2 Corinthians 6:2

6:1-10 The gospel is a word of grace sounding in our ears. The gospel day is a day of salvation, the means of grace the means of salvation, the offers of the gospel the offers of salvation, and the present time the proper time to accept these offers. The morrow is none of ours: we know not what will be on the morrow, nor where we shall be. We now enjoy a day of grace; then let all be careful not to neglect it. Ministers of the gospel should look upon themselves as God's servants, and act in every thing suitably to that character. The apostle did so, by much patience in afflictions, by acting from good principles, and by due temper and behaviour. Believers, in this world, need the grace of God, to arm them against temptations, so as to bear the good report of men without pride; and so as to bear their reproaches with patience. They have nothing in themselves, but possess all things in Christ. Of such differences is a Christian's life made up, and through such a variety of conditions and reports, is our way to heaven; and we should be careful in all things to approve ourselves to God. The gospel, when faithfully preached, and fully received, betters the condition even of the poorest. They save what before they riotously spent, and diligently employ their time to useful purposes. They save and gain by religion, and thus are made rich, both for the world to come and for this, when compared with their sinful, profligate state, before they received the gospel.

He saith, etc. From Isaiah 49:8, after Septuagint. The Hebrew is: "In the time of favor I answer thee, and in the day of salvation I succor thee." The words are addressed to the servant of Jehovah, promising to invest him with spiritual power, that he may be a light to Israel and to others. Paul, taking the words in their messianic sense, urges that now is the time when God thus dispenses His favor to Christ, and through Him to men. The application turns on the words acceptable time; a time in which God receives. As He receives, receive ye Him. The accepted time (καιρὸς εὐπρόσδεκτος) Rev., acceptable. Paul uses for the simple adjective of the Septuagint a compound "well-received," which is stronger, and which occurs mostly in his own writings. See Romans 15:16, Romans 15:31; 1 Peter 2:5; and compare acceptable year, Luke 4:19.

{2} (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.

For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: the words here quoted, are taken out of the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 49:8 , according to the Septuagint’s translation. Though some think, that the apostle here doth but accommodate to the spiritual salvation brought in by Christ, a temporal salvation mentioned, and primarily intended; yet the most and best interpreters rather judge that whole chapter in Isaiah to refer to Christ, and that the salvation there mentioned, is to be understood of the spiritual salvation of the gospel; of which also the apostle speaketh here, and maketh these words (as in the prophet) the words of God the Father to Christ his Son; testifying both his assistance of him in the accomplishment of the work of man’s redemption, and his acceptance of him; according to which sense, the accepted time is the same with what the apostle calls, the fulness of time, Galatians 4:4 ; (though it may also be so called in the same sense that the apostle calleth the gospel a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation, 1 Timothy 1:15 ) in which sense the gospel time was prophesied of as an acceptable time, Genesis 49:10 Haggai 1:8 . Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation; now is that accepted or acceptable time, now is that day of salvation, spoken of by the prophet; therefore you are concerned to receive this grace of the gospel, and to live up to the rule of it.

2 Corinthians 6:2 . Λέγει , He saith ) The Father to Messiah, Isaiah 49:8 , embracing in Him all believers.— γὰρ , for ) He is describing grace .— δεκτῷ , accepted ) the acceptable time of the good pleasure of God. Hence Paul presently after infers its correlative, εὐπρόσδεκτος , well-accepted , that it may be also agreeable to us.[33]— ἘΠΉΚΟΥΣΆ ΣΟΥ ) I have heard thee , viz. praying.— ἐν ἡμέρᾳ , in a day ) Luke 19:42 ; Hebrews 3:7 .— ἰδοὺ νῦν , behold now ) The summing up of the exhortation , 2 Corinthians 6:1 ; set before us in the way of a supposed dialogue.[34] [33] The present time is δεκτὸς to God: let it be also εὐπρόσδεκτος to us.—ED. [34] Or introduction of an imaginary speaker. See Append. on Sermocinatio.—ED.

2 Corinthians 6:2 . λέγει γὰρ , Καιρῷ δεκτῷ κ . τ . λ .: for He, sc. , God, saith ( cf. Romans 9:15 , Galatians 3:16 ), “ At an acceptable time I hearkene to thee, and in a day of salvation did I succour thee ” ( Isaiah 49:8 ). The whole verse is parenthetical, and is introduced to remind the Corinthians that the present dispensation is that dispensation of grace of which the prophet speaks; tanley pointed out that δέξασθαι of ver. may well have suggested δεκτός , which in its turn suggested the quotation. The words in their original context are addressed by Jehovah to His Servant, while St. Paul takes them as addressed by God to His people; but, inasmuch as the Servant in the latter portion of Isaiah is the Representative of Israel, the application made by the Apostle is easily explicable.— ἰδοὺ νῦν καιρὸς εὐπρόσδεκτος κ . τ . λ .: behold now is the “Acceptable Time,” behold now is the “Day of Salvation” . This is St. Paul’s comment. Observe that he does not say σήμερον ( cf. Hebrews 3:7 ff.), but νῦν —not “to-day,” but “the present dispensation”. His point here is not (as it is often represented) that the only day of grace which we can reckon on is the present (gravely true though this is), but that the Christian dispensation is the one spoken of by the O.T. prophet in familiar words. It will be remembered that Christ applied to Himself and His ministry in like manner the words of Isaiah 61:2 , καλέσαι ἐνιαυτὸν Κυρίου δεκτόν ( Luke 4:19 ).

Verse 2. - For he saith; that is, "God saith." The nominative is involved in the " fellow workers ," so that this is hardly to be classed with those rabbinic methods of citation found also in Philo, which deliberately omit the word "God" as the speaker, and use "He" by preference. I have heard thee, etc. The quotation is from the LXX. of Isaiah 49:8 , and is meant to express the necessity for receiving the grace of God, not only efficaciously, but at once. The "thee" in Isaiah is the Servant of Jehovah, the type primarily of Christ, and then of all who are "in Christ." In a time accepted; literally, in the Hebrew, in a time of favour . It is the season of grace, before grace has been wilfully rejected, and the time for judgment begins ( Proverbs 1:24-28 ). The accepted time; literally, the well-accepted opportunity . St. Paul in his earnestness strengthens the force of the adjective. The same word occurs in 2 Corinthians 8:12 ; Romans 15:16, 31 . "There is a deep nick in Time's restless wheelFor each man's good." ( Chapman. ) Now . No doubt St. Paul meant that, as long as life lasts, the door of repentance is never absolutely closed; but it is probable that he had specially in view the nearness of the advent of Christ. Compare the stress laid upon the word "today" in Hebrews 3:7, 8 , and "at least in this thy day" ( Luke 19:42 ). 2 Corinthians 6:2

2. For—God's own promise is the ground of our exhortation. he saith—God the Father saith to God the Son, and so to all believers who are regarded as one with Him. heard thee—In the eternal purposes of my love I have hearkened to thy prayer for the salvation of thy people (compare Joh 17:9, 15, 20, 24). accepted … accepted—The Greek of the latter is more emphatic, "well-accepted." What was "an accepted time" in the prophecy (Isa 49:8, Hebrew, "in the season of grace") becomes "the well-accepted time" in the fulfilment (compare Ps 69:13). As it is God's time of receiving sinners, receive ye His grace: accept (2Co 6:1) the word of reconciliation in His accepted time. in the day of salvation—"in a day of salvation" (Lu 4:18, 19, 21; 19:42; Heb 3:7).

2. For he saith ] In Isaiah 49:8 . The passage follows the LXX. translation. I have heard thee in a time accepted ] The words in the original refer to Christ. Here, however, they are applied to His Covenant people, united to Him by faith and the communication of His Nature, and therefore naturally entitled to expect the fulfilment of the promises made to Him. “We know,” says Calvin, “what is the relation between the Head and the members.” behold, now is the accepted time ] The word in the Greek is stronger than before; ‘the time of favourable acceptance.’ Our translation is due to Cranmer. Tyndale marks the distinction by translating accepted above, and well accepted in this place. The Vulgate renders by accepto and acceptabile . The life of the Christian is a continual acknowledgment in life and conduct of the ‘word of reconciliation’ he has received. The ‘time of favourable acceptance,’ therefore, the ‘day of salvation,’ is ever, not in the past, but in the present.

(2) I have heard thee in a time accepted . . . —Better, perhaps, acceptable. The meaning of the pronoun “He,” as referring to God, is determined by the preceding verse. The tense of the Greek is better expressed by, I heard thee . . . I succoured thee. As with other citations, it is a natural inference that St. Paul had the context, as well as the words actually cited, in his mind, and it is interesting, accordingly, to remember that context. The words ( Isaiah 49:8 ) are among those addressed at first to the servant of Jehovah, as “the light of the Gentiles;” then, apparently, in His name, as the Holy One, and in that of Jehovah, to Israel as a nation. In God’s dealings with His people through Christ the Apostle saw the true fulfilment of Isaiah’s words. Never, in spite of all outward calamities, had there been a time so acceptable, a day so full of deliverance. Behold, now is the accepted time . . .—The word for “accepted” is much stronger than in the previous clause. Entirely acceptable is, perhaps, its best equivalent. The solemnity of the words was, it may be, intensified in St. Paul’s thoughts by what seemed to him the nearness of the impending judgment. Opportunities, as we should say, were offered which might never again recur. But the prolonged experience of the longsuffering of God has given to the words a yet more profound significance. There is, so to speak, a “now” running through the ages.

For each church and nation, for each individual soul, there is a golden present which may never again recur, and in which lie boundless possibilities for the future. The words of the Apostle are, as it were, the transfigured expression of the generalisation of a wide experience which tells us that— “There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune: Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries.” —Shakespeare, Julius Cœsar, iv. 3.