Teaching Notes — Verses 1–2: The Urgency That Frames Everything
Chapter 6 opens with a declaration that sets the tone for everything that follows: "Now is the favorable time. Now is the day of salvation." Paul is quoting Isaiah 49:8 — a promise God made to His servant about a coming moment of redemption — and announcing that the moment has arrived. Not someday. Not eventually. Now.
This urgency is not aimed at unbelievers alone. Paul is writing to a church and urging them: do not receive the grace of God in vain. Grace received but not lived, transformation accepted in principle but deferred in practice — this is what he is warning against. Everything that follows in chapter 6 is Paul showing what it looks like to take that urgency seriously, embodied in his own ministry and demanded of theirs.
2 Corinthians 6:1–2 (ESV)
"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."
Teaching Notes — Verses 3–10: Paul's Credentials & the Paradoxes of Gospel Ministry
Paul next offers what genuine urgency looks like from the inside of a life. His credentials are not letters of recommendation — they are sufferings endured and character forged. The list in verses 4–5 is his actual biography: afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger. Alongside this in verses 6–7 are the inner qualities these experiences produced: purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, the power of God.
The suffering did not produce bitterness. It produced character. That is what urgency — grace taken seriously — actually looks like over time.
Verses 8–10 then give us seven juxtapositions — paired paradoxes that hold two simultaneous realities in tension. Each one describes Paul's experience from two vantage points: how it looks from the outside, and what is actually true on the inside.
Honor and dishonor / slander and praise — his reputation fluctuates depending on who is judging him, but Paul is not governed by reputation. Impostors, yet true — his opponents call him a fraud; God knows otherwise. Unknown, yet well known — obscure by worldly measure, intimately known by God. Dying, yet we live — every hardship looks terminal; none of them are. Punished, yet not killed — the blows keep coming and never finish the job. Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing — real grief and real joy coexist, neither canceling the other. Poor, yet making many rich / having nothing, yet possessing everything — the final and greatest paradox: the person in Christ, stripped of everything worldly, possesses the one thing that cannot be taken.
These paradoxes are not rhetorical flourishes. They are Paul's theology of what it means to live urgently for the gospel. The world looks at his life and sees failure; the gospel looks at his life and sees faithfulness. He is not confused about which assessment matters.
2 Corinthians 6:8–10 (ESV)
"...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."
Teaching Notes — Verses 11–18: The Open Heart & the Final Juxtaposition
The urgency established in verse 2 reaches its personal and practical climax in the second half of the chapter. Paul turns from defending his ministry to appealing to the Corinthians' hearts — and then to their way of life.
In verses 11–13, the tone becomes tender: "Our heart is wide open." Paul has held nothing back. The restriction is not in him — it is in the Corinthians, whose affections have become constricted. His appeal is like a parent to a child who has grown distant: "Widen your hearts also." Urgency is not just about doing more; it is about being fully present in relationship — with Paul, and through Paul, with God.
Verses 14–18 then present the chapter's final and deepest juxtaposition: believer and unbeliever, light and darkness, Christ and Belial, the temple of God and idols. Paul is not calling for cultural withdrawal or relational isolation. He is calling for a fundamental clarity about who you are and what you are oriented toward. You cannot live with the urgency of "now is the day" while remaining equally at home in two worlds that are moving in opposite directions.
But notice how Paul frames the call to separation: not as a threat but as a promise. "I will welcome you. I will be a father to you. You shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty." The motivation for holy living is not fear of what must be left behind — it is the overwhelming reality of what is being entered into. God Himself, throwing open His arms and calling you His child. That is the urgency. That is the "now."
2 Corinthians 6:17–18 (ESV)
"Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty."
Study Questions
Observation What does the text say?
Verse 3 says "giving no cause for offense in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited, but in everything commending ourselves as servants…" What do you think Paul is saying?
Verse 14 says do not be bound together with unbelievers and then gives a number of examples of a similar nature. What is Paul saying here?
Interpretation What does it mean?
What is "offense" in verse 3? Of the examples he gives, which ones stick out to you? Why?
In the examples after verse 14, do any of these stick out to you? Why?
Application How do I live it?
Are you convicted to look at anything in your life differently given the examples Paul lists in this chapter?
Prayer Prompt
Lord, help us to have the right urgency, focus and obedience to live the way you call us to live while we wait for your return.
Commentary & Context
Chapter 6 opens with a declaration that sets the tone for everything that follows: "Now is the favorable time. Now is the day of salvation." Paul is quoting Isaiah 49:8 — a promise God made to His servant about a coming moment of redemption — and announcing that the moment has arrived. Not someday. Not eventually. Now.
This urgency is not aimed at unbelievers alone. Paul is writing to a church and urging them: do not receive the grace of God in vain. Grace received but not lived, transformation accepted in principle but deferred in practice — this is what he is warning against. Everything that follows in chapter 6 is Paul showing what it looks like to take that urgency seriously, embodied in his own ministry and demanded of theirs.
Paul next offers what genuine urgency looks like from the inside of a life. His credentials are not letters of recommendation — they are sufferings endured and character forged. The list in verses 4–5 is his actual biography: afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger. Alongside this in verses 6–7 are the inner qualities these experiences produced: purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, the power of God.
The suffering did not produce bitterness. It produced character. That is what urgency — grace taken seriously — actually looks like over time.
Verses 8–10 then give us seven juxtapositions — paired paradoxes that hold two simultaneous realities in tension. Each one describes Paul's experience from two vantage points: how it looks from the outside, and what is actually true on the inside.
Honor and dishonor / slander and praise — his reputation fluctuates depending on who is judging him, but Paul is not governed by reputation. Impostors, yet true — his opponents call him a fraud; God knows otherwise. Unknown, yet well known — obscure by worldly measure, intimately known by God. Dying, yet we live — every hardship looks terminal; none of them are. Punished, yet not killed — the blows keep coming and never finish the job. Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing — real grief and real joy coexist, neither canceling the other. Poor, yet making many rich / having nothing, yet possessing everything — the final and greatest paradox: the person in Christ, stripped of everything worldly, possesses the one thing that cannot be taken.
These paradoxes are not rhetorical flourishes. They are Paul's theology of what it means to live urgently for the gospel. The world looks at his life and sees failure; the gospel looks at his life and sees faithfulness. He is not confused about which assessment matters.
The urgency established in verse 2 reaches its personal and practical climax in the second half of the chapter. Paul turns from defending his ministry to appealing to the Corinthians' hearts — and then to their way of life.
In verses 11–13, the tone becomes tender: "Our heart is wide open." Paul has held nothing back. The restriction is not in him — it is in the Corinthians, whose affections have become constricted. His appeal is like a parent to a child who has grown distant: "Widen your hearts also." Urgency is not just about doing more; it is about being fully present in relationship — with Paul, and through Paul, with God.
Verses 14–18 then present the chapter's final and deepest juxtaposition: believer and unbeliever, light and darkness, Christ and Belial, the temple of God and idols. Paul is not calling for cultural withdrawal or relational isolation. He is calling for a fundamental clarity about who you are and what you are oriented toward. You cannot live with the urgency of "now is the day" while remaining equally at home in two worlds that are moving in opposite directions.
But notice how Paul frames the call to separation: not as a threat but as a promise. "I will welcome you. I will be a father to you. You shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty." The motivation for holy living is not fear of what must be left behind — it is the overwhelming reality of what is being entered into. God Himself, throwing open His arms and calling you His child. That is the urgency. That is the "now."