the day of salvation lasts, hear His voice and receive His grace, for the accepted time is now.

Explanation

Paul pleads that they "receive not the grace of God in vain," for "now is the accepted time... now is the day of salvation." Then he defends his ministry by its conduct, "giving no offence in any thing," approving himself "as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions," stripes, imprisonments, and labors, yet "by pureness, by knowledge... by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned." The chapter crests in paradoxes that capture the whole Christian life: "as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." True ministry is proved not by ease but by faithful endurance through it.

Gospel Focus

As a "worker together with" God, Paul pleads that the Corinthians "receive not the grace of God in vain." Grace can be received emptily, professed but not possessed, or begun but not pursued. So he presses the urgency of Isaiah's word: "now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." God's window of favor is open now; the time to respond is today. Then Paul defends the integrity of his ministry, not by boasting of success but by pointing to patient endurance. He gives "no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed," and proves himself a true minister of God "in much patience," through a long catalog of hardships: "afflictions... necessities... distresses... stripes... imprisonments... tumults... labours... watchings... fastings." A faithful servant is marked not by ease but by what he endures for Christ. And alongside the sufferings, he lists the graces of true ministry: "pureness... knowledge... longsuffering... kindness... the Holy Ghost... love unfeigned... the word of truth... the power of God... the armour of righteousness." Then come the great paradoxes of the servant of God, seeming one thing to the world, yet truly another before God: "as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live... as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." The world's estimate of God's servant is upside down: it counts him a failure, but in Christ he is rich, alive, and joyful, possessing all things. This is the true minister, and in measure the true believer: proven not by the world's applause but by patient endurance and the paradoxical riches of a life hidden in Christ. And it all begins with seizing the day of salvation, now.

Word Study

"unequally yoked together," Greek heterozugeo (ἑτεροζυγέω). The word joins heteros, of another kind, with zugos, a yoke; it means to be yoked with a different kind, mismatched in the same harness. It echoes the law that forbade plowing with an ox and a donkey yoked together (Deuteronomy 22:10), two creatures of different natures bound to one task, pulling against each other. "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." Paul warns against binding oneself in a shared yoke with those of a wholly different nature and allegiance, whether in marriage, business, or any partnership that would compromise one's walk with God, for the believer and the unbeliever are pulling toward opposite masters. His reasons are a series of unbridgeable opposites: "what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? what communion hath light with darkness? what concord hath Christ with Belial?" These cannot be truly harnessed together. The believer belongs to Christ and to the light; to be bound in a controlling partnership with darkness is to strain against one's own nature and Lord. Separation here is not unkindness but faithfulness to the God whose temple we are.

Explanation

With an open heart Paul urges the Corinthians to widen theirs, then gives a solemn command: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." He drives it home with five rhetorical questions — "what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial?" Believers are "the temple of the living God," so the call is separation: "come out from among them, and be ye separate... touch not the unclean thing." And the promise to the separated is intimate: "I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters."

Gospel Focus

Paul's heart overflows: "O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged." He holds nothing back in love; any distance between them is on their side, not his: "ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels." So he pleads, as to his children, "be ye also enlarged", open your hearts to me as I have to you. Out of that fatherly love comes a call to holiness: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." A believer must not bind himself in a controlling partnership, a marriage, an alliance, a yoke, with those who serve another master, for the two natures cannot pull together. Paul drives it home with five sharp contrasts: righteousness has no fellowship with unrighteousness, light no communion with darkness, Christ no concord with "Belial" (Satan), the believer no part with the "infidel" (unbeliever), and "the temple of God" no agreement with idols. Then he gives the deepest reason: "ye are the temple of the living God." The people of God are His dwelling place, and He has said, "I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Because the living God dwells in His people by His Spirit, they cannot be a joint dwelling with idols and darkness. So God calls, weaving together the words of the prophets: "come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." Here is the promise wrapped in the command: those who separate themselves to God find Him a welcoming Father and themselves His own beloved children. Holiness is not the loss of relationship but the gaining of the deepest one; to come out from the unclean is to be received by the Lord Almighty as sons and daughters. The temple of the living God is called to be holy, wholly His.