DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
2 Corinthians 6:1-10
(9/27)
Epistle for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
How Will It Be? - 2 Corinthians 6:1-10, especially vs.
1: “We then, as workers
together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in
vain.” May God help us heed the Apostle’s
entreaty, listen with the heart as Paul begs us, accept the grace of God
without reservation, and apply ourselves to realize God’s favor! If not, we shall falter and lose
God’s gift of grace! The
choice pertains to three distinct parties: 1) God Himself, 2) the Apostles, and
3) us as disciples. Thus, Saint Paul, the Apostle
of Christ, places the word of God before us and describes the stance of all the
Apostles. Plainly, responding falls
to each of us. How will it be?
The gracious and life-giving word of God, spoken through
His holy Prophet Isaiah and quoted by Saint
Paul, summarizes God’s case. He has “listened,” and He
has “helped” (vs. 2, as Isaiah reports in Is. 49:8). It is not accidental that God begins
with the word “listened,” for the second word, most frequently
translated as “helped,” is a compound verb that in the original
literally means “...to run to one who has cried for help.” The New English Bible has caught this
subtlety: “On the day of deliverance I came to your aid.”
The image of God responding to the cry of His people
resonates with a basic, recurring theme of the Book of Judges: “Then the
sons of Israel
did evil before the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord God of their
fathers....They provoked the Lord to anger. ...as the Lord
had sworn to them. He
greatly distressed them.
Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges and the Lord saved them from the
hand of those who plundered them” (Jdgs. 2:11,12,15,16).
The Judges who delivered ancient Israel were types of the
Incarnate Lord. God the Word came
in Person, responding to the cry of all mankind. Saint Nikolai of Zica
asks, “Who is more utterly a captive than he who is bound by sin? Is there a greater darkness than the
darkness of sin, death, and hell?
Who can loose from sin? The One God.”
God descended fully into the darkness of sin, death, and hell, and freed
the souls of the righteous by His glorious Resurrection: “...behold, now
is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). Shall we not respond to Him?!
Next, Saint Paul
states the case for himself and for all the Apostles (vss. 3-10): “We
give no offense in anything.... But
in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God...” (vss. 3,4). As God has
extended salvation to us, so also have His servants, the Apostles, fully
proclaimed God’s “day of salvation” to us. They held nothing back. The Apostle Paul summarizes their
sacrifice for us, the impetus in their hearts that caused them to reach out,
and the blessings they knew in their own lives. They entreat us to realize the blessings
for ourselves.
Faithful to the truth, the Apostles endured afflictions and
calamities. They were beaten (Acts
5:40). They were imprisoned (Acts
16:19-40). They barely survived
riots (Acts 14:19). They traveled
on foot over the entire Eastern end of the Mediterranean, on to Italy and even
beyond. They founded, taught,
prayed, and worked with congregations everywhere they went, going without food
and fasting in seasons when sustenance was plentiful. They gave their all.
The Apostles spoke God’s truth from first-hand
knowledge (2 Cor. 6:6), and their hearts were pure (Gal. 1:20). They were patient (Gal. 6:4). They submitted themselves exclusively to
the direction of the Holy Spirit (Acts 15:28). They were men of love (Phil. 1:8),
filled with the power of God (Acts 3:1-7).
Because of their commitment to the Lord Jesus’ commands, they
embraced poverty, “...as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing
and yet possessing all things” (2 Cor. 6:10). How rich a treasure they hold out! Now these men are appealing to you and
me: “...our heart is wide open” (2 Cor. 6:11). How then will it be with us?
Show me as the abode of Thy Spirit only, and in nowise as
the abode of sin.
Return to the
September Calendar