>> Jen: Howdy and good morning friends and faithful listeners. Thanks for tuning in to the Bible Explained podcast. We're in a new chapter of 2 Corinthians. But before we get to that, I finally have part three up of the interview video episodes I did with my sister and brother in law of their story of how they escaped the IFB denomination. Part three was, which is the final part, is finally up on YouTube. I'm going to link that in the description of the episode. So go over there and
listen to that. In fact, listen to part one and two as well. After you're done listening to this podcast episode, you'll have a lot more to listen to, I think, because each episode is about an hour to an hour and a half long. So you'll have a lot more content to binge over on YouTube. So I will link that episode in the description. But faithful listeners, let's get into 2 Corinthians, chapter 6. We're going to be reading verses 1 through 13
today. I'll be reading, as I usually do, from the web version, but of course you feel free to grab the version of the Bible that you prefer to read. Pause the podcast to go get that and also your cup of nice hot coffee or tea this morning. Today I am drinking a lavender tea, which is one of my, favorite coffee substitutes. Nothing will ever replace coffee in my life. Nothing. I do drink tea quite often now, but it's never gonna be the same. I just, I crave that delicious hot cup of
steaming warm coffee. It just smells so good. I get jealous when my husband has it. Yeah, nothing's gonna replace coffee to me. I truly don't know if I'm ever truly gonna become a crazy tea drinker, though I do drink tea quite often now. But I'm not gonna admit it. I just, I will not admit that I'm becoming a crazy tea drinker. So let's read 2 Corinthians 6, 1 - 13. Today, let's give reverence to God's word together, working together, We entreat also that you do not receive
the grace of God in vain. For He says, at an acceptable time. I listened to you in a day of salvation, I helped you. Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. We give no occasion of stumbling in anything that our service may
not be blamed. But in everything, commending ourselves as servants of God, in great endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in labors, in watchings, in fastings, in Pureness in knowledge, in perseverance, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in sincere love, in the word of truth, in the power of God,
by. By the armor of righteousness on, um, the right hand and on the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet well known, as dying. And behold, we live as punished and not killed, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things. Our mouth is open to you, Corinthians. Our heart is enlarged. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.
Now, in return, I speak as to my children, you also open your hearts. Verse 1 says, Working together, we entreat also that you do not receive the grace of God in vain. So what does that mean, to receive, uh, the grace of God in vain? Well, it could have several meanings. The first one is to not properly utilize God's grace and to take on, like, a legalistic kind of mindset that Paul
was always fighting. You know, I mean, even in Galatians, which is the next book after Second Corinthians, Paul actually had to get into an argument with Peter because Peter was refusing to sit and eat with some of the uncircumcised Christians because there were, uh, Jews in Paul's day who preached this message that you have to be saved by grace, by Jesus, but also you have to be circumcised as well. You can't truly be saved unless you are also circumcised. And so Paul was battling that all the
time. He was always, you know, telling the Corinthians, no, you're. You're saved by grace, not by grace plus. So that could be one way that somebody is receiving God's grace in vain is they're just refusing to actually receive the grace, and they're still maintaining that legalistic mindset that God wants people to be freed from. So that's one way, but another way is actually stated. In First Corinthians 15, Paul talks about how he didn't receive God's
grace in vain. So let's read First Corinthians 15, verse 10. And we've talked about this verse not too long ago, but it says, by the grace of God, I am what I am. His grace, which was given to me, was not futile, but I worked more than all of them. Yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me. So another way that somebody could be not properly utilizing God's grace is just by, in a sense, almost being lazy, not going out and doing what
God calls somebody to do. Paul says, I wasn't lazy with this grace God gave me. Instead, I actually went out and worked very, very hard so that I could share God's grace with more people. So that could be another way that somebody is not properly utilizing God's grace. Now, of course, that's not to mean that you're not saved if you don't go out and properly utilize God's grace. Obviously not. But the scripture does warn us to not
receive the grace of God in vain. So we are supposed to do something with that grace that we have been given because it was a free gift to us. The word grace means blessing in spite of the fact that somebody does not deserve it. The words mercy and grace are often interchangeable, and, uh, a lot of people get confused as to what those two words mean. But mercy is more of not punishing somebody
in spite of the fact that they deserve it. And grace is actually blessing that person in spite of the fact that they deserve punishment. And God gave us grace. Not only are we not punished when we deserve it, but we're also blessed even though we deserve punishment. So we are not supposed to be, um, unthankful for that gift of grace. We're supposed to do something with it. Because God says in verse two, at an acceptable time, I listened to you in a day of salvation, I
helped you. Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. So at the right time in history, God sent His Son to die on the cross for us and to take our sins from us and to give us that grace. And it was truly the perfect time for God to send His Son, Jesus, perfect in so many different ways. In fact, I highly recommend that you guys all go out and read Person of Interest by J. Warner Wallace.
It was one of the best books I ever read regarding why Jesus came at the time he came, uh, like just in history, why he chose that exact time period. And it was a really fascinating read that I recommend you guys all go out and get. But Jesus came at the perfect time in history. And now we are still living under this era of grace. Because when Jesus came, it marked the end of the Old Promise, the Old Covenant, and the start of the New Promise, or the New Covenant.
And that new covenant was the era of grace. The Old covenant was the era of the Old Testament laws. But now we live in the era of grace. And that is right now. That is from the time Jesus died until Right now, we are still living in this day of salvation. But this day isn't going to last forever because someday Jesus is going to come back. And when He comes back, He's going to come back as a king, as a warrior, as a great, uh, judge. And that day will end the current era that we are in. So Paul
says right now is the acceptable time. Right now is the day of salvation. So don't wait to put your trust in Jesus. Don't wait to believe in Jesus, because you don't know when the era will end. So right now is the acceptable time then Verse 3. We give no occasion of stumbling in anything, that our service may not be blamed. I really love that Paul, um, often says the word
we. He's not just talking about himself, he's included in there, but he's talking about all the apostles that work side by side with him. And not just the apostles, but the people who are going out and spreading the gospel message with him. He says, we, all of us, give no occasion of stumbling in anything that our service may not be blamed. Paul says, we are acting in a way that is commendable to everybody in every area of our lives. And, man, that is so hard, isn't it, to act commendable in
every area of your life. I mean, just think about Facebook or any other social media that you're on. My big one is YouTube. I have a problem with that, as I have said before in, uh, the podcast. But, man, sometimes I just really wanna fight with people on YouTube. I get sucked in and I want to fight with somebody. But this verse tells us that we Christians are supposed to act commendable in every situation in life because the world is
looking at us. And if you think the world isn't looking at Christianity, then, uh, you haven't read the news because there's always some sort of controversy going on in Christian churches. There's always some sort of drama that the news covers regarding, you know, a pastor or something like that. The world is looking at Christianity. The world is watching you. And if you claim to have faith in Jesus, the world is going to see that. Your friends and family members
are going to see that. You might be like, well, I'm anonymous on Facebook and YouTube. Well, you might be anonymous to other people, but you're not anonymous to God. And He sees what you're doing. And I'm preaching to the choir here, not even lying. We are supposed to be commendable in pretty much every aspect of our lives. That's gonna be very difficult because we are not perfect people. None of us are perfect. We all sin. Christians sin, Non
Christians sin. Every person on the planet sins other than Jesus. He's the only sinless One. Paul was sinful. I'm sinful, you're sinful. Every. Every person is sinful. So it's hard to live a commendable life when you are battling with the sin nature every single day. But you do the best that you can. And this isn't to say that you pretend that you're perfect. Where you go, absolutely not. Paul didn't pretend that he was
perfect. And we are not supposed to do that. In fact, scripture tells us to confess our sins to one another, really tell the truth about who you are and about your sin nature. And that's actually gonna do more for other people than if you just pretend you're perfect all the time. Because people know that you are not perfect. You can pretend all you want, and everyone knows that you are not perfect because they aren't perfect. Not a single person on earth is perfect, and everybody knows
that. So it's better to not pretend that you are perfect. You are supposed to state your sins and bring them out into the open. But also you are to live as commendable as you can in spite of your sin nature. And then if you do sin, confess it to God or confess it to somebody that you hurt, and then do a, uh, 180 from that sin as best you possibly can. And that is what Paul is talking about here. But he also mentions all of these things that he and the apostles are
doing. He says, in everything, we commend ourselves as servants of God in great endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in labors, in watchings, in fastings. So the first several here are, uh, not things that people would say are particularly commendable. Right. Like if a pastor was going off and giving his resume to somebody, I don't think he
would list these things in that resume. He'd probably list, oh, you know, I preached this sermon on this day, and it got so many views. And like, that's. That's what most pastors would talk about. They would talk about their successes as the world sees their successes. But Paul understands that these things that he's dealing with and the other apostles are dealing with are actually successes. Even if the world doesn't think that they are.
God sees them, and God sees their endurance in the middle of all of these afflictions and hardships and beatings and imprisonments. I think Paul got beat with rods on three different occasions, if I'm remembering correctly. And he got stoned once. And I think he also got whipped several times just due to the fact that he believed in the gospel message. Paul claims these things as something commendable, even though the world would
never consider these things commendable. But these show the apostles' great faith. They show the endurance that they have. And so Paul includes these on his list of things that are commendable that he and the other apostles do. But then he lists things that are a little bit more, um, like commendable in the eyes of the world. In verse six, he says, in pureness, in knowledge, in perseverance, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in sincere love, in the power of truth,
in the power of God. So some of these things that Paul is listing is not necessarily things that are good that he is doing, but things that are good that God is doing through him and through the other apostles. So Paul is giving a lot of credit to the Holy Spirit, to God here, to. To Jesus, and not just taking all of the credit for himself. Verse 7, in the power of God by the armor of righteousness on the right
hand and on the left. So that term right hand and on the left paints the picture that the apostles are surrounding themselves with the gospel message on their right hand and on their left. So they're not swaying away from the gospel. They are staying true to the gospel, regardless of which path they take. Paul lists these things that the world thinks about
him and the other apostles. He says, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet well known, as dying. And behold, we live as punished and not killed, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things. So Paul's like, look, the world thinks that we are dishonorable. They think that we are spreading an evil report.
They think we're deceivers, as unknown individuals, as dying individuals, as sorrowful individuals. This is what the world thinks of Paul and the other apostles. The world was always constantly spreading bad things about Paul and the other apostles. But yet Paul's like, you know, uh, even though the world says that we have dishonor, we actually have glory. Even though the world claims that we are deceivers, we are
true. Even though the world claims that we are unknown and this gospel is not going to be spread, we are well known. Even though the world looks at us as if we are dying, we're actually living. We are punished, yet we are not killed. We are sorrowful, yet we are always rejoicing. We are poor, yet we are making many rich. We have nothing, and yet we possess all things. Our mouth is open to you Corinthians. Our heart is enlarged.
You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. Paul just boiled it down to what the problem with the Corinthian Church was. They were restricted by their own affections. I take this to mean that they were allowing their
emotions to lead them. We saw evidence of this back in, uh, First Corinthians, chapter four, I believe it was where Paul was correcting the Corinthian church because they were allowing one of their church members to live in an incestuous relationship with his stepmother. And Paul is like, what are you doing? Even the Gentiles don't do this kind of thing.
But we see evidence of the. The Corinthians allowing their own affections restrict them from following the truth because they were allowing one of their church members to live in this relationship without correcting him. And they were possibly being like, oh, you know, look how loving our church is. You know, yeah, the Gentiles don't do this kind of thing, but we're very accepting. We accept all people. They were allowing their emotions to lead them instead of allowing the truth of
Scripture to leave them. And Paul was like, no, instead of rejoicing over this man, you should actually be weeping that you are allowing this in your church. So, yeah, there was definitely some evidence that the Corinthians were allowing their emotions to guide them and lead them instead of the truth of Scripture and man. Is this not the story of the
American church today? The Western churches in general is they allow their own affections to restrict them from believing the truth of the gospel message and of the Bible in general. They won't preach about sin. They won't preach certain sections of the Bible because they think that they are mean sections. In fact, there. There were Christians, I believe, back in the 70s or 80s, I cannot remember, that tried to delete an entire portion of First Corinthians from the Bible because they said
that it was misogynistic. So the Western church has certainly engaged in this type of behavior that Paul is talking about, where they're allowing their emotions to guide them and lead them and their affections to restrict them. And that is exactly what the Corinthian Church was doing to Paul and to the other apostles and to the truth of Scripture. So Paul says, stop letting this happen and instead open up your hearts to receive the
truth of the gospel. Paul says in return, I speak to you as I would my children. Open up, uh, your hearts, receive the truth and don't let your emotions guide you. Well, faithful listeners, thank you so much for tuning in to today's podcast. I greatly appreciate all of you that, uh, tune in. And you know, this podcast is about five years old and I've actually had people listening to it from the very beginning. And that is super, uh, cool that you have been able to tolerate me for that long.
I appreciate all of that. Alright, faithful listeners, have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your day. Happy listening and God bless.