Chapter 5 handed every believer the ministry of reconciliation. Chapter 6 shows what carrying out that ministry actually cost Paul in daily practice — a catalogue of hardship as vivid as anything in this letter, immediately followed by a paradoxical list of the very qualities that made his ministry credible in spite of it. The chapter closes with one of Scripture’s most quoted calls to separation, urging the Corinthians not to yoke themselves to the very unbelief and idolatry surrounding their city on every side.
A study in 2 Corinthians 6 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 16 min read
Now Is The Accepted Time
“We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.”
2 Corinthians 6:1
“Workers together with him” ties Paul’s own ministry directly to God’s own activity, a genuine partnership rather than an independent human project. His plea to the Corinthians follows naturally — grace genuinely received can still, tragically, be received “in vain,” left unapplied to an actual changed life.
“(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)”
2 Corinthians 6:2
“Christ is ready to set us free from sin, but He does not force the will; and if by persistent transgression the will itself is wholly bent on evil, and we do not desire to be set free, if we will not accept His grace, what more can He do? We have destroyed ourselves by our determined rejection of His love. ‘Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.’”
Ellen G. White · Steps to Christ, p. 34
Paul quotes Isaiah’s own prophecy of a specific, appointed moment of favor and applies it to the present moment his own readers are actually living in — not a future opportunity still to come, but “now.” This study’s own source presses the urgency further, warning that persistent rejection can eventually bend the will so completely toward evil that even grace can no longer reach a soul unwilling to receive it.
As Poor, Yet Making Many Rich
“Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed: But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings.”
2 Corinthians 6:3-5
“Paul’s writings show that the gospel minister should be an example of the truths that he teaches, ‘giving no offense in anything, that the ministry be not blamed.’ Of his own work he has left us a picture in his letter to the Corinthian believers.”
Ellen G. White · The Acts of the Apostles, p. 369
Nine specific hardships pile up in these two verses alone, and Paul is not finished. This study’s own source calls this whole passage a “picture” Paul painted of his own life, deliberately left as an example for every minister who reads it afterward.
“By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left.”
2 Corinthians 6:6-7
The list turns from external circumstances to internal character, each quality functioning like a piece of armor — “on the right hand and on the left” suggests equipment for both offense and defense, ready for whatever direction trouble comes from.
“By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed.”
2 Corinthians 6:8-9
Paul builds a series of paradoxes now, each one describing how the same genuine ministry looks entirely different depending on who is judging it — accused of deception while actually truthful, treated as unknown while genuinely well known. Reputation, in his own account, has proven a thoroughly unreliable measure of his actual faithfulness.
“As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”
2 Corinthians 6:10
The whole catalogue closes on its sharpest paradox — genuinely poor, by every material measure, and yet responsible for making many others genuinely rich. This is not a boast about hidden wealth Paul secretly enjoys; it is a claim that the riches he has actually given away, in the gospel itself, vastly exceed anything material poverty could ever take from him.
Our Heart Is Enlarged
“O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels.”
2 Corinthians 6:11-12
Paul addresses the Corinthians by name directly, a rare and pointed move in this letter, and insists that whatever distance has grown between them was never created on his own side. His own affection, “enlarged” rather than withdrawn, remains fully open; any narrowness in the relationship belongs to them.
“Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged.”
2 Corinthians 6:13
“I speak as unto my children” softens what could otherwise read as a demand into something closer to a father’s plea. Paul is not asking for repayment in any material sense, only for the same open-hearted affection he has already extended to them.
Come Out From Among Them, And Be Ye Separate
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?”
2 Corinthians 6:14
“But the marriage of Christians with the ungodly is forbidden in the Bible. The Lord’s direction is, ‘Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.’”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 175
A yoke only works properly when both animals wearing it are matched in strength and direction; an unequal yoke exhausts the stronger animal and injures the weaker one, while the plow itself veers off course. This study’s own source applies the image specifically and directly to marriage, treating this verse as a clear, standing boundary rather than a general sentiment open to case-by-case negotiation.
“And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God.”
2 Corinthians 6:15-16
Three rhetorical questions in a row, each one expecting the same answer: none. Paul is not describing a difficult balancing act between two compatible loyalties; he is naming a genuine incompatibility, as total as light and darkness, that no amount of goodwill can bridge.
“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
“To those who comply with the conditions, ‘Come out from among them, and be ye separate, … and touch not the unclean,’ God’s promise is, ‘I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.’”
Ellen G. White · The Great Controversy, p. 475
The chapter’s closing command is not separation for its own sake, but separation with a promised destination on the other side of it — reception into God’s own family, as sons and daughters of “the Lord Almighty.” This study’s own source ties the whole passage to genuine sanctification, arguing that a holiness which does not include this “utter renunciation of the sinful pursuits and gratifications of the world” cannot really be called sanctification at all — not a withdrawal from people, but a decisive break from the values and practices this whole chapter has just spent seventeen verses contrasting with the life of a minister who counted himself, in the end, poor only in appearance and rich in everything that actually mattered.
