2 Corinthians 6:1-5 – Don’t Receive The Grace Of God In Vain

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 28 December 2025
Underlined words in Scripture quotes indicate words that are in common with the Greek text of the sermon passage. Otherwise, underlining indicates words to emphasize when reading this transcript out loud.
Omitting greyed-out text should reduce read-aloud time to about 40 minutes.

Introduction

• Read my translation of the passage, starting at 2 Corinthians 5:20
  20 Therefore we serve as senior-ambassadors on behalf of the Anointed One: as God exhorts through us, we are pleading on behalf of the Anointed One, “Be reconciled to God!” For He made the One who did not know sin to be sin on our behalf, in order that, as for us, we might become God’s righteousness by means of Him. 6:1 So, as we work together, we also exhort that it not be in vain that that you receive for yourselves the grace of God, for He says, “At the favored time I heeded you, and on the day of salvation I rescued you.” Look, now is the time of welcoming. Look, now is the “day of salvation.” And we are giving not a single offense, not even in one way, so that our ministry might not be made defective, but rather, in everything, as ministers of God, recommending ourselves in much perseverance, in stresses, in forced circumstances, in restrictions, in wounds, in imprisonments, in upheavals, in labours, in night-watches, in fastings...

• I have been praying for God to bring spiritual awakening to our nation for over 40 years. We talk about revival and our hopes for God to bring change to our nation, but do we understand what it takes for this to happen? In this passage, Paul and Timothy introduce us to three conditions for the Gospel to spread. First is that the people of God need to keep trusting in Jesus and to keep believing that God is saving people throughout the world, second is that the people of God must be careful not to trip up non-Christians with offensive things, and third, the people of God must persevere and serve the kingdom of God in the context of really hard circumstances. Are you willing to count the cost of revival? Let’s dig into it!

v. 1 Don’t Receive The Grace of God In Vain

• The “working-together” in verse 1 is the same word Paul used to describe His church pastoring in

  • 1 Corinthians 1:9 “...we are God's co-workers. You are God's field…” (NAW)

  • and 2 Corinthians 1:24 “...we are co-workers of your joy, for it is by faith that y'all have been standing.” (NAW)

• The “beseeching/appealing/exhorting” in verse 1 is the same word that is used of God in chapter 5 verse 20, “as God exhorts through us, we are pleading on behalf of the Anointed One, ‘Be reconciled to God!’” (NAW)

• So this is describing Paul’s work as a pastor in Corinth to be Christ’s ambassador, for God to call people through Paul’s preaching of the Gospel to be reconciled to Himself. Those who respond with trust in Jesus to make them right with God receive the Gospel message and receive the righteousness of Christ so that they “are the righteousness of God.”

• But what happens afterward is what Paul is concerned about now. Was the faith of the converts in Corinth¹ just a flash in the pan? Will they be the seed that is snatched up by the Devil or choked out by the cares of the world, or will they grow up to be healthy plants that produce 30 – 60 – 100-fold? (Matt. 13:23) Will they forget about Paul and his message now that there is a new apostolic bandwagon in town that seems much more prestigious? Will they receive the grace of God in vain²? Was it just a hollow, empty commitment with no reality or sticking-power?

• The only other passage in the Bible that comes close to this is 1 Corinthians 15:1 & 10, where Paul wrote, “Now, I am making known to you, brothers, the gospel: which I preached to you, which also you received³, in which also you have been standing, through which also you are being saved, if you hold fast in the particular word I preached to you; otherwise you believed vainly⁴… by God's grace, I am what I am, and His grace which [came] into me did not become void[vain], but rather I toiled harder than all of them (yet not I, but the grace of God which is with me).” (NAW)

• “The gospel is a word of grace sounding in our ears; but it will be in vain for us to hear it, unless we believe it, and comply with the end and design of it.” ~Matthew Henry, 1714 AD

• The way that the Corinthians seem to be in danger of faulting-out on the true faith seems to be related to the same danger Paul highlighted in Galatians 2:21 “I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain⁵.” (NKJV) If they stop trusting Jesus to reconcile them to God and go over to Judaism with its system of trying to get right with God by doing good things, then that is an abandonment of the grace of God and of Christ’s atoning death. The two religions are mutually exclusive.

• “They must see to it that they receive the grace of God as grace, and not as legalism or license, or that day will find them barren of the righteousness which is the fruit of a living union with Christ.” ~Geoffrey Wilson, 1979 AD

• Not only do the Christians in Corinth need to keep trusting Jesus and not let it be in vain; they also need to keep in mind that...

v. 2 Now is the day of salvation

• This is an exact quote from the Greek Septuagint of Isaiah 49, in which the LORD tells Israel that He will send His Messiah to answer them, save them, free them from captivity, illumine their darkness, and re-establish them in covenant with Himself. Isaiah 49:8 “Thus saith the Lord, ‘In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I succored thee: and I have formed thee, and given thee for a covenant of the nations, to establish the earth, and to cause to inherit the desert heritages, That You may say to the prisoners, “Go forth”…’” (Brenton’s translation of the Septuagint)

• It’s the only other place where the phrase “day of salvation” occurs in the Greek Bible.

• Parallel to the phrase “day of salvation” is the phrase “acceptable/favorable,” modifying “kairos/time.” The first time the phrase “favored time” occurs in verse 2, Paul and Timothy write a Greek adjective which is used:

  • in the Greek translation of the Pentateuch to denote items which could be sacrificed to God as “acceptable” to Him

  • and in the Old Testament wisdom books to denote the kind of wise character and actions which God finds “acceptable.”

  • In Acts 10:35, Peter picked up on that and told the household of the Roman centurion that “in every nation whoever fears [God] and works righteousness is accepted by Him.” (NKJV)

  • Isaiah 58:5 also mentions a “day of acceptance for Yahweh” in the context of a holiday on which God’s people had arranged to offer sacrifices in the temple to be renewed in being acceptable to God.

  • And in Luke 4:16-21, Jesus said that Isaiah 61’s prophecy of the servant of Yahweh who is anointed with the Holy Spirit to preach good news, set captives free, and “proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD,” was “fulfilled” by Himself.

• The second time that we see that phrase “accepted/favored time” in 2 Corinthians 6:2, it is actually a different (and more intense) Greek adjective from the first one, but has a similar meaning: “time of welcome/favor/acceptance.”

  • That adjective shows up in 1 Peter 4:5 where it says that when you draw near to Jesus, “you also... are being built into a spiritual household, into a holy priesthood in order to offer up acceptable spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.” (NAW)

  • and in Romans 15:16, where Paul says that he is “...ministering the gospel of God [to the Gentiles], that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.” (NKJV)

  • This “acceptable/favorable time” is the time at which God wanted to enact His plan of salvation.⁶

  • This sounded odd to me at first, until it occurred to me that all of God actions have to be chosen according to what He wants because He is never compelled by time pressures, such as deadlines or crises.

    • Can you imagine what it must be like for God to be outside of time, where things are always what they are, and no events ever happen to change the way anything is, and there never is any hurry or necessity – nothing but completely free choices,

    • and then to invent time and put us inside time, and how fun it must be for Him to think of things to reveal at particular points in our time-space continuum and watch how amazed or relieved we are at those particular points⁷.

    • He always intervenes, not because because He was forced to by circumstances, but merely because He wanted to at that time. Yet even so, what He favors as “acceptable time” is rooted in His loving care for us, and that never changes.

• Paul is saying, along with Jesus, “Look, the Messiah has come, so now is the time that God is heeding and responding to all our needs with help/rescue.”

  • Hebrews 2:18 “for He Himself has suffered, having been tested; by such means He is able to come to the rescue with those who are being tempted.” (NAW)

  • Psalm 28:7 “The Lord is my helper and my defender; my heart has hoped in him, and I am helped: my flesh has revived, and willingly will I give praise to him.” (Brenton)

  • Psalm 37:39-40 “But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord; and he is their defend­er in the time of affliction. And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them: and he shall rescue them from sinners, and save them, because they have hoped in him.” (Brenton)

  • Psalm 54:4 “God is my helper…”

  • Psalm 119:117 “Help me, and I shall be saved; and I will meditate in thine ordinances continually.” (Brenton)

• And, of course, if now is the time that God is doing this, then it’s high time to jump on God’s bandwagon:

  • If you’re not a Christian, now is the time to be reconciled to God by trusting Jesus to save you.

    • “[T]here is need of prompt expedition, that we may not allow the opportunity to pass unimproved, inasmuch as it displeases God, that the grace that he offers to us should be received by us with coolness and indifference.” ~John Calvin, 1546 AD

  • And if you are a Christian, now is the time to be encouraging other people to be reconciled to God, because that’s what God is doing right now; the time is ripe!

    • “Let us therefore not let slip the favorable opportunity but display a zeal worthy of the grace. For therefore is it that we also press forward, knowing both the shortness and the suitableness of the time… He calls it ‘acceptable,’ because He both accepted those that had transgressed in ten thousand things, and not acceded merely, but advanced them to the highest honor...” ~John Chrysostom, c. 400 AD

• So that’s the first step in a spiritual breakthrough is that God’s people need to keep trusting Christ and need to believe that Christ is about the business of saving people here and now. The second step, in v.3, is that God’s people need to make sure there are no stumbling blocks to trip up those who are coming to faith in Jesus.

v. 3 We give no cause for offense…

• Barbara Robinson's 1972 novel The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (and the movie made out of it in 2024) give a comical, but insightful window into this problem. For those of you not familiar with the story, the setting is an established church community whose cast for the annual Christmas pageant is unexpectedly filled up with a family of un-churched children. The prim and proper church folk start doing all kind of offensive things to drive the non-Christian children away, like giving them intimidating stares, falsely accusing them of wrongdoing, gossiping about them, and trying to force them out of their roles of Mary and Joseph and the Wise Men and the Angel Gabriel in the pageant. Eventually the church members succeed in offending the non-Christian kids so badly that the non-Christian family decides to abandon the Christmas pageant and give up on trying to associate with that church. However, there are a few people in the church who understand what God is doing to draw those non-Christians to Himself through their experience with the church, and so they begin to work at removing the stumbling blocks and rebuilding faith and trust, and God honors their desire to align them­selves with His purpose of reconciling those non-Christians to Himself.

  • This gives us pause to ask, “Is there anything in my life – in the way I conduct myself at work, at home, and around town that might offend anyone in any way - that would be at cross-purposes with God’s work of reconciling people to Himself? Is there anything I need to change in the way I live my life to align myself more with what God’s word says He is doing in this world?

  • If a non-Christian lets on that they are feeling bad about something they have done, do you have enough freedom from sin to be able to say with integrity that God can save them from bondage to sin and transform them too? Are you confident enough in God’s forgiving grace that you can extend grace and forgive them or be patient with them as they struggle with sinful habits?

  • If a non-Christian walked into church, would anybody befriend them and try to remove the stumbling blocks for them?

  • Sure, there is a sense in which, if God is set on saving somebody, He will do it, even if we bungle things and get in the way of what He wants to do. God is still sovereign.

  • But, out of respect and love for God, we shouldn’t be stepping on His toes, as it were, and getting in the way of His revealed agenda of saving the world. Sure, we’ll fall prey to bad attitudes and sin from time to time, but we shouldn’t want to, and we should strive for a level of maturity where our sins aren’t so big and obvious that they are keeping people from wanting to follow Jesus.

• In the second half of v.3, Paul and Timothy explain why they don’t want to trip anybody up: “...so that our ministry might not be defective/discredited/found fault with/reproached.”

  • The root of this Greek verb is μωμη, which is used in the Greek Old Testament to denote a deformity or blemish on an animal which would disqualify that animal from being an acceptable sacrifice to God. (This ties in to the concept of “acceptability” before God that came up in the previous verse.)

  • Most English versions translate the verb form here in v.3 in terms of other people finding fault with the ministry of Timothy and Paul⁸, and that may be included in the meaning, but I think the primary issue for the apostles was to be blameless before God and to offer service with which God would be pleased.

• So we need to keep trusting Christ, believe that now is the day of salvation, we need to give give no cause for offense, and finally, we need to...

vs. 4-5 Serve God In Hardships

• A lot of English versions translate the Greek word διακονία at the end of verse 3 as “minis­try” but then translate the same root word διάκονοι in verse 4 as “servants,” and, while dea­con does indeed mean “servant,” it is referring to the same “service” of Gospel “ministry” that verse 3 was describing.

• The beginning of v. 4 declares that the way they prove that they are God’s ministers serving in this ministry of reconciling people to God is by doing it when the going gets rough.

• “Commending/endorsing”

  • is the same word we saw at the beginning of chapter 3 describing letters of endorsement,

  • and again in 4:2 (“...we renounced the shameful secrets, not walking in craftiness or misleading with the word of God, but rather using the revelation of the truth, endorsing ourselves to every person's conscience in the sight of God.”)

  • and it occurs half a dozen more times in 2 Corinthians.

• The way the grammar works in this passage, the prepositional phrase at the beginning of verse 4 translated, “in everything/in all things/in every way” is unpacked into a list

  • of 10 difficult things in verses 4-5 that Paul and Timothy endured

  • and 10 good things in verses 6-8 that the apostles experienced.

  • In Greek (even if they aren’t all carried over into English) each of the 20 points on this list is prefaced by the same preposition-word for “in” that we find at the beginning of verse 4 “in everything.”

  • I will only be surveying the 10 bad circumstances in verses 4-5 at this time. (I plan to survey the way the apostles commend themselves as servants of God in the 10 good circumstances in the next sermon.)

• So, what are the negative circumstances in which Paul & Timothy ministered as servants of God?

1. ὑπομονῇ/in patience/endurance/perseverance⁹

• “Patience is the regulation of the mind in adversity…” ~J. Calvin

• Luke 21:16-19 Jesus said, “You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But not a hair of your head shall be lost. By your patience[endurance/hupomone] possess your souls.” (NKJV)

• 2 Corinthians 1:6 “So, whether we are distressed for the sake of y'all's comfort and salvation, or whether we are comforted on account of y'all's comfort (and salvation), the exertion is in the enduring of the same sufferings which also we are suffering.” (NKJV)

• Hebrews 10:32-37 “...keep remembering the earlier days (after y'all were enlight­ened), in which y'all endured much strife of sufferings... Therefore, don't y'all throw away your open-access which has [such] a great payoff, for y'all have need of endur­ance in order that, after y'all have done the will of God, y'all may obtain what was promised. For, it will be ‘just a little while yet... the One who is coming will arrive’ …” (NAW, cf. 12:1, James 1:1-4)

• Such patience was necessary to endure the following nine hardships:

1. θλίψεσιν/in afflictions/tribulations/troubles/stresses¹⁰

• Matthew 24:9-14 Jesus said: “they will put y'all under pressure, and they will kill you, and you will be hated by all of the nations on account of my name…. But the one who has persevered into the end, this one will be saved. And this good news of the kingdom will be announced in the whole of the world for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will arrive.” (NAW)

• Paul indeed experienced afflictions: Acts 14:19-22 “Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there; and having per­suaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. However, when the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and went into the city. And the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.’” (NKJV)

• 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 “May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus the Anointed One be blessed! He is the father of mercies and the God of all comfort - the One Who comforts us in all our stress in order for us to be empowered to comfort those in any stress, by means of the comfort by which we ourselves are being comforted by God … 4:16-17 Therefore we do not fault-out... for the lightness of our stress currently fashions an eternal weight of glory in us beyond measure to the extreme!” (NAW)

1. ἀνάγκαις/in necessities/needs/hardships¹¹

• The Greek word literally pictures someone’s arm being “bent up” – being strong-armed into something you would never have chosen to do, like forced slave labor or taking desperate risks because of dangerous circumstances.

• Jesus said that if a Roman soldier pressed you into duty to carry his backpack for a mile, offer to carry it for a second mile¹². What do you think Jesus would want you to chat about with that soldier as you walk that second mile?

• Luke 21:23 Jesus warned that in the last days “...there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people.” (NKJV) But with “great distress” comes great opportunity to share the Gospel!

• So Paul welcomes even this as an opportunity to carry out the ministry God gave Him: 2 Corinthians 12:10 “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak [when I am not the one in control of the situation], then I am strong.” (NKJV)

1. στενοχωρίαις/in restrictions/distresses/calamities¹³

• This Greek word is a compound of the roots στενο (meaning “narrow”) and χωρία (meaning “space” - as in “open country”).

• We encountered a form of it back in chapter 4 verse 8 when Paul and Timothy wrote that they felt stress, but the pressures did not squeeze them so badly as to leave them no room to breathe¹⁴. Here, the apostles say that even if they do encounter a hardship that great, they will still carry on the ministry of reconciliation in those circumstances!

• Later on, Paul would write in Romans 8:34-39 “...It is Christ who died, and further­more is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am per­suaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NKJV)

1. πληγαῖς/in wounds/stripes/beatings

• According to 2 Corinthians 11:23, this kind of thing happened an awful lot to Paul.

• We have an explicit example of it in Acts 14, when Paul was in the city of Philippi and cast a demon out of a fortune-teller. “But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them ... to the magistrates, and said, ‘These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.’ Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.” (Acts 14:19-25,NKJV) What do you suppose they were saying to the other prisoners?

• Moving into verse 5, Paul also says he conducted his ministry of reconciliation in...

1. φυλακαῖς/imprisonments (cf. 11:23)

• Jesus warned in Luke 21:12-13 that this would happen: “But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the syna­gogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name's sake. But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony.” (NKJV)

• The 12 disciples were imprisoned by the Jewish authorities for preaching about Jesus (Acts 5:19), and King Herod put Peter in prison again in Acts 12.

• Before his conversion, Paul imprisoned Jews for converting to Christianity (Acts 8:3), but, after he became a follower of Jesus, he himself was frequently imprisoned for his faith.

• Hebrews 11:36 speaks of many others imprisoned for living out their faith in Jesus.

• Jesus says to the church in Revelation 2:10 “Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (NKJV) What would it look like to be faithful in prison?

• I recommend reading some of the great modern biographies of Christians who have done just that:

  • Adoniram Judson was one of America’s first missionaries. He endured capture and torture by Buddhists in Burma, and there are several biographies on his life.

  • Corrie Ten Boom, endured a Nazi concentration camp in Germany, and published a book about it called The Hiding Place.

  • Richard Wurmbrand endured a communist prison in Romania and wrote Tortured For Christ.

  • and Brother Yun, has endured years of torture and imprisonment for his Christian faith in China and told about it in his book The Heavenly Man.

1. ἀκαταστασίαις/upheavals/tumults/riots

• Jesus said in Luke 21:9 that this would happen in the church age, and paired it with the word for “wars” - “But when you hear of wars and commotions[uprisings/insur­rections], do not be terrified; for these things must come to pass first…” (NKJV)

• Acts 19 tells of the time when Demetrius the silversmith set the whole city of Ephesus in an uproar¹⁵ with his opposition to Paul’s preaching and started a riot that got the city officials really nervous and resulted in Paul having to leave.

• It’s the opposite of “peace” in 1 Corinthians 14:33,¹⁶ and later on in 2 Corinthians 12:20, it is paired with “contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, backbitings, whisperings, and conceits…” (NKJV),

• and in James 3:16 with “jealousy and selfish-ambition¹⁷” – and that’s all the times this word is used in the Bible.

• Serving God’s interests will mean sharing the Gospel in the midst of political upheaval, chaotic circumstances, and broken relationships, but it’s in those times when the world is “shaken up” (Heb. 12:26) that people are often most open to hearing the gospel.

• “[T]wo things are required on the part of ministers of the Gospel — that they should endeavor to the utmost of their power to maintain peace, and yet on the other hand go forward, undaunted, through the midst of commotions, so as not to turn aside from the right course, though heaven and earth should be mingled.” ~J. Calvin

1. κόποις/labours/hard work (|| 11:23-27)

• In 1 Corinthians 3:6-8, Paul describes the planting of the church in Corinth as “labor”: “As for me, I planted; Apollos watered, but God was increasing... Now the planter and the waterer are unified, although each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.” (NAW)

• He also mentions “preaching the gospel” - while also working as a manufacturer of leather tents to support himself - as part of that labor in 1 Thessalonians 2:9 “For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil¹⁸; for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God.” (NKJV, cf. 3:5 and 2 Thess. 3:8)

• Then He exhorted the people in the churches he had planted to “labor” for the Lord themselves: 1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore my dear brothers, continue becoming steadfast, immoveable, abounding in the work¹⁹ of the Lord always, knowing that your labor is not empty in the Lord.” (NAW)

• He describes that labor in 1 Thessalonians 1:3 “...your work^* of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ…” (NKJV)

• Hebrews 6:10 adds “for God is not unrighteous so as to forget your labor and the love which y'all displayed in His name, y'all having ministered to - and continuing to minister to - the saints.” (NAW) So, serving other Christians by offering hospitality, protection, meals, and encouraging words is also part of the labor of ministry.

• Labor isn’t easy; it requires diligence and self-discipline, but God uses our hard work in His agenda to reconcile people to Himself.

1. ἀγρυπνίαις/night-watches/sleeplessness (|| 11:27)

• This Greek word is the word for “sleep” (hypnos) with an negative in front of it, so it literally means “not sleeping,” and it is plural.

• Jesus used this word to command His disciples to spend time praying instead of sleep­ing. The King James Bible translates it “watch” - Luke 21:36 “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy… and... stand before the Son of man.”

• So Paul practiced this discipline of praying at night, and he exhorted his disciples in Ephesus to do the same: Ephesians 6:18 “Praying always with all prayer and supplica­tion in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance²⁰ and supplication for all saints…” (KJV)

• and, in Hebrews 13:17, we see the same word applied to the practice of church leaders forfeiting sleep in order to pray for church members.²¹

• Prayer is an important component of the ministry of reconciliation. If God ever lays it on your mind to pray for somebody – even if it’s in the middle of the night, respond to His call and pray for them!

1. νηστείαις/fastings/hunger (||11:27)

• Although this could refer to being deprived of food due to poverty or oppression, fasting was also a spiritual discipline which Jesus taught should be normal between His ascension into heaven and His return²².

• It generally means to go without regular meals for a time in order to pray more during that time.

  • Anna fasted and prayed in the temple as she waited for the Messiah to come (Luke 2:37),

  • Cornelius fasted and prayed at home for a greater understanding of God (Acts 10),

  • and Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 7, that married couples might fast and pray at home too.

• The fastings which are specifically mentioned in the book of Acts concerning Paul have to do with prayer surrounding the ordination of church leaders.

  • Acts 13:1-3 tells us that the leaders of the church in Antioch, Syria fasted in the context of sending missionaries from their church: “...As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them…” (NKJV)

  • And Acts 14:23 tells us that, in every city where Paul and Barnabas planted a church on their first missionary journey, “...they... appointed elders in every church, and prayed with fasting, [and] they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”

• In 2 Corinthians 11:27, when Paul says he served the Lord “in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness” that sounds like he also faced situations where regular meals could not be depended-on during his travels and imprisonments. This was a hazard he faced in order to announce the gospel where it had never been heard before.

• This doesn’t mean we should be abusive to our physical bodies²³ which God designed to need good nutrition, but it does mean being willing to skip a meal now and then to let God use you to reconcile someone to Himself.

Conclusion

• In this passage, Paul and Timothy have introduced us to three conditions for the Gospel to spread.

1. First is that the people of God need to keep trusting in Jesus and to keep believing that God is saving people throughout the world,

2. second is that the people of God must be careful not to cause non-Christians to stumble over offensive things, and

3. third, the people of God must persevere and serve the kingdom of God in the context of whatever difficulties must be faced.

• Are you willing to do what it takes for spiritual renewal and gospel advance? Let’s do it!

2 Corinthians 6:1-5 – Comparison of Textual Traditions & Versions^A