6:1 We 1 then, [as] workers together [with him], beseech [you]
also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.
(1) Men do not only need the ministry of the Gospel before they
have received grace, in order that they may be partakers of
the Gospel, but also after they have received grace they
need to continue in it.
6:22 (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time a 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) In that grace is offered, it is by the grace of God, who
has appointed times and seasons to all things, that we may
take occasion when it is offered.
(a) Which I of my free mercy and love towards you liked and
appointed. And at this time God poured out his
marvellous love upon us.
6:33 Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not
blamed:
(3) He shows the Corinthians a pattern of a true minister in
his own example, and in Timothy and Silvanus, to the end
that he might procure authority for himself and his
companions like him, as he purposed from the beginning.
6:4 But in all [things] b approving ourselves as the ministers
of God, 4 in much patience, in afflictions, in
necessities, in distresses,
(b) Declare and indeed show.
(4) He first of all reckons up those things which are neither
always in the ministers, nor without exception, unless they
are there according to the minister's bodily condition.
Patience, however, is an exception, which also is one of
the virtues which ought to always be in a good minister.
6:5 In stripes, in imprisonments, in c tumults, in labours, in
watchings, in fastings;
(c) In tossing to and fro, finding no place of rest and
quietness.
6:65 By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by
kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,
(5) Secondly he reckons up such virtues as are necessary, and
ought alway be in them, and by which as by good armour, all
pitfalls and hindrances may be overcome.
6:7 By the d word of truth, by the e power of God, by the
f armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the
left,
(d) Preaching of the Gospel.
(e) Power to work miracles, and to subdue the wicked.
(f) Uprightness.
6:116 O [ye] Corinthians, our mouth is g open unto you, our
heart is enlarged.
(6) Going about to rebuke them he says first that he deals with
them sincerely and with an open and plain heart, and in
addition complains that they do not do the same in loving
their Father.
(g) The opening of the mouth and heart signifies a most
earnest affection in him that speaks, as it happens
commonly with those that are in some great joy.
6:12 Ye are not h straitened in us, but ye are straitened in
your own i bowels.
(h) You are in my heart as in a house, and that no narrow
or confined house, for I have opened my whole heart to
you; but you are inwardly narrow towards me.
(i) After the manner of the Hebrews, he calls those tender
affections which rest in the heart, "bowels".
6:147 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers:
for what fellowship hath righteousness with
unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with
darkness?
(7) Now he rebukes them boldly, because they became fellows
with infidels in outward idolatry, as though it were an
indifferent thing. And this is the fourth part of this
epistle, the conclusion of which is, that those whom the
Lord has condescended to in calling them his children, must
keep themselves pure, not only in mind, but also in body,
that they may be completely holy to the Lord.
6:15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what k part
hath he that believeth with an infidel?
(k) What can there be between them?
6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for
ye are the temple of the l living God; as God hath said,
I will m dwell in them, and walk in [them]; and I will be
their God, and they shall be my people.
(l) He sets the living God against idols.
(m) God dwells with us, because Christ has become God with
us.
