Second Corinthians 6:1-18

Paul, continuing from the end of chapter 5, writes:

II Corinthians 6:1 and 2:

^6:1But working-together (with God) we also encourage you not to accept the grace of God into emptiness, ^.2for He says, "I heard you on an acceptable time and I came-to-help you in (the) day of salvation" – look!, now (is the) well-acceptable time – look!, now (is the) day of salvation.

We (myself and those with me) are presently working in conjunction with God (co-workers, joint-workers), and included in our work is that we also encourage you (we exhort you holy-people, call you beside us as a concerned father or mother would call their children close to them under their arms so as to help them to do what is right, we encourage you): not to accept God’s grace into emptiness (not to welcome, willingly take, receive to yourselves what is presented to you which is the unmerited favor proceeding-from God into, with a view to, directed-to, and resulted-in it becoming vain, void, empty of contents having no effect in the walk/behavior category).

In truth, God says (He lays it out for us): I heard you, the person from-whom the sound of the voice came, on an acceptable specific occasion (at a welcomed, subjectively-receivable opportune period, a seasonal time) and I came to help you during the day of salvation (I ran up to give you aid, I advanced to support you at your cry for help during the period of time pertaining-to salvation, safety from sins and their consequences).

This is a reference to the prophecy that the Prophet Isaiah wrote regarding what God would speak to His son, the Lord Jesus Christ:

Isaiah 49:8:

Thus saith the Lord [God], in an acceptable time have I heard thee and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant to the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages.

King David had also spoken regarding this subject as he prayed and asked God for help:

Psalm 69:13:

But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.

And, Jesus Christ spoke of this as he was in the process of carrying-out God's plan of redemption.

Luke 4:18-21:

The Spirit of the Lord [God] is upon me [Jesus Christ], because he [God] hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

And he [Jesus Christ] closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

Here in Second Corinthians, Paul writes that God says, "I heard you on an acceptable time and I came-to-help you in (the) day of salvation" –

look (behold, see, pay attention)!, now at the present time is the well-acceptable time –
look!, now is the day of salvation (the period of time pertaining-to salvation).

God has heard each one of you singularly on an acceptable time and He came to help you in the day of salvation – look – it has come to pass! God has helped you by means of the Lord Jesus Christ, and now, today, is the well-acceptable time. Now, today, it is available for both the descendants of Israel/Jacob and the Gentiles (other nations) to be saved. The new covenant of spirit is now in effect and has been made available to all by God by means of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[Reference: Isaiah 49:5-12; Acts chapter 2; Romans 10:8-10; I Corinthians 3:9, and 15:10; I Timothy 2:1-7.]

II Corinthians 6:3-10:

^.3(We are) giving not-one stumbling in nothing in order that the ministry may not be blemished ^.4but commending ourselves in everything as ministers of God: in much patient-endurance, in pressures, in constraints, in restraints, ^.5in strokes, in prisons, in instabilities, in labors, in sleeplessnesses, in fastings; ^.6in pureness, in knowledge, in patience, in benevolence, in holy spirit, in love¹ without-hypocrisy, ^.7in (the) word of truth, in (the) ability of God; by means of the arms of the righteousness of the right-sides and left-sides, ^.8by means of glory and dishonor, by means of bad-report and good-report; as wanderers and true-people, ^.9as being unknown and being fully-known, as dying and – look! – we live, as being trained and not being put-to-death, ^.10as being caused-sorrow but always joying, as poor-people but making many-people wealthy, as having nothing and holding-down all-things.

Paul continues to teach and explain the ministry he and those with him had been assigned.

We are presently giving not-one stumbling (none, no reason to stumble off of the accuracy of God's Word, no cause to strike or beat oneself towards or against God's Word) in nothing (within the sphere of action of not one thing). The double negative emphasizes this statement. Why? For the purpose and result that the ministry would not be blemished (so that no fault would be found because of some defect as a spot or damage in it).

The word ‘ministry’ refers to the duty of service to benefit others, not 'being-subject' to them but doing work to bring them profit, the day-by-day ministerial-duties, the functions of service for God and the Lord Jesus Christ. A ‘minister’ is one who performs a ministry.

But contrary to causing others to stumble, we are commending ourselves in everything (causing ourselves to stand in conjunction together, in the sense of favorably introducing ourselves during all/every situation and circumstance) as it is right for God's ministers:

in much patient-endurance (during a lot of remaining and enduring and bearing-up, staying upright relative to God and the things of God under obstacles);
in pressures (during compressions, stress that afflicts us, whatever may be pressing-upon or squeezing us, whether they be physical or mental or spiritual);
in constraints (during necessities forced upon us, compulsions, needs arising from the force or entreaty of the circumstances or situations);
in restraints (during confinements as a crowd of people in a narrow place and in need of space, restrictions);
in strokes (being given blows, strikes, or stripes of lashes);
in prisons (being imprisoned many times by watchful guards);
in instabilities (during circumstances and situations of unsteadiness, periods of having no sure place to stand-down fixed or firm on);
in labors (during times of exerting wearisome effort or toil);
in sleeplessnesses (watchings, spending many wakeful nights of concern);
in fastings (during times of not eating, abstaining from food).

Also, we minister:

in pureness (purity, within a pure-state, we are not contaminated by any bad-thing that may be near-by in the physical category as we move among people);
in knowledge (within personal knowledge, a truly active and relative knowing, not just a perception of the things of God);
in patience (within long-suffering, with long-forbearance towards or with all-people, long-temperedness);
in benevolence (within kindness, supplying what is appropriately needed for use in specific situations);
in holy spirit (within the sphere of action of sanctified spirit, our holy spirit-life, the spirit of the new covenant, the spirit of Christ in us);
in love¹ without hypocrisy (the word "love¹" comes from the Greek word agape which is God's kind of love - within unfeigned love, manifesting God's love towards others but not as an answer in reply in pretense as if wearing a mask playing a part on a stage - it is not hypocritical but it is genuine);
in word of truth (within the sphere of action of the spoken-account of the inner-thoughts of God which is truth);
in ability of God (within God's able-power, His capability).

Also, we minister:

by means of the arms of the righteousness of the right-sides and left-sides (through the weapons, tools, implements of war/battle pertaining-to and consisting-of God's righteousness with respect to all parts of our right-hand side and our left-hand side, we are in a spiritual battle against the devil and his army of devil-spirits/demons, and so we use the arms of God's justice, justness, protecting us both defensively and offensively in the spirit category);
by means of glory and dishonor (through importance, splendor, renown, and lack of honor, without honor, not esteemed to have value or holding worth);
by means of bad-report and good-report (through injurious, ill-omened speech bringing to light evil-language like voodoo, witchcraft, wizardry, etc, and well-omened speech bringing to light good-language which is God's Word).

Also, we minister:

as wanderers and true-people (as people who err or do not stay in their rightful-place, who mislead, lead themselves and other people astray, like a planet is constantly moving around when viewed from the earth unlike the stars which retain their position relative to each other, and as people who are truthful, teaching the truth which is what God says);
as being unknown and being fully-known (as people being not-known, ignored, not aware of by others, and people whom others are being fully-aware-of, having clear and exact personal-knowledge about);
as dying and – look! – we live (as people being in the process of dying, of becoming quite dead, and yet behold!, we live, we are alive, we are in the process of living);
as being trained and not being put-to-death (as people being trained like children or young servants, not only being given instruction but also education including discipline, correction, etc, and people not being caused to die in just punishment for some extreme misbehavior);
as being caused-sorrow but always joying (as people being made to grieve but on every occasion we are rejoicing);
as poor-people but making many-people wealthy (as people who are beggarly, crouching in the begging position in need of certain things, but we are causing a lot of people to become rich);
as having nothing and holding-down all-things (as people holding not one thing, and we are having all our own possessions in the sense of holding them fast or firm so as to keep them and not lose them).

[Reference: Matthew 27:63; John 17:17; Acts 14:19, 10, and 16:23, 24; Romans 2:2, 10, 6:13, 8:35-39, and 12:9; I Corinthians 1:5, 11:32, and chapters 12-14; II Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 6:10-18; James 2:5.]

Verses 11-13:

^.11Our mouth opened² towards you, Corinthians, our heart was widened², ^.12you are not restrained in us but you are restrained in your inner-parts, ^.13but the same recompense, I speak as to children, (is that) you also must be widened.

Our mouth opened and remains open (we, myself and those with me, openly express ourselves as though we had one mouth because we speak the same words, God's Word) towards you Corinthian holy-people, our heart was caused to be broadened and remains broadened (the center, core of our being is extended as though we had one heart because our personal lives are the same relative-to God's Word) towards you.

You are not caused to be restrained (confined as a crowd of people in a narrow place and in need of space, you are not restricted) within/among our sphere of action, as though we are the cause of your restriction relative-to God's Word – but you are caused to be restrained within/among the sphere of action of your inner-parts (literally: your insides; figuratively referring to your inner-selves, emphasizing your inner affections, feelings, emotions, attitudes, compassions).

I am laying it out before you here, as I would do to/for my children to help them to understand something – the same recompense is that you must also be widened (the corresponding-reward or retribution itself to be given in return for what we do for you is that your heart must be caused to be broadened, extended towards us).

[Reference: Psalm 119:30-35; Proverbs 31:26; Matthew 5:2; Acts 8:35; I Corinthians 4:14; Colossians 3:12; Philemon 7 and 20; I John 3:17.]

Verse 14:

^.14You must not become differently-yoked with unbelievers, for what sharing (is there with) righteousness and lawlessness, or what sharing-in-common (is there with) light towards darkness?

You holy-people must not come to pass to be differently-yoked (diversely-yoked, yoked with a different kind, with another who is not of the same genus) with/to unbelievers (people who do not believe, who do not have faith, who do not trust what God says).

Unbelievers do not have holy spirit-life within them and so they are different to/from holy-people. The word "yoke" refers to a wooden/metal bar or a frame of some sort by-which two animals are joined together by the yoke for the purpose of working-together. However, God says not to put two different kinds of animals together:

Deuteronomy 22:10:

Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together.

The ox and the ass were not compatible to be yoked together for the purpose of plowing. Yes, these animals of a different kind could physically be yoked together, but the truth is that they cannot work together correctly in order to do the plowing as it ought to be done.

Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians, "You must not become differently-yoked with unbelievers," and he continues: in truth…

what sharing (partaking in association with another) is there with righteousness (justness, justice, being and doing what is just/right from God's viewpoint) and lawlessness (the state of being without law and thus in violation, non-observance, transgression of the law of God which is what God says)?;

what sharing-in-common (partaking of/in/with the same-thing, participation with one-another of what is common to all) is there with light (absolute light, which is the opposite of darkness) towards darkness (approaching towards and then moving onwards with absolute darkness, the absence of light)?

Paul does not write the answers because it should be so obvious that in God's spiritual realm there cannot be any associative sharing with righteousness and lawlessness, nor can there be any sharing-in-common with light towards darkness. There is no middle mixture in the holy spirit category. In the walk (behavior, conduct) category it is up to each holy-person to make his/her own free-will decision to walk according to what God says or not during the everyday living of his/her life.

[Reference: I Kings 18:21; Proverbs 29:27; I Corinthians 1:9, and 10:21; II Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 5:7-14; I John 1:3-9.]

II Corinthians 6:15:

^.15But what agreement (is there) of Christ towards Belial, or what part (is there with) a believer with an unbeliever?

But what agreement (what sounding-together like a symphony being musically harmonious, speaking in unison regarding a matter, concord) is there of, pertaining-to, belonging-to and proceeding-from Christ (the Anointed-one, the Messiah, who is the promised seed of the only true God and who now has his spiritual body and gives the gift of holy spirit to all who believe what God says) – towards Belial (approaching towards and then moving onwards with Belial, which is another name of satan, the devil)? The name of "Belial" emphasizes satan's relationship to his seed who are those people who have believingly accepted that the devil is god and allow him to permanently place one of his devil-spirits (demons) to dwell within their physical body, not a short-term domination; these people then live in worthlessness until they die in destruction.

Or, what part (what divided-portion) is there with a believer (a person who has faith in and trusts the words of God) in company and association with an unbeliever (a person who does not have faith in and does not trust the words of God)?

The unwritten answer to both of these questions relative-to God's holy and spiritual realm is: none!

[Reference: Genesis 3:15; Deuteronomy 13:13; John 8:42-47; Acts 13:10; Romans 1:3, 4, and 10:8-10; I Corinthians 7:5; Galatians 3:16; Colossians 1:27.]

Verse 16:

^.16But what consent (is there with the) interior-temple of God with idols? For you are (the) interior-temple of (the) living God – according as God said that "I will indwell in them and I will walk-in (them) and I will be their God and they will be My people,"

What consent (strongly-assenting in conjunction with one another, as putting down one's vote being in concord in opinion together with the other) is there with God's innermost part of the temple in company and association with idols?

The 'interior-temple' refers to the innermost-part of God's temple, as the most sacred area within the temple in Jerusalem, where the only true God's presence was manifested-forth, called the "Holy of Holies."

An idol is an image or something that a person places ahead of God in his/her mind and therefore he/she worships or serves that thing/idol as "god" instead of worshipping and serving the only true God. An idol may or may-not have form and substance. Examples of idols are: books, the people themselves, famous people, devil-spirits, icons, statues, perhaps some agricultural endeavor, the environment, the sun, moon or stars, the web or some other computer-related program, software or hardware, television, video games, eating some particular food, or whatever a person puts above or estimates to be higher in his/her mind and living than the only true God and what He says and does. Anything or anybody placed in higher esteem in the whole of a person's heart and soul and mind process than God is an idol to/for that person.

What consent is there with the interior-temple of God with idols? None! There is no consent between them because one is the antithesis of the other.

Next, Paul teaches regarding the interior-temple of God relative-to the present time-period which is between the day of Pentecost, recorded in Acts 2:1-4, and the coming of Christ to gather all holy-people together with him in the air, recorded in I Corinthians 15:51-57 and I Thessalonians 4:13-17.

In truth, emphatically you holy-people (not someone else or some physical place [some texts read “we”]) are the interior-temple of the living God – LIVING GOD. All holy-people are the interior-temple of the living God. God is presently and actively being alive. The only true God is not a figment of mankind's imagination, nor has He died, nor has He been updated by a bigger version and/or better release made by mankind! God is living.

Emphatically you are the interior-temple of the living God, which is according as God said (He definitely communicated with words): "I will indwell in them and I will walk-in (them) and I will be their God and they will be My people." God said that He will (at a time still-future to when He said this) indwell in them (actively inhabit, house within/among them) and He will walk-in them (as moving about on foot within/among them) and He will be God of them (belonging-to them, their God) and emphatically they will be His people (collectively as one group belonging-to Him, God’s people).

[Interestingly, there is a Greek word, oikos, from which many other Greek words come. These words, which all come from the same root-word, may be translated into English as: house, to build a house, household, householders, to build, building, to dwell, dwelling, to inhabit, habitation, to edify, edification, plus many other words in the English language, but we ought to understand that when reading any one of these words they all relate to each other even though in English it is difficult to consistently use the same basic word in every rendering of it to communicate the meaning. Also, it is used figuratively referring to the action or process of building upwards and establishing.]

For you are the interior-temple of the living God – according as God said that "I will indwell in them and I will walk-in them and I will be their God and they will be My people." Paul refers to what had previously been written-down as part of the old covenant writings:

Leviticus 26:11 and 12:

And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.

And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.

Ezekiel 37:27:

My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

What God said has already come to pass pertaining-to all holy-people in the spirit category!

[Reference: Luke 23:51; John 14:16-26; Acts 2:47, 7:46-50, and 17:24, 25; Romans 8:11; I Corinthians 3:16 and 17, 6:19 and 20; Ephesians 2:19-22; Revelation chapters 21 and 22.]

II Corinthians 6:17 and 18:

^.17on-which-account, "You must come-out from their midst and you must be separated," says (the) Lord, "and you must not touch an unclean-thing, and I will accept you into-Myself, ^.18and I will be for a Father to you and you will be for sons and daughters to Me," says (the) Lord (the) All-Strong-One.

Paul continues by referring to what God has previously spoken and which has been recorded in the old covenant writings, but here he writes that God presently says it – what God said during the old covenant times is applicable today during New Covenant times. What God says to holy-people today is similar to what He has said previously, but it is not the same situation or circumstance. This also clearly shows that Paul is writing this letter by revelation, he is not looking-up some old writings and just re-writing them!

All holy-people (sanctified-people, Christians, saints, children of God with holy spirit-life within us) are the interior-temple of the living God – this is according as God said previously: "I will indwell in them and I will walk-in (them) and I will be their God and they will be My people."

On this account, it is imperative that you actively come-out (go-out) from their midst (out from being in the middle of idols and unbelievers)…

and you must be separated (caused to be set-off-by-bounds or limited-off and apart from them),

…says the Lord (the Lord presently and actively lays this out before us).

God is the Lord (Master) over all His children including the Lord Jesus Christ, and when God is called "Lord" it is to emphasize His covenant-relationship with all of us whom He has created, His creation (refer to II Corinthians 5:17).

And, you must not touch (in the sense that you must not apply yourselves to and thus experience) an unclean-thing (that-which is not free from mixture of that-which is against God, it is mixed with something else, it has impurity from God's viewpoint mixed with it),
and emphatically I will accept you into-Myself (welcome, willingly take you who are presented to Me to Myself into My house, the place where I gather all of My children),
and I will be for (into and resulting in being) a Father to you,
and you will be for (into and resulting in being) sons and daughters to Me (not adopted, but truly My children),…

…says the Lord the All-Strong-One (the Lord the All-Strong-One presently and actively lays this before us).

God is Lord (Master) over all His children including the Lord Jesus Christ relative-to His covenant relationship with all of us. God is also the One being totally strong, having all strength, every superiority and dominion in exerted force, almighty in relation to us whom He has created. This emphasizes God's strength from/with which He gracefully supplies what is needed to/for His people, and to/for the rest of His host of beings.

All holy-people have received holy spirit-life and this is what makes us God's sons and daughters now. Plus, in the future we will be gathered together by the Lord Jesus Christ and after-that we will be with God, our Father, and with our Lord Jesus Christ in the new heaven and new earth.

[Reference: Genesis 17:1; Isaiah 43:6, 7, 52:11; Acts 19:9; Revelation 1:8, 4:8, 11:17, 15:3, 16:7, 14, 19:6, 15, 21:22, and all of chapters 21 and 22. Note: verbs with a superscript 2 (²) immediately following them indicate the "perfect" tense - details are provided in the "Relevant Notes" link of this study.]

II Corinthians Chapter 7