Study 2 Corinthians 6

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1. With whom was Paul working?

With God.
Here is the correct relationship. We are not to be working for God. God is not working for us. God is working in terms of His own counsel and purposes, and He brings us into that labor as part of His joy, His travail, His sufferings, His Life, His power, His wisdom.
We are workers together with Him.

2. Concerning what danger did Paul exhort the believers in Corinth?

The danger of receiving the grace of God in vain.
How can believers in Christ receive the grace of God "in vain"?
We can read in First and Second Corinthians of the many problems the believers in Corinth were having. There was trouble with arrogance, with personal loyalties, with drunkenness at the Lord's Table, with unbecoming conduct on the part of women, with confusion in the use of spiritual gifts, with eating with unbelievers in the temples of idols, with being swayed by self-seeking teachers, with incest.

Further on in Chapter Six we notice that Paul was concerned about holiness, about their fellowshiping with unbelievers.
Any of these problems can take a believer off the track so he makes shipwreck of the life of faith in Christ. He may make a fine start, believing on Christ and being born again. He then may become arrogant or consumed with sectarian pride and loyalty or may abandon himself to food and drink.
What happens then to his spiritual life, to the planting of the Lord within him?
It withers and dies because it was not cared for with diligence. He received the grace of God in vain!

And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. (Matthew 13:6)

The Christian discipleship is a dangerous warfare. We are safe only as long as we keep ourselves in Christ each day by praying, reading the Word, fellowshiping with the saints, and obeying the Spirit of God.
Current Christian theology has been so corrupted, has been removed so far from the truth, that our admonition to prayer, reading the Word and so forth are regarded as desirable practices but not essential to salvation. When we stress them we are accused of "legalism."
The truth is, if we do not give ourselves to the things of Christ we have received the grace of God in vain. Some have complained that we are teaching "works." Indeed we are!-the works that are the daily life of the true saint.

A destructive concept that has confused Christian thinking for centuries is still being preached and well may be one of the major tools of Satan in the years to come. It is that Christ has overcome the enemy and our sole task is to partake of His victory by identifying ourselves with Him.
The deadliness of this idea results from the fact that it is so close to the truth. In fact, it is the truth. The spiritual and moral destruction takes place when the conclusion is drawn that the believer is to make no effort to overcome.

The doctrinal poison that portrays redemption taking place apart from our personal effort can be found in many different forms. "Irresistible grace" and "the perseverance of the saints," which are specialized beliefs held by some sects, are examples of salvation apart from personal effort.
The recent development, the concept that Christ did all the overcoming for us and we now are to rest in Him, is one leg of a paradox. The other leg is that we must "awake to righteousness, and sin not" (I Corinthians 15:34).

The New Testament writings contain numerous exhortations to personal effort. Victorious Christian living depends on our learning how to rest in the victory wrought by Christ, while at the same time running the race with all of our might.
Satan will do everything in his power to discourage the believers from making the daily effort to pray and seek the Lord that is necessary for victorious living. He will even point out the perfect victory of Christ and use that as a reason for our not stirring up the gift that is in us.

We could hardly overemphasize the deadliness of the idea that Christ has done it all and our sole task is to trust that this is so. It is absolutely true that Christ finished the work of redemption on the cross. Our task is to receive that victory by faith, and then to work it out by pressing forward to total victory over the enemy. We press forward by offering our body as a living sacrifice and proving the will of God each day.
We must run the race to win. We must keep the Word of the Lord, praying to Him constantly for help. We must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. We must overcome as He overcame-always by living, working, and pressing forward in Him.
Our salvation, including our rewards, depends on our diligence in serving the Lord. Any other teaching will lead to passivity, moral chaos, and spiritual death.

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; (Titus 2:11-12).
If someone would ask, Will God love me and bless me even if I am not faithful in keeping the Word of Christ?, the answer is, no!
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him (John 14:23).

Is God's love unconditional? No!
Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not (Matthew 25:11-12).

Are we teaching that we are justified in God's sight by works? Yes-works in the sense of doing diligently what the New Testament commands us to do.
Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only (James 2:24).

Are we teaching that we actually have to do something in order to escape outer darkness? Yes. And if we do not do what Jesus expects of us, there shall be dire consequences.
And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 25:30).

Will we come into great trouble if we do not do what Jesus commanded? Yes, we will.

And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. (Matthew 7:26-27)

Are we actually required to exert ourselves in order to please the Lord? Yes, the Lord hates laziness, and the future of the lazy believer is not enviable.
His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: (Matthew 25:26).

Do we have to bear the fruit of righteousness in our life in order to keep our place in Christ? Yes.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit (John 15:2).

Is current Christian doctrine filled with poisonous error? Are God's people facing a holocaust whose purpose is to purify them from sin?
What is your answer?
But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world (1 Corinthians 11:32).

We have come now to the point in history when Christ is ready to prepare His army for the Battle of Armageddon. The purpose of the "Christ did it all" doctrine is to prevent the formation of the Lord's army.
Satan has no fear of the saints being caught up to Heaven. Satan's fear is that the saints will be filled with Christ and do God's will in the earth.

It is only as the saints experience the death of the cross that the Presence of God can come forth and destroy Satan.
Another satanic purpose of the "Christ did it all," and the accompanying overemphasis on the goodness of God, is to keep the believers ignorant of the fiery wrath of God, the burning fire that purifies us as we pass through severe judgments.
Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved [is saved with difficulty], where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? (1 Peter 4:16-18).

When the Gentile holocaust arrives (and it is coming!), the believers who have remained ignorant of the fiery wrath of Christ, having been taught only the goodness of God, will lose their faith in God. This is what Satan desires. This is what happened to many of the Jews of the holocaust. Perhaps in some cases the rabbis did not stress sufficiently the terrible judgments on sin written in the Torah-the sin of God's elect.

No teacher of sound mental health enjoys announcing to people the negative aspects of the Scriptures. But the negative outweigh the positive. Divine promises are surrounded by Divine warnings. The true teacher of God faithfully presents the negative and positive in scriptural balance. The hireling stresses the positive, hoping to gain followers. His god is his belly.

3. Read Isaiah 49:8.

It is interesting to read the forty-ninth chapter of Isaiah and to understand Paul's thinking at this point. It is in this chapter that the Spirit of Christ declares that salvation at the hand of Christ will not stop with Israel but will include the Gentiles also.
And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth (Isaiah 49:6)

Being a learned Hebrew, Paul knew this passage well. He understood that the time spoken of by Isaiah had arrived. It was time for the Gentiles, the Corinthians, to come from Satan's prison and learn of the Lord. Paul, as a servant of Christ, was carrying forward the work of the Servant of the Lord by bringing the light of God to the Gentiles.
Since this glorious redemption, so long awaited by the devout of Israel, had finally arrived, the saints in Corinth were to take heed that they continue to walk in the righteous ways of Christ-the ways that had been taught to them by the Apostle Paul. The acceptable time, the day of salvation, is now.

4. What was Paul careful to do?

To give no offense in any matter. He did not want the flow of Christ's blessings to the saints to be hindered by any action of his.

5. In what ways did Paul and his assistants who accompanied him show themselves to be God's servants?

In much endurance.
In tribulations.
In necessities and hardships. In distresses and calamities. In beatings. In imprisonments. In riots and commotions. In hard work. In watchings and sleeplessness. In fasting and hunger. In pureness and innocence. In knowledge. In patience and longsuffering. In kindness. In the Holy Spirit. In genuine love. In the Word of truth. In the power of God. By glory and dishonor. By evil report and good report. As deceivers, and yet true. As unknown and yet well-known. As dying, and behold, they live. As beaten, and yet not killed. As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. By the weapons of righteousness on the right hand and the left. As poor, yet making many rich. As holding nothing, and yet possessing all things.

6. How did Paul speak to the saints in Corinth?

With an open mouth and open heart, that is, Paul meant exactly what he said. He did not walk in craftiness or handle the Word of God deceitfully. What Paul heard from Christ he told to them. He did not declare some parts of the Word and hold back other parts in order to use the Corinthians for his own purposes.
All of us who serve Christ must learn to tell people the truth in love. If we hold back part of the Word in order to please people we will have to answer for our deceitfulness before the Judgment Seat of Christ.

7. What was Paul's attitude toward the Corinthians?

His heart was open toward them with affection.
He informed them that there was no lack of openness in his love toward them. If there was any restraint of affection, any holding back of love and trust, it was on their part, not on his. He proclaimed Christ openly to them with affection, and any limitations on how much of Christ they received were placed by themselves.

8. What did Paul urge them to do, as his children?

To open their hearts to him just as he had opened his heart to them.

9. What are the saints not to do?

They are not to join themselves to unbelievers. They are not to enter partnerships, into alliances, into covenants with people in whom the Spirit of Christ is not dwelling.
While we are in the world a certain amount of relationship with unsaved people is unavoidable. However, marriage, business partnerships, and other prolonged, intimate involvements with people of the world are not suitable for the saint. Sooner or later there will be trouble, because the Christian is serving the Lord Jesus Christ while the unbeliever is not ruled by the Spirit of God but by Satan.

10. What is true of righteousness and wickedness?

They cannot form a partnership.

11. What is true of light and darkness?

They cannot have fellowship.

12. What is true of Christ and Belial (the devil)?

They cannot dwell together in harmony.

13. What is true of a believer and an unbeliever?

They have little in common.

14. What is true of the Temple of God and idols?

The Temple of God cannot be in agreement with or accept an idol.

15. What is a saint?

The Temple of the God.

16. Read

Exodus 29:45, Leviticus 26:12.

17. What has God stated concerning His saints?

"I will dwell in them and walk in them."

18. How are the saints unique among mankind?

The Lord is our God and we are His people, in a special way.

19. Since we are a special people to the Lord, what are we to do therefore?

We are to come out of the midst of the unbelievers, regarding our behavior, close alliances, and fellowshiping. We are to be separated as holy to the Lord. We are not to touch what is unclean.
The unclean works of the flesh that we are not to touch are adultery, fornication, all other forms of lust, filthy talk, the love of money and material possessions, all expressions of occult force or wisdom, all forms of rage, murder, hatred, sectarian pride, envy, jealousy, spite, excesses of food and drink, malice. In short, we are to flee from most of the practices of unbelievers.

20. What will become true when we turn away from the unclean works of the flesh?

The Lord Almighty will receive us, bidding us welcome. He will become our Father and we will become His sons and daughters.
2 Corinthians 6:17-18 is of very great importance to our understanding of the Divine redemption. The common Christian doctrine states that it is sufficient for the inquirer to make a profession of Christ, according to Romans 10:9,10; or to take the "four steps of salvation." The assumption is that "grace" covers every other aspect of our reconciliation to God.
Now we find that the profession of theological truth is only the beginning of our participation in the work of redemption. We must come out of the world if we hope to be received by the Father.
Wherefore 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 (2 Corinthians 6:17-18).
God will not receive us solely on the basis of a profession of belief in Christ. In order to be received of God, to claim God as our Father, we must come out from the world and refuse to participate in the works of the flesh. If we do not take these steps, God will not receive us no matter how much we call Jesus Lord.
Our salvation depends on our making this effort.
We can understand from this point alone how far from the truth current teaching and preaching is. It is time for a reformation of Christian thinking.
We cannot depart from God's Word and then truly prosper. No matter how much we preach Christ, if the listeners do not cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the work of sanctification they will not grow. If they do not grow in Christ, in holiness, taking up their cross and following Jesus, they will remain spiritual babies. They will continue to be of no use in setting up the Kingdom of God.
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