2 Coríntios 6
Wayne Barber · Citado em PreceptAustin
2 Coríntios 6
Barber says "“don’t receive the grace of God to where it bears no fruit (IN VAIN).” Don’t receive the grace of God to where it’s empty and without substance in your life." (2 Corinthians 6:1-4a What is Involved in Working Together With God) Colin Kruse on grace of God - The grace of God may be understood as all that was proclaimed in the ‘message of reconciliation’ (2Co 5:19), what God in His love has wrought through Christ and offers through the preaching of the Gospel. Paul’s readers had accepted his Gospel and experienced something of the grace of God of which it speaks. Now he exhorts them to make sure their acceptance is not in vain. It is unlikely that Paul implies their acceptance may have been only superficial (like seed sown on rocky ground - Mk 4:5, 16+) (ED: IN OTHER WORDS KRUSE DOES NOT FAVOR THIS PHRASE AS REFERRING TO CORINTHIANS WHO PROFESSED CHRIST BUT WERE NOT TRUE BELIEVERS). It is more likely (ED: "LIKELY" INDICATES KRUSE DOES NOT SEEM TO BE DOGMATIC) that he has in mind how easily these people are influenced by others, whether by the offender who made the personal attack against Paul (2Co 2:5; 2Co 7:12) or the critics of the apostle who were already lurking in the background in Corinth. He does not want the lives of those who made a good response to the Gospel to be marred now by entertaining criticisms of that Gospel and the one who brought it to them. (Full text of Tyndale NT Commentary on 2 Corinthians - Text format is awkward but material is present) Warren Wiersbe on grace of God in vain - He not only beseeches the sinners in 5:20, but he beseeches the saints in 6:1. How tragic it is when churches and Christians receive God’s grace in vain. The Corinthians were babes in Christ, immature saints, because they failed to grow in grace and knowledge. They had the greatest pastor available—Paul—and yet they failed to benefit from his ministry! (Wiersbe's Expository Outlines) J
2 Coríntios 6
Barber says "From the 40th chapter of Isaiah all the way through is a prophecy of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He quotes from Isaiah 49:8 and his point in using this Scripture from the Old Testament is to get them to understand the urgency and the privilege of living in the time in which they were living. (2 Corinthians 6:1-4a What is Involved in Working Together With God) R Kent Hughes "The logic of this appeal is drawn from Isaiah 49:8 (49:9, LXX, verbatim), where God speaks to his servant Isaiah in a text that prophesies the restoration of Israel and coincides with Paul’s emphasis on the new creation in Christ. Paul says, in effect, that Isaiah’s day of salvation has arrived in the reconciliation of the cross. Therefore, the Corinthians must not miss this long-awaited opportunity for salvation. The day of salvation is here. How unthinkable that they might “receive the grace of God in vain.” How tragic is the thought that they might at one time have given apparent assent to Paul’s proclamation, but now through unbelief and disobedience the wonders of the new covenant (with the new creation in Christ and the ultimate exodus from bondage) were being nullified. Paul was saying, you have been assenting to God’s saving purposes; do not let it be in vain. (2 Corinthians: Power in Weakness. Preaching the Word) John
2 Coríntios 6
Barber asks a practical question -- how can you tell a person is operating in the sphere of truth Paul lays out his verses 1-2? "Do you know how you can tell it? The way you can tell it is not by the hardships he has to go through. No sir, that’s akin to all of us. But it’s by the way he handles them and by the godly response that he has to them. Christ in him, this person who works together with God, who has not received the grace of God in vain, who understands the season of opportunity that he’s in, that it not only requires the words to reason with men, it requires a life that backs up those words. You can always tell." MacArthur on the day of salvation is "when God will listen to repentant sinners. Now, when the fields are ripe for the harvest (John 4:35), 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. “We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day,” Jesus admonished. “Night is coming when no one 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. (See excerpt) J