09 Receiving Grace in Vain (2 Corinthians 6:1-12)

Krisan Marotta: Welcome to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Today is the ninth talk in my series on 2 Corinthians. We will be studying chapter 6, verses 1 through 12. Have you ever wondered why Paul urges believers not to receive God's grace in vain? How do you know if you've truly received his grace? If you've ever wondered how to tell real faith from the empty ritual or what it looks like to live in someone who's been reconciled to God, today's passage has the answers. The blog version of this podcast is on wednesdayintheword.com slash 2 Corinthians 9. Thanks for listening today, and don't forget to follow this podcast and please leave a positive rating or review wherever you listen. Well, in the last podcast, we looked at the end of chapter 5. You'll recall that Paul has a somewhat contentious and difficult relationship with the Corinthian church. He has been defending himself and his apostleship almost since the very beginning of the letter. In the last section, he encouraged the Corinthians to stop judging him by outward appearances. The way Paul sees the world is defined by his understanding of the love of Christ. Out of Christ's love, he died for us so that his people could be reconciled to God, and God could start making us into the sort of people who love and follow him. And in that sense, God's people are new creations. Based on that, Paul argues it doesn't make any sense to evaluate us merely by what we were or are in the flesh, things like social status, talents, weaknesses, quirks, material wealth, achievements. Because God has started changing us, those things do not fully describe us anymore. Paul doesn't judge people by their earthly, fleshly status anymore, and he urges the Corinthians not to judge him that way either. Paul gave two reasons why they should abandon judging by these external standards. First, the gospel itself implies we shouldn't be judging each other by external appearance. All those worldly standards we used to measure each other by don't apply to those who belong to Christ because the Spirit of God is now at work in us, making us new and different creatures. And second, Paul argues they should see him as an ambassador for Christ. He has been sent to represent the king to them. God is reconciling his people to himself through Christ, and Christ sent Paul to proclaim that message. And so the Corinthians should see Paul as the ambassador who has been charged with proclaiming the king's message, and that message is be reconciled to God. Who cares then if Paul is not impressive by worldly standards because he is the ambassador for the Savior of the world? And that brings us to chapter 6. Just to get a bit of the context, I'm going to start reading in 520 and go to 6.1. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us, we implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. Let me remind you once again that Paul frequently refers to himself in the first person plural when he says, We are ambassadors for Christ, we implore you on Christ's behalf. He means, I Paul, am an ambassador for Christ, and I am imploring you on Christ's behalf. And working together with him, then we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. Again, he's talking about I, Paul, appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. Now in 6.1, Paul describes himself as working together with him. Actually, the words with him are not in the text. They were added by the editors of the English Standard Bible. But I think they made the right decision. I agree with that call. Paul has just described himself as an ambassador for Christ. He has been sent to speak for Christ. He has said it is as though God is entreating them through Paul. And Paul says he begs them on behalf of Christ. So now when he further describes himself as working together with someone, it's pretty clear he's continuing this idea that he is not working alone. It is God through Christ that is working together with Paul. And what is God's message through Paul? Well, God is entreating them to do two things. In 520, he says, be reconciled to God. And then in 6.1, he says, do not receive the grace of God in vain. And he uses the same Greek word both times. It's translated implore in 520 and appeal in 6.1, but it's the same word. There are two entreaties, be reconciled to God and do not receive the grace of God in vain. Now in the last podcast, we talked a bit about the call to be reconciled to God. We are alienated from God because of our sins, but God in his mercy sent Christ to provide a way to secure our forgiveness so that he can reconcile us to himself. We will not be condemned, even though we deserve condemnation because of the cross. But this doesn't happen automatically. We must turn back to God. We must choose to be reconciled to God through Christ. And Christ is calling us through Paul, the message he preaches, to make that choice and turn and be reconciled to God. And this call to be reconciled to God through Christ is a fundamental of Christianity. It's one of the things that makes Christianity distinctive. Broadly speaking, we could divide human beings into one of four camps. One camp denies that there is a God at all. They don't believe he's out there and there's no need to be reconciled to him because he doesn't exist. The second camp believes in God but doesn't think we're guilty. There's no problem, we don't need reconciliation. Everything between us and God is just fine. The third camp believes in God, believes we do need to be reconciled to him, but then they seek that reconciliation through something other than Christ, through obedience to religious rituals or moral rules or something other than the cross of Christ. And then the fourth camp, which is the camp I would consider to be those who believe in biblical Christianity, we believe in God, we believe we are guilty before Him, and we believe that reconciliation comes not through effort or good works or merit, but it comes through believing and accepting the grace that God offers through the cross of Jesus Christ. Christianity rests on at least these fundamental concepts. We are guilty before a holy God who freely forgives us through Christ. Now, obviously, if you don't believe in God at all, you don't see any need to be reconciled to Him, so the gospel won't seem important to you. And many reject Christianity specifically because they don't think guilt is an issue. They believe in a God of love, not a God who judges. They look around and see everyone else doing wrong and think, well, we're all the same. We're all it's human nature, God's okay with it. But the Bible teaches that we are called to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. That standard is incredibly high, and all of us have failed to meet that standard in many ways. Our guilt is real, our alienation from God is real, our need for reconciliation is real, but we don't become reconciled to God by cleaning up our act. We are not reconciled because we try harder or we eliminate a few transgressions. We are reconciled to God because God acted to save us. We are reconciled because God does not count our sins against us. Instead, he forgives us through the cross of Christ. Now, in a nutshell, that's Paul's basic entreaty. We need to be reconciled to God, and God has made that possible through Christ. Now, if all of that sounds new and strange to you, I just want to mention that I have a book coming out called Start Strong: A New Believer's Guide to Christianity, and it explains all these fundamentals without using Christian jargon and without assuming you have prior Sunday school knowledge. If you're listening in the future, you may already be able to find it wherever you buy your books. If not, it's coming out in January of 2026. Now, back to our passage. Paul makes it clear that we need to be reconciled to God. It is something we must choose to do. And he says God is entreating them to be reconciled to God. And of course, we want to know how do we make that choice? How do we know if we have made that choice? And there's a lot we could talk about there, and we are going to talk about it, but we are not going into a discussion of God's sovereignty and man's free will. That would be too much for this podcast. So I will leave that to a future date. But that does bring us to Paul's second entreaty, which will help answer the question about God's sovereignty and man's will, just not fully. In 6.1, Paul explains something about what it looks like to be one who embraces this call to reconciliation. His first entreaty in 520 is be reconciled to God. His second entreaty in 6.1 is do not receive the grace of God in vain. So what does he mean by receiving the grace of God in vain? While reading through a number of commentaries on 2 Corinthians, I was surprised to discover how many of them argue that Paul is not talking about salvation here, that when he talks about receiving the grace of God in vain, he's talking about something else. They argue he can't be talking about salvation because the Corinthians are believers. Paul refers to them as believers several times, he commends them for their faith. And since we know Paul did not believe you could lose your salvation, how could he be saying to these Christians that they could be saved in vain? So they conclude: receiving the grace of God in vain must refer to something else. Believers need to show some kind of fruit, some kind of result, some kind of change in their lifestyle, and that lifestyle change or whatever it is hasn't happened yet, even though they are saved. Now, various commentators offer various explanations about what kind of change, what kind of fruit we're looking for, and what it means to be reconciled in vain. Like maybe they're hindering the progress of the gospel because they're bad mouthing Paul, things like that. But the basics of their argument is they claim receiving the grace of God in vain is not talking about being saved because Paul is talking to believers who are saved, so he must be talking about something else. Well, as you might guess, I disagree with that line of thinking. And as an exercise in Bible study methodology, I want to examine their line of reasoning and show you where I think it falls short. First, they appeal to those times when Paul speaks positively to the Corinthians. He calls them brethren, he commends them as being people of faith, which means he must be talking to genuine believers. Well, as we've talked about in the series, I think it's crucially important to remember the historical context of this letter. Paul is talking to a group of people who have split into factions. Some of them follow and trust Paul, others reject Paul. So, yes, at times he speaks to them warmly. He generously attributes to the whole group the qualities that he sees in some of them, but at other times he speaks as though they are not believers at all, or as if he's not certain where they stand. The most obvious example of that we're going to come to later in the letter. In chapters ten through thirteen, Paul explicitly talks to those who have set themselves against him, and it's a very strongly worded section. In thirteen, two and three he says I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again I will not spare them, since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me. So there Paul clearly states, some in Corinth doubt whether he is an apostle, they doubt whether Christ is actually speaking through him. He talks about them as those who have sinned in the past, since everyone is a sinner. I assume he's talking about those who deliberately reject Paul's teaching to embrace something that is very clearly sinful. Then he goes on in five, examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves, or do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail to meet the test? We'll get to that when we get to chapter 13, but Paul is clearly questioning the reality of their faith. He's saying, Because of the way you have responded to me and my gospel, I urge you to stop and ask yourselves if you're really a believer at all. So that's a clear example that Paul does not assume everyone he's writing this letter to is actually a believer. And we've seen several places where he exhorts them to think in a certain way, to view him in a certain way, because he doesn't think that's the way they're seeing things at all. Notice though, having called the reality of their faith into question and saying you really need to ask yourself whether you're a believer or not, several verses later in 1311, he calls them brethren again. And I think this needs to inform how we understand the language that Paul uses. And if you stop and think about it, all teachers teach like this. Every pastor speaks to his flock as if all members of his flock are believers when he knows some of them probably aren't. Or he might speak about a problem he sees in the church as if everyone in the church has it, but he knows that problem only applies to a certain group. Teachers don't usually stop and say, well, this only applies to you if you're actually a believer. I myself know not everyone listening to this podcast is a believer, but I speak to you as if all of you are. So it doesn't surprise me that Paul would say to the whole group in the same letter, both, I'm pleased about your faith, and I'm worried about your faith. He knows he's talking to a mixed group. And it makes perfect sense that he would commend them at certain points in the letter, depending on the point he's making, and evangelize them at other points, depending on the point he's making then. So I think that shows the error of the first step in their reasoning. The second step in their reasoning is this idea that Paul believes that we cannot lose our salvation. If, as in step one, the readers are believers, then step two is they can't do anything to jeopardize their salvation. And as we'll see, step three in their logic is therefore Paul is talking to them about something other than salvation. Now I firmly believe that believers cannot lose their salvation. I think I can make an argument that scripture teaches once a believer, you will remain a believer. You cannot lose your salvation. I think the Bible teaches that once God gives you his spirit, you are a genuine believer, and he will not take his spirit away, and he will certainly finish the work he begins in you. Having given us his spirit, he won't take it back. Now, I know not everyone listening to me shares that conviction, but that's where I'm coming from. That's what I believe the Bible teaches. Now, I'm not going to take the time to make that case there. I have talked about it in other podcasts when I've hit passages that I think teach it. But just so you know where I'm coming from, I agree. Paul believes, I believe, believers cannot lose their salvation. But does that require Paul to be talking about something else other than salvation when he says don't take the grace of God in vain? I would say no, because not everyone who claims to believe in Jesus is really a believer. There are many people who claim to follow Jesus, but for one reason or other, they don't really have saving faith, they've never received the gift of the Spirit, and they are not genuine believers. Just study church history and you'll see this going all the way back to the Pharisees. Religion can be very attractive for any number of reasons. Organized church and organized religion is a great environment for self-righteousness and worldliness to flourish, and we can do all manner of selfish and legalistic things in the name of Jesus, claiming that we're following him when we're not. And that is one reason why we see the New Testament so frequently talking about God testing our faith. In fact, I've got a whole chapter on that in my upcoming book, Start Strong, A New Believer's Guide to Christianity, which will be out in January of 2026. Genuine faith arises out of a heart that is being transformed by the Spirit of God. And a heart that has faith holds to four core convictions. First, we know we're sinful and we want to be freed from that sin. Second, we know we can do nothing to save ourselves. Third, we recognize God is not required to save us, but he has offered us forgiveness through Christ. And finally, we trust that God will, in fact, forgive us and save us because of the blood of Jesus Christ. And those four core convictions change the way we live. We will start to flee from sin. We will start to value what God values. We will start to grieve over our failures and our sinfulness and turn to God in prayer for mercy. And that's what testing our faith is all about. Life forces us to make choices, and genuine faith will choose to follow Jesus even when it's costly, even when it's hard, and it will regret not following him when we fail. We will face situations every day that can force us to confront the question, what do I really believe? What do I believe so deeply that I will let it change my life? Now Paul is never going to imply that just because someone claims to believe in Jesus, they are therefore necessarily saved. That is not his theology. When he expresses his confidence in someone's faith, it's because he's seen their face tested by the crucible of life and shown to be real. He has seen events in their life that encourage him about what's going on inside. And likewise, when he expresses reservations about those maybe who don't have faith, it's because of the way he sees them living. Their lifestyle doesn't match what they claim to believe. Now, when you put all that together, those arguments in the commentaries then don't hold any water to me. Logically, there's no progression from step one to step three. If as in step one, they're all believers, well, we know that's not true. Then step two, they can't do anything to jeopardize salvation. Well, that's true, but it's irrelevant. And step three, therefore Paul is talking about something other than salvation. Well, not necessarily. He could be talking to those people who claim to be believers but are not living like it. So that brings us back to Paul's statement. We entreat you not to receive the grace of God in vain. If he is in fact talking about salvation, what is he talking about? What's he saying? Well, I think Paul is talking about their reception of the gospel. He has been defending his life and ministry because many in Corinth question whether they should be listening to him at all. They have received the message of grace in the sense that they have heard it. Paul has explained it to them and they have called themselves Christian. But some of them are living in a way that contradicts their claims of faith. And in this particular context, Paul has been focusing on the way they respond to him. Now, if you listen to my series on the Gospel of Matthew, which is one of my all time favorite podcast series, we talked about this issue a lot at the end of Matthew chapter 10. It also comes up in Matthew 25. But Jesus talks about the way you respond. To a prophet of God reveals where you stand with Christ. And that's the same kind of issue going on here. Some in Corinth claim to believe in Jesus, yet they reject his ambassador. They reject Paul, the apostle of Jesus. And that raises serious questions in Paul's mind. Why is it that they are rejecting Paul? Well, notice in verse 3, which we're going to get to in a minute, Paul maintains that he has not given them any reason to distrust him. He's done nothing to cause them to stumble or offend them. He claims he's been very careful to avoid saying or doing anything that might trip them up, and so they have no reason to reject him on that account. So why are they rejecting him? Well, throughout the Corinthian letters, we see various pieces of evidence for why they reject him. They don't like the way he speaks. He's not eloquent or articulate enough. He doesn't seem to have that charismatic, entertaining, powerful way of speaking that appeals to the elites and the sophisticated people of Corinth. He lacks charisma. His ministry looks like a failure. He's always getting beat up and run out of town. He doesn't have an entourage. So they look at all those external factors and they go, you know, I just don't know that we should be listening to Paul. Maybe he's not really an apostle. And even though they claim to believe the gospel, the reasons they reject Paul show that they value the things of the world much more than they value the message of Paul's gospel. Those external factors are way more important to them than the content of the message that Paul proclaims. And we have just seen him talking about those external factors. So we have these two entreaties that God makes through Paul. Be reconciled to God and don't let this message of grace come to you in vain. That is, don't turn away from it. Don't turn it into nothing or dismiss it because your worldly values lead you to reject Paul, the messenger of reconciliation. And at this point, Paul introduces something that seems to come out of love field. He introduces a quote from Isaiah. Let's look at that. Let me read you 6.1 and 6.2. Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain, for he says, In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the favorable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Now Paul is quoting here from one of the famous servant songs in the book of Isaiah, and I have a podcast series on the servant songs, which I'll link to in the show notes if you'd like to dig deeper into the Isaiah passage. Paul is quoting here from chapter 49, I'm going to read you Isaiah 49 one through eight. Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother, he named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me. He made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away, and he said to me, You are my servant Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Now, let me stop there for a minute. I've read you to verse three, and at this point it sounds like, well, maybe Isaiah is referring to the nation of Israel. He's calling the nation of Israel my servant, and so he's not talking about the Messiah, he's talking about the nation, but watch how this develops. Let's pick up in verse four. But I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing in vanity, yet surely my right is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God. And now the Lord says, He who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him. Remember that's another name for the nation of Israel, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength. He says, It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to bring back the preserved of Israel. I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his holy one, to the one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers. Kings shall see and arise, princes, and they shall prostrate themselves, because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you. Thus says the Lord, in a time of favor I have answered you, in a day of salvation I have helped you, I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages. Rather, we are talking about the servant as the one who will bring back the nation and be a light to the nations. And my understanding is that this servant song, like the others, is messianic. It's talking about the Messiah and is describing the Messiah who God will raise up one day to save Israel and the world. And from our vantage point in history, we know that Messiah to be Jesus. So Paul is quoting verse eight. The servant was described as feeling like he's toiled in vain, he's rejected, he's abhorred by the nations, but he trusts in God. And of course, that's what happened to Jesus. He was rejected by the nation. But in verse eight, God says to the servant, In a time of favor I have answered you. In a day of salvation I have helped you. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people to establish the land to apportion the desolate heritages. Now let me just clarify one thing. A favorable time sounds like it's saying that the time was favorable to do something. Like I picked a favorable time to water the lawn because there was no rain in sight. It was the right time. But I don't think that's what the phrase means. It means a time characterized by favor, the time when God is going to show his favor. And I think that's parallel to the day of salvation. At a time when I am showing my favor, I listened on the day when I am bringing salvation. That's what I'm answering you. Isaiah makes it clear that this is not just favor and salvation for the servant we're talking about. It is a time when God is going to bring favor and salvation to the people through the servant. So Isaiah is saying there is a time coming when God will raise up the servant, who I understand to be the Messiah, who I understand to be Jesus. There's a time coming when God will raise up the servant from his lowly rejected place, and that day will be a day of great favor and salvation for him and also for his people. So why would Paul bring that up? I think this is what he's saying. I entreat you not to receive the grace of God in vain. Isaiah foretold that a day was coming when God will raise up the Messiah. That will be a time of acceptance and favor, a day of salvation, a day of grace, and that day is here, that day is now, the grace that I proclaim is the day promised long ago. The time for you to accept grace and find favor is now. I have proclaimed the message of salvation to you, and now you need to respond to it. Imagine that someone sent you a certified check for a million dollars and you stuck it on your refrigerator with a magnet. Days and weeks pass and you never take it to the bank. You might even brag to people, hey, I'm a millionaire. But the power company cuts off the power to your house because you haven't paid your bill. You call customer service and explain, oh, but I have this check. Help has arrived, I have the money to cover my bills, you can even read them the amount on the check, but of course, the agent is not moved because banks don't credit intentions, they credit deposits. Failing to cash the check is like receiving it in vain. Until you cash it, you're not wealthy. You're just a person with a piece of paper stuck to the refrigerator. Well, the Corinthians are in the same boat. They've heard the gospel. Paul has taught it to them, but some of them are letting it sit around uncashed, and in that sense, they're receiving it in vain. And Paul's saying, look, there's nothing else to wait for. The Messiah came, the day is here, the message of grace has been proclaimed. Now is the time to decide what you're going to do with it. So he's connecting his proclamation of the reconciliation with God, the gospel he preaches, with the promise of the coming servant who is going to be raised up on this day of favor and acceptance. That's why they need to take Paul and his message seriously. This is the time. Paul has preached the gospel to him. It is time to decide what to do with it. Now Paul goes on in verse 3 to make clear that he has worked very hard to make it so he is not the issue. Let's look at three and four. We put no obstacles in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry. But as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way. So he gives us the positive and the negative. Negatively, he did not do anything that would cause offense. He didn't want to do anything that would lead someone to stumble. Now they may stumble anyway, but Paul is not the one who's causing it. Positively, he wants them to see him as a servant of God. He has been asking all through this letter for them to look at him and the way he conducts himself and recognize the integrity and the open way he's been acting toward them. And now he's going to go on and give a list of how he's acted. But the interesting thing to me about this list is this is not what Paul's critics would want to hear. Paul is listing what a servant of God is like, not what his critics want him to be like. So some of the things on the list are the very things that they find questionable about Paul. And it's interesting to me to note that Paul recounts the difficulties of his life and ministry more than once in this letter. We've seen a couple times. Here's another one. There's another famous list of his suffering, which comes later. And Paul seems to say, this is just what it's like to be a servant of God. If you want to know, am I really a servant of God? Well, these are the things that describe it as a servant of God and look at my life. And I'm going to go over it in groups. Let's look at four and five. But as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way by great endurance and afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger. Now, in very broad terms, Paul describes himself as having persevered through hardships, and he's giving a list of various hardships and afflictions. Part of what his critics don't like about him is that he doesn't have that air of success. He doesn't have vast hordes of followers cheering as he enters the gates of a new city. He doesn't come into town with an entourage to public fanfare or stay at the best inns. A lot of the people he preaches to turn around and try to kill him. And there's a very common perspective that says the person who's right with God ought to lead a fairly cushy life. I mean, God shows you that he likes you by making things easy for you, right? And yet here's Paul, who's constantly being beat up, suffering all the time. What's his problem? Well, God must not like him. They conclude if God liked him, God would give him an easy life. He doesn't have an easy life, so he must be on the odds of God. And in their eyes, there's something unattractive about a guy who's always suffering. He just looks like a failure. And yet, Paul claims this is how the gospel is going to be received. And he's very upfront in saying, this is the way it is. Some people are going to reject it, some people will accept it. This is just what we should expect. They tried to kill Jesus, and they're going to try to kill his followers. The servant of God will have to persevere through hardship, and that's just the way it's always going to be. Next, he describes several positive qualities that he thinks they can see in his life. This is verses six and seven. By purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, by truthful speech, and the power of God with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left. So in addition to persevering through trials and hardships, they should see these positive qualities. The Spirit of God is at work to make changes in Paul's life, just like every believer's life, and he's bringing these qualities about. Paul is emphasizing the genuineness of the work that God is doing in him and in his ministry. Real change is happening in Paul's life because God is the one doing it. So he says, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth, in the power of God, by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and left hand. The picture there is you've got something in both hands so that you're ready to take on the battle. Like you've got a shield and you've got a sword. You're prepared. Both hands are full and ready for combat. Then Paul ends his list with this very striking series of contrasts. Yes, there are hard, difficult things about his ministry, but ultimately his life is not about loss, it's about gain. Let's look at eight through ten. Through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise, we are treated as impostors and yet are true, as unknown and yet well known, as dying and behold we live, as punished and yet not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing everything. If you look at the negatives in that list, you have an accurate description of Paul's life from a worldly perspective. Dishonor, slander, impostor, unknown, dying, punished, sorrowful, poor, and having nothing. That list describes a loser. He's not well respected, he's not successful, he doesn't seem to have a stellar reputation. But if you then look at the other part of the list, each one has an answer for the negative that he gives. Honor, praise, true, known, alive, rejoicing, making many rich, possessing all things. And that is the ultimate reality of Paul's life and ministry. I think he's saying, this is what you ought to see when you look at my life. You're looking at the external experiences, the negatives, but look instead at the eternal realities, the positives. Now I don't want to go over each item on the list. Most are pretty straightforward. The only one that might need clarifying is the unknown and yet well known. I think he's referring there more to reputation than he is to fame. Paul's critics would like Paul to have a solid reputation among the masses, to be the kind of person everyone knows because he's so impressive, but he doesn't have that kind of reputation. He gets beaten and run out of town. And yet, Paul says he is well known. As we saw earlier, Paul said his life is an open book to God. He lives openly before God. God knows his heart and his motives. And before God, he has a clear and solid reputation that he would like the Corinthians to recognize. So, yes, his reputation in the world may be tarnished, but by those who matter, he's well known. He's solid. God knows him. And those among the Corinthians who judge him rightly know him. They see that he has acted with love and integrity and wisdom. So among them his reputation is great. They know him in that sense. Sorrowful and always rejoicing. Paul often talks about his sorrows. Many of his sorrows involve the response of the people that he cares about and people to whom he's preached the gospel and he sorrows when he sees churches fall into heresy or division, but rejoices when he sees God at work among them, changing them and giving them genuine faith. So when he sees changes among them, that encourages him and gives him joy, and most of all, he rejoices in his hope for the future in the kingdom of God. So his work is a burden of sorrow and affliction, and yet ultimately transforming that is the joy over what God is doing and will do in the future. Having nothing but possessing all things, Paul was not a rich man by worldly standards, so you could say he doesn't have a lot, but on the other hand, God destined Paul for an eternal life of glory, and so he has the riches that cannot be taken away from him, and in the end he will have everything worth having. So that list tells us how Paul thinks about his own life and what Paul sees in his life that demonstrate that he is a true servant of God. He perseveres under suffering and rejection. His lifestyle is characterized by purity and understanding and seeking God, and the power of God is at work through him. We see that in the lives that are changed by him preaching the gospel to them. And although he looks like an unknown, rejected loser, in fact his life is one of triumph. Now, having said all those things about how the Corinthians should think about him, he breaks out into this impassioned appeal in 11 and 12. We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians. Our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. I think he's saying, look, Corinthians, I've been telling you the straight, unvarnished truth. I have made my heart known to you, I have made my love known to you, I have made my longing that you may find life clear. You have every reason to understand the truth of what I'm saying. And if there's a problem here, it's not on my side. If there's something constraining you, if there's something holding you back from trusting me, it's on your side. You know the message I preach, you know the sincerity of my conduct, you know the power of God at work in my ministry, you know the depths of my genuine love for you. Those of you who reject me are rejecting me for all the wrong reasons, and there is no reason for it. All right, so let's wrap this up. It seems to me that the two entreaties in this section confront us with some fundamental choices that each of us must face. And in fact, in some ways, it's so fundamental that we as Christians can take it for granted. We're so used to this idea that we have to be reconciled to God that we just kind of skim right over it. But this is at the heart of the choice we must make to believe. This is at the heart of the choice that Paul was confronting them with. He entreats them, and by extension, us to be reconciled to God. There is a God and we have sinned against him. God has reached out to us to offer us forgiveness and reconciliation through the cross of Christ, and each of us must decide what to do with that. When Paul entreats them not to receive the grace of God in vain, I think we should hear that same plea. Having now heard the message of the gospel, having heard the message of the cross, we ought not to let foolish and worldly values keep us from embracing it. Don't let this message come to nothing because you're chasing false gods. That's what Paul was most concerned about with Corinthians. The issue for him wasn't how personally he was hurt by their rejection. I'm sure he was personally hurt, but I believe him when he says that his primary concern is their eternal destiny. The issue was that they had this desire to have teachers that the world saw as successful and impressive, and were they going to let those worldly desires keep them from taking Paul's gospel seriously? Well, I think today we face that same question in a lot of different forms. Today people look at organized church and they find a lot of fault with organized religion. They want a church that's more impressive to the world, a church that's more, I don't know, inclusive, entertaining, that doesn't place any restrictions or burdens, that doesn't require a lifestyle change or any kind of commitment. But finding fault with organized religion or a particular church is no example. Excuse for rejecting the gospel. Today we face the same temptation the Corinthians did. Christianity is not very attractive to the world. It doesn't dazzle the sophisticated elites, and it can be kind of embarrassing. Those who are humble and sincere in their commitment to Christ are not usually celebrated by our culture. Rather, our culture tends to mock them and make fun of them. So we really do face the same issue. A lot of scholars today mock and ridicule Paul. You may have met people who say things like, Well, Jesus was a great teacher, but Paul just got it all wrong. That's essentially what the Corinthians were doing. Imagine you're on a party boat with a bunch of friends, and a big storm comes up. The storm starts pushing your boat toward the rocks, and you're pretty sure you're gonna get swamped and capsized. Then two other ships appear in the spray. One is a big heavy, glossy yacht with a big party going on. You can hear the music, you can see the lights, it looks impressive, but it never comes close enough to rescue anyone. It just circles around telling you how great the party lifestyle is. The other one is a battered orange lifeboat with a crew in reindeer. It's solid, but it could use a new coat of paint. The crew of that rather dismal-looking boat circles in close to you and yells over a bullhorn, Grab the rope! We can save you. Now you can stare at the yacht, hoping it will notice you eventually and come to your rescue. Or you can step into that plain, unassuming lifeboat and live. Corinth loved the yacht. Paul brought the lifeboat. We can be deceived by the attractive lie, or we can embrace the plain truth of the gospel. And like the Corinthians, we can judge by external appearances and miss the one thing that can really save us. And as Paul says, embrace the plain truth and find life. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word, the podcast that explains not only what a passage means, but also shows you how to figure it out. The blog version of this podcast is on wednesdayintheword.com slash 2 Corinthians 9. You can find all the episodes in this series on my website plus many other series, wednesdayintheword.com. There is no charge, no spam, and no ads. If you've been blessed by this podcast, please follow it, rate it, and review it on your favorite podcast platform. But most importantly, tell a friend what you learned and where you learned it. Our theme music is graciously provided by my friend and my favorite musician, Reggie Coates. You can hear more of Reggie's music on heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.