6:1 Paul has just spoken of “God making his appeal through” him (5:20). Here he continues that thought of the dignifying collaboration into which God summons sinners, again using the verb parakaleō to speak of God’s appealing to the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 3:9 Paul had said “we are God’s fellow workers [synergoi],” using the noun form of the verb that begins 2 Corinthians 6:1. On the one hand, Christian salvation is utterly a work of sovereign divine initiative (“All this is from God”; 5:18). Yet this is not to say that God does not use means. He deigns to include us in his saving purposes. Never can we ourselves claim credit for what God does “through us” (5:20). But it is staggering to ponder the honor and dignity with which he treats us in “working together with him” to bring the word of reconciliation in Christ to the world.

The specific appeal in this text is that the Corinthians not tragically “receive the grace [charis] of God in vain.” Paul uses the language of “in vain” (Gk. kenos) thirteen times, the most illuminating parallel being 1 Corinthians 15:10. There Paul again connects grace to the notion of “in vain”: “By the grace [charis] of God I am what I am, and his grace [charis] toward me was not in vain [kenos]. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace [charis] of God that is with me.” This may shed light on what Paul means in 2 Corinthians 6:1 as it gives us a picture of what Paul envisions as the alternative to receiving God’s grace in vain. To receive God’s grace in vain is not to fail to become a believer but to become a believer and then fail to steward that gift and grace. Paul wants the Corinthians to get gospel traction in their lives.

6:2 The grounding and motivation for divine grace to become fruitful in the Corinthians’ lives is where the Corinthians are in redemptive history. Quoting Isaiah 49:8, Paul assures them of God’s deepest heart to save and help his people: he is a God who listens, saves, helps. But Paul is doing something deeper. Throughout 2 Corinthians 5–7 Paul repeatedly alludes to restoration promises to Israel found in Isaiah 40–55. Here in 2 Corinthians 6:2 we find the first explicit quotation, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Throughout Isaiah 40–55 God promises that he will restore his people, and he does so predominantly by using the category of new creation (we began to see this above at 5:17).57

Note then what Paul says about Isaiah 49:8, which represents the broader OT context of end-time (eschatological) restoration of Israel and the ingathering of the nations: he says that this end-time restoration is now present. Quoting Isaiah 49, Paul gives his interpretation of it: “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” This is not primarily an abstract statement urging evangelistic zeal. Paul is locating the Corinthians in redemptive history and claiming that the eschatological promises of the prophets have broken in on them.

In the present age it comes in paradoxical garb, however. It cannot be perceived when apprehending things “according to the flesh” (2 Cor. 5:16; 10:2). What ministry looks like in the new age is what Paul will now unpack.

6:3–4a Paul continues his defense of his ministry (Gk. diakonia), the “ministry of the Spirit” (3:8) and the “ministry of righteousness” (3:9) that has dawned in the middle of history, in fulfillment of OT hopes and longings. And once again Paul asserts that his conduct has been for the Corinthians’ sake, not his own. His ministry is “all for your sake” (4:15). Death may be at work in Paul and his colleagues in new covenant ministry, but life is at work in them (4:12). If Paul is in his right mind, it is for them (5:13). Here in 6:3 he says that they do not put any “obstacle” (Gk. proskopē) in the way of anyone. The word, used only here in the NT, means “an occasion for taking offense” (BDAG). The purpose clause—“so that no fault may be found with our ministry”—further clarifies Paul’s concern. He is saying that ministry in the new age must be understood according to the gospel. It may not look impressive; neither did the preresurrection Christ. But the Corinthians must not judge Paul’s legitimacy according to natural, worldly standards. On the contrary, even though it may not look like it, Paul ruthlessly avoids putting any stumbling block in the way of his hearers.

Verse 4 begins to give the flip side to verse 3. Negatively, Paul avoids any obstacles in the way of his hearers. Positively, his actions speak for themselves to demonstrate that he is a true servant of God. Paul begins to rattle off marks of his true apostleship and does not stop until verse 11.

The verse immediately raises a question, for here Paul says he is commending himself, which is just what he denies doing previously in the letter (3:1; 5:12)! The key distinction between healthy and unhealthy self-commendation is evident in the list that follows here in chapter 6: Paul is not merely commending himself by empty words as God’s servant. His deeds, especially his sufferings, are demonstrable proof in themselves. He need not say anything beyond the life he is living.

6:4b–5 Paul’s catalog of marks of authentic ministry can be divided into three basic clusters: the bad (vv. 4b–5), the good (vv. 6–7), and the paradoxical (vv. 8–10). Cumulatively, Paul’s ministry speaks for itself. He is genuinely laying himself out for the Corinthians. Moreover, this is what ministry in the new age looks like, patterned after the Savior himself: God works through apparent weakness and death and shame to bring strength and life and glory.

Every mark recounted in this passage up through “power of God” in verse 7 is introduced with the preposition en (“in”). Paul is not identifying occasional adversities in a life otherwise largely serene. These are what Paul lives in. The first ten marks paint a picture of the regularly grueling existence Paul and his colleagues lead. The first mark, “great endurance,” sounds uplifting enough, but in light of the following nine it should be understood as the pain of having to endure tremendous hardship. Paul speaks at length of “afflictions” in 1:3–11 and returns to this word (Gk. thlipsis) here, likely graduating from lesser to greater difficulties in the latter three marks of his ministry in 6:4: “afflictions”; even more deeply, “hardships”; worst of all, “calamities.”

In verse 5 Paul moves from the general to the specific and begins identifying actual difficulties. Most of these are recounted in narratival form in the book of Acts: “beatings” (Acts 16:23, 37), “imprisonments” (Acts 16:23), “riots” (that is, being at the mercy of a riotous crowd; Acts 17:5–7; 19:28–41); “labors” (Acts 18:3; 20:34–35); “sleepless nights” (Acts 20:7, 31); “hunger” (Acts 13:2–3; 14:23). Beatings, imprisonments, and riots refer to what Paul has suffered externally at the hands of other people. Labors, sleepless nights, and hunger refer to what Paul has suffered internally in the course of the demands of itinerant ministry as he is led by God “in triumphal procession,” as his happily conquered captive, to spread the “fragrance” of the gospel (2 Cor. 2:14).

6:6 Paul turns now from difficult circumstances to godly virtues, both of which attest his ministry as a valid expression of the new age that has dawned, in which God works in upside-down, counterintuitive ways.

Paul lists six characteristics similar to, but more compressed than, the nine fruits of the Spirit he recounts in Galatians 5:22–23. Paul testifies to his ministry’s “purity,” or spotlessness, having no taint or defilement of which Paul could justly be accused (also in 2 Cor. 11:3); “knowledge,” or accurate insight into spiritual reality and especially Spirit-given apprehension of the gospel (cf. 2:14; 4:6; 11:6); “patience,” bowing to God’s timing in all things and trusting him instead of forced manipulation of events even for ostensibly kingdom purposes; “kindness,” that simple but rare delight in and service of others flowing from an abiding heart awareness of God’s undeserved mercies to us; “the Holy Spirit,” the presence of whom has been manifest clearly to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 2:4) and who is, Paul has twice told them, the beginning of the eschaton (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5) and its decisive mark (3:3, 6, 8); and “genuine [lit., “nonhypocritical”] love,” a sincere and earnest and settled posture of serving others at one’s own expense.

6:7 Paul continues the positive marks of his ministry but moves now from general characteristics of all believers to the marks of his ministry in particular. To render the first half of the verse woodenly would be something like, “in the word of truth, in the power of God.” Nowhere does apostolic Christianity know of a disjunction between word and power, between truth and divine manifestation, between the heard and the seen. Paul is apparently under attack on both fronts, being accused not only of false motives and bad teaching (1:12, 17; 11:4) but also of weakness and ignominy (10:10; 11:6). But for those whose eyes God opens and whose veil is taken away (4:3–4), the surprising ways of the new age become apparent.

Paul shifts from the Greek preposition en (“in”) to dia (“through”) as he speaks of the “weapons of righteousness,” probably signaling a subtle shift from sphere to means. He had been in these sufferings and these virtues; now he refers to what his ministry is with. The weapon in the “right hand” would be the weapon of offense and the “left” the weapon of defense, so Paul likely means that he and his colleagues are comprehensively armed, well equipped for battle against the forces of darkness (cf. 10:3–5; Eph. 6:11–17). “Righteousness” here means righteous living or godliness, given the ethical meaning of “righteousness” in 2 Corinthians 6:14, where it is paired opposite “lawlessness” (not “condemnation,” as in 3:9). Paul is armed to the teeth—with kindness and love. This is true Christian battle. Jonathan Edwards wrote, “The strength of the good soldier of Jesus Christ, appears in nothing more, than in steadfastly maintaining the holy calm, meekness, sweetness, and benevolence of his mind, amidst all the storms, injuries, strange behavior, and surprising acts and events of this evil and unreasonable world.”58

6:8 The next three verses each contain three pairs of opposites, continuing the motif coursing through 2 Corinthians of the upside-down ways of the new age.

The first two pairings create a chiasm (A-B-B'-A'), perhaps emphasizing the reality of “dishonor” and “slander.” “Honor” here is not etymologically related to “dishonor” (Gk. atimia) even though Paul could have used such a word (timē). Rather Paul uses doxa (“glory”), used throughout 3:7 to 4:6. While we should not read the earlier usages into the present one, Paul’s readers could not help but be reminded through this word of the true new covenant glory that is at times acknowledged but too often neglected. More common is “dishonor,” the public rejection and shaming of Paul and his message. The next pairing, “slander and praise,” is the application of “honor and dishonor” specifically to others’ speech about Paul. That Paul does not exclusively receive “praise” is painful vindication of his ministry. It shows he is not adjusting his message to tell people what they want to hear (cf. Gal. 1:10).

With the third triad of the verse Paul moves from an introductory dia (“through”) to the preposition hōs (“as”). The Greek text is just four words: “as deceiving and true”—that is, as the ESV rightly indicates in its translation, Paul and company are viewed with suspicion as to their forthrightness of motive. This plugs into a concern which Paul has been circling back to throughout this letter as he has asserted time and again the sincerity and integrity of his ministry (e.g., 2 Cor. 1:12, 17–18; 2:4; 4:2, 13; 5:11; 6:11). Despite being viewed as duplicitous, Paul has in fact been “true” (cf. “truthful speech” in v. 7). Paul is not claiming exhaustive perfection as to motives—who ever could?—but rather asserting that his core animating motive is honorable.

6:9 The Greek parallels “as deceiving and true” at the end of verse 8 with “as unknown and known.” Again, among human hearers of his gospel, Paul and true gospel ministers face the perplexing dissonance of being both unknown and known, misunderstood and understood, wrongly apprehended and rightly apprehended, ignored and appreciated. Our only comfort is that at the end of the day the deepest truth about us is that we are known rightly by God (Gal. 4:9). He sees us rightly even if no one else does. With this we are content.

The final two couplets of 2 Corinthians 6:9 bring to mind the main theme of chapter 4: life through death (esp. 4:8–9). Paul continues to unfold the paradoxical heart of new-age ministry, in which the deep valleys of mortality and frailty interlock with the high mountains of resurrection and irrepressible power. At one and the same time, gospel ministers move through life experiencing the seemingly mutually exclusive and yet overlapping and even mutually reinforcing realities of death yet life, rejection yet triumph, punishment yet endurance. Paul is not speaking of a linear, sequential reality—death now, life hereafter. He is speaking of two coterminous realities—death and life bound up with one another. Notice the little word “behold” (Gk. idou; also twice in 6:2), as Paul subtly invites the Corinthians to observe the resurrection life at work in him.

6:10 The final triplet penetrates into the most profound and liberating mystery of Christian life and ministry. The first item in each of the three pairs refers to the world’s assessment of us and what we experience emotionally and physically. The second item refers to the truer, deeper reality for those whose eyes have been opened and for whom the veil has been lifted (4:3–4). The first item is what we experience as those who still live in the old age; the second item is what we experience as those who belong fundamentally to the new age. The first item is “the things that are seen [that] are transient,” while the second item is “the things that are unseen [that] are eternal” (4:18). The first item is what is true of “our outer self,” the second item of “our inner self” (4:16). See table 3.6.

TABLE 3.6: The New Age in the Midst of the Old Age

In all this a gospel minister is simply walking in accord with the Master with whom he is united. Christ himself was “sorrowful” (cf. Matt. 26:37–38) “yet always rejoicing” (cf. Matt. 11:29; John 15:11); “poor” (cf. Luke 6:20) “yet making many rich” (cf. Mark 6:42; Luke 6:38); “having nothing” (cf. Luke 9:58) “yet possessing everything” (cf. Matt. 28:18; John 3:35).

6:11 In chapter 5 Paul reflected on the reconciliation God provides for sinners to come back into fellowship with himself, along with the stewardship of the word of reconciliation God entrusts to ministers. Now Paul turns directly to look the Corinthians in the eye (note the direct address: “Corinthians”) and tenderly plead for reconciliation between them and him. “Our mouth is open to you,” the text literally reads, and not only in what we say but also in what we feel most deeply: “our heart is wide open” too. In our words and our affections, we are withholding nothing. We are not playing games. No spin, no duplicity. This is the “testimony of our conscience” (1:12), and Paul longs for this to be “known also to [the Corinthians’] conscience” (5:11).

6:12 The word for “restricted” here is used only one place in the NT outside of this verse: 4:8, where Paul says they are afflicted but not “crushed.” The word means “to confine or restrict to a narrow space” (BDAG, s.v. στενοχωρέω). One can see how this word is apt in 4:8 to speak of physical and circumstantial pressing and restricting (hence “crushed”) and equally apt for what can arise interpersonally between believers. Because Paul and company have opened wide both their mouths and their hearts, no cause for suspicion or withdrawal has been given from Paul to the Corinthians. The only reason for withdrawal is coming from the Corinthians themselves: “You are restricted in your own affections.”

The word for affections here (Gk. splanchnon) has a touch of onomatopoeia and is rife with feeling. It literally means entrails or guts and is used throughout the NT to speak of the innermost feelings, defining (in verb form) Jesus’ own inner life of felt love and compassion (Matt. 14:14; Mark 6:34; Luke 7:13).59 Typical of the fallen complexities of interpersonal dynamics, Paul senses the Corinthians’ hearts are stopped up.

6:13 In light of the utterly gratuitous reconciliation God has worked (5:14–21) and the nature of new covenant ministry (6:1–10), Paul entreats the Corinthians to unstop their affections for him. This is the appropriate “payback” (Gk. antimisthia; also Rom. 1:27) for his conduct toward them. It is not that his relationship with them is crassly transactional—you scratch my back, I scratch yours—but rather that love given is not enjoyed but aborted if emotionally stiff-armed by the recipient.

Paul is, after all, their spiritual father, as evident from his address of them as “children.” This is not an insult (“You are acting like children!”) but an appeal driven by paternal affection (“You are my beloved children! I beg you to receive me accordingly”). Paul has opened wide his own heart (2 Cor. 6:11); he adjures them to respond accordingly and widen their own hearts toward him. Paul understands that in human relationships either party can choose to narrow one’s affections or to widen them. One can either restrict love or allow love to flow. The logic of the gospel pushes us toward openhearted, freely flowing love. For this is what the triune God himself has done to us, opening his heart and flooding our existence with unhindered affection (13:14; Matt. 11:29).60