《The Biblical Illustrator – 2 Corinthians (Ch.6~11)》(A Compilation)
06 Chapter 6
Verses 1-13
Verse 1
2 Corinthians 6:1
We then, as workers together with Him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain
Workers together
Once when a number of employees were invited down to Mr.
George Moore’s country house, Mrs. Moore, going out one morning, met a venerable man standing and staring about him with astonishment at the gardens and buildings. “Are you looking for somebody?” asked Mrs. Moore. “No,” said he, “I am just looking round about, and thinking what a fine place it is, and how we helped to make it; I have really a great pride in it.” Then, with tears in his eyes, he told how he was the first porter for the firm forty years ago, and how they had all worked hard together. (H. O. Mackey.)
The preaching and reception of the Gospel
Consider--
I. The admonishers.
1. Not loiterers, but labourers; therefore they are often compared to husbandmen, builders, soldiers, and fishermen. They who imagine that the ministry of the gospel is an easy work are greatly mistaken.
2. “Workers together.”
II. The subject of their address.
1. What are we to understand by “the grace of God”?
2. The gospel is received in vain when it is received--
III. The reasons of their anxiety and earnestness. They “beseech you.”
1. They apprehend the event which very commonly follows. In all ages God’s servants have been compelled to complain, “Who hath believed our report?” Four soils received the very same seed. Only one of the four yields anything to the purpose.
2. They dread the event as deplorable. They are affected by the thought of it--
Receive not the grace of God in vain
I. What this grace of God is. In the language of the schools it is anxilium speciale, “that special and immediate furtherance” by which God moves us to will and to do. And this is that which St. Paul mentioneth (1 Corinthians 15:10-11). But this is not the grace meant in the text, which is “the grace of” reconciliation by Christ, the doctrine of “the gospel,” which Christ commanded to be “preached to all nations.”
II. And what is a gift, if it be not received? Like a meal on a dead man’s grave, like light to the blind, like music to the deaf. What is the grace of God without faith? The receiving of it is that which makes it a grace indeed--gospel. We usually compare faith to a hand, which is reached forth to receive this gift. Without a hand a jewel is a trifle, and the treasure of both the Indies is nothing; and without faith the gospel is nothing. Without this receipt all other receipts are not worth the casting up. Our understanding receives light, to mislead her; our will, power, to overthrow her; our affections, which are “incorporeal hands,” receive nothing but vanity. Our moral goodness makes us not good: our philosophy is deceit. Our habits lift us no further than the place where they grow. But with this gift we receive all things: we receive the favour of our Creator, who in Christ is well pleased.
III. This grace may be received in vain. The philosopher will tell us: “All is not in the gift; the greatest matter is in the manner of receiving it.” The gospel is grace indeed; but it will not save a devil, nor an obstinate offender. Seneca tells us: “A foul stomach corrupts all that it receives, and turns that meat, which should nourish the body, into a disease”; and a corrupt heart poisons the very water of life. The grand mistake of the world is in the manner of receiving Christ. “To one it is the savour of life unto life; and to others the savour of death unto death” (2 Corinthians 2:16). Great care then must be taken that we may not receive it in vain. We must receive it to that end it was given. We must receive it as law as well as physic. God gives us this gift, that we may give Him our obedience; and He hath done this for us, that we may do something, even “work out our salvation with fear and trembling.” This grace, then, we must receive both to save us and instruct us; as a royal pardon, and as a “royal law” (James 2:8). To interline the pardon, and despise the law, makes a nullity: and this is “to receive in vain.”
1. A pardon we must not interline. For to blend it with the law of works, or our own merits, is to make it void (Galatians 2:21; Ephesians 2:8-9). Works, though they be a condition required of a justified person, yet cannot be brought in as a part or helping cause of our justification.
2. It is equally vain when we receive the grace of God only as a pardon, and not as a law. It is our happiness by grace to be freed from the covenant and curse of the law; but it is our duty, and a great part of our Christianity, to square our lives by the rule of the law. Therefore religion was called in her purer times “The Christian law.” (A. Farindon, B. D.)
Receiving the grace of God in vain
I. This takes place when it is not used at all--when the great salvation is neglected (2 Corinthians 6:2). In vain is it here, within the sphere of our knowledge and the grasp of our faith, if it be simply ignored. Here is gold in a casket or bag, and I am poor, and yet I will not unloose the strings or open the casket. Of what avail to me is that locked-up wealth? Here is seed-corn, and I have fields where it might be sown, yet I will not sow it. Of what avail to me is the seed, or the soil, the sun, or the shower? I am going on a journey through an unknown country, and here is a guide-book, yet I never open it, but go wandering on. That guide-book is as utterly “in vain” to me as if it were in the depths of the ocean. “Ah yes,” you say, “but the grace of God is not so definite, so available, as the money,” etc. Yes it is. It shines out in the light of every Sabbath day; it is the keynote of every true sermon; it is in every providence, whether dark or bright; it is everywhere, and always abundant, sufficient, and free. It is sad that many will not be persuaded of this. When the sleeping mind begins to awake; when the dull heart begins to feel, and the glad discovery breaks on the soul that all this is a present and sure gift of eternal love, then begins the actual reception of the manifold blessings of the gospel; but until then “the grace of God,” with all its riches which we proclaim and set forth as common property, and free alike to all, is “in vain.”
II. A thing is received in vain if it is perverted and turned to some alien use.
1. It may be made a cloak for sin. The danger is that we magnify God’s grace and slur over the evils of our own hearts.
2. It may be made a tent for indolence. Somehow we get the comfortable conviction that what has to be done in and by us will be done soon or late, and that we shall have full entrance at length into perfect purity and eternal life.
3. It may be made the signal for perpetual controversy. We are glad of controversy, in proper spirit and measure--it braces the soul; it clears the air; it defends and instrumentally perpetuates the truth among men. But there is hardly anything which runs more easily to excess, and becomes a perversion, and no longer a defence of the grace of God. The grace of God is gracious; and in its prevailing influence ought to lead us into gracious ways, and words, and dispositions.
III. It is received almost in vain if it is used very little and very imperfectly. This is the case with many Christian people. The plough is taken to the field, but does not plough the whole day; or it ploughs one little field, and leaves all the rest fallow. The seed-corn is cast in only in patches, and some of these but thinly sown. Here is a great world of grace brought down to us, waiting for us, and we may have as much or as little as we will. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
The grace of God received in vain
This is to be understood as--
I. The gospel of His grace (Titus 2:11), or “the word of His grace” (Acts 20:32; Acts 14:3), termed the grace of God, because it proceeds from that grace (Luke 1:78-79), displays it, and is the instrument whereby we receive it and its fruits.
II. Redeeming grace.
III. Enlightening grace.
IV. Justifying grace.
V. Regenerating and renewing grace.
VI. Strengthening and qualifying grace (2 Timothy 2:1).
VII. Comforting grace, which is given that we may be supported amidst all our trials; but in vain, if we are still cast down and decline from God: and that we may comfort others (2 Corinthians 1:3-6), but in vain, if this end be not answered. (J. Benson.)
Grace received in vain
Note--
I. How the grace of God has been manifested in revealing unto man the whole course of this method of salvation. This is seen--
1. In the fact that the great God Himself speaks to men. It is grace that He should have anything to do with us. Why did He not, since we put out the light, leave man to grope his way in the dark? What a wonder that God should speak in this way to sinners.
2. In the suitability of the gospel to those to whom it is sent. Here we are vile; there is mercy for the vilest. How beautifully this suits the case of men!
3. In the way God has revealed His holy truth.
4. The revelation which God makes of Himself. Suppose you are standing over against some palace, and it is near midnight, and the gates are opened. Forth from that palace gates there comes a procession. The prince has come forth attended by many of his train. He has not gone far, however, before you hear that the prince has dropped a beautiful gem. He is anxious about that gem, not simply for its intrinsic value, but it was the gift of one he loved, and he calls for lights. Now, the light which falls on the road where that gem is lying goes up also into the face of the prince, and while he finds his gem you see him as you never would have seen him but for that loss. Now, it is like that with the revelation of God. When God came forth from the shrouding darkness that had been about Him in His own eternity, to the salvation of men, there was light which, while it was thrown on the poor, lost sinner that he might be found, was thrown upon the face of God, who came to seek him and to save him.
II. When may we be said to receive the grace of God in vain? When men--
1. Do not believe it. Suppose that during the time of that Indian revolt I had been sent by Her Majesty with a commission--say to the Nana Sahib, and I had been told to proclaim to him that if the rebels would come and yield themselves up entirely to her mercy, she would entirely forgive them. But suppose that that fierce ringleader had said to me, “Ah, if they can only just get hold of me, I know what mercy they will give me; I know it is too far gone for that.” Well now, he has to surrender in three months, or the law is to take its course. The time passes, and the man is captured, and he is brought to the gallows. Now, whose fault is that? You see he received the Queen’s grace in vain. Now, it is like that when I come and tell you of God’s readiness to pardon, and you won’t believe it. You might as well expect a man to be fed by bread that he will not eat as expect a man to be saved by a gospel that he will not believe.
2. Despise it. Yonder there are a number of suffering poor, and of course some are of a very independent spirit. Now suppose I go to some pale, haggard man, and say to him, “Here is a ticket for you; if you will apply at yonder office you will get the relief you need,” and the man says, “Sir, what right have you to talk to me as if I were a pauper? what right have you to suppose I want any man’s charity?” That poor man is too proud to take help, and to-morrow he is dead on his cottage floor for want of food. Now, whose fault is that? He despises the grace that was offered! That is just how it is with many sinners. They will not have God’s salvation because they cannot buy it. If they could take their little petty, paltry doings, and buy it with their deeds, they would have it. If they could go and purchase it, they would have it; but because they must have it as a gift they despise it.
3. Neglect it. Now suppose that there had been during the time of the great fire at Moscow some miserly wretch up at the top storey of some tall house. There is great trouble in the town, but all he cares about is his gold bags. The alarm bells are ringing in all directions, and everybody is trying to escape; but that old man never listens to the alarm bells, and while he is counting his cash the fire is creeping up the stairs from chamber to chamber till at last it is burning the very joists of the floor on which he stands. You see he neglected the alarm. That is very like the worldling. We go and tell him of danger and salvation. You know if you go and stand by a blacksmith’s smithy and you talk to him, he is so busy with the sound of his hammers that he can’t hear what you say, and he keeps on hammering in spite of all your remarks, and does not hear a word. So it is with the busy worldling. Busy with the din of their worldliness, they never seem to hear the message. They neglect the great salvation. They do not deny it, but they just leave it alone. Now if you neglect this great salvation you will perish. (S. Coley.)
Grace received in vain
I. The meaning of the apostle’s caution.
1. What is meant here by grace? Sometimes it denotes the free and unmerited love of God in redemption (Titus 2:11). Sometimes the gospel generally (John 1:17). Sometimes all the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 12:9). But in the text the word includes not only all the overtures of grace which God has made, but all those ministries by which those overtures may be most easily accepted.
2. Now such is the perverseness of man’s will that all these means and ministries may be offered to him to no purpose. The injured Father of our spirits may stretch out His hand, and find there is none to regard it.