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Paul approving himself as God's witness; God's power in a vessel of weakness
Paul had said that God exhorted by his means. In 2 Corinthians 6
the affection of the apostle carries on by the Spirit this divine
work, beseeching the Corinthians that it might not be in vain in
their case that this grace had been brought to them. For it was the
acceptable time, the day of salvation.* The apostle had spoken of
the great principles of his ministry, and of its origin. He reminds
the Corinthians of the way in which he had exercised it in the
varied circumstances through which he had been led. The cardinal
point of his service is that he was the minister of God, that he
represented Him in his service. This rendered two things needful:
first, that he should be in all things without reproach; and then
that he should maintain this character of God's minister, and the
exercise of his ministry, through all the opposition, and in all
the circumstances through which the enmity of man's heart, and the
cunning even of Satan, could make him pass. Everywhere and in all
things he avoided, by his conduct, all real occasion of being
reproached, in order that no one should have room to blame the
ministry. He approved himself in all things as a minister of God,
worthily representing Him in whose name he spoke to men; and that
with a patience, and in the midst of persecution and contradiction
of sinners, which showed an inward energy, a sense of obligation to
God, and a dependence on Him, which the realisation of His presence
and of our duty to Him can alone maintain. It was a quality which
reigned through all the circumstances of which the apostle speaks,
and had dominion over them. Thus he showed himself to be the minister of God in everything which could test him; in pureness, in kindness, in love; as a vessel of power; whether disgraced or applauded; unknown to the world, and known and eminent; outwardly trodden under foot of man and chastened, inwardly victorious and joyful, enriching others, and in possession of all things. Here ends his description of the sources, the character, the victory over circumstances, of a ministry which displayed the power of God in a vessel of weakness, whose best portion was death. The Corinthians exhorted to maintain their God-given place of new creaturesThe restoration of the Corinthians to a moral state befitting the gospel, associated with the circumstances through which he had just been passing, had allowed him to open his heart to them. Pre-occupied till now with his subject of the glorious Christ, who, having accomplished redemption, sent him as the messenger of the grace to which that redemption had given free course, and having spoken with a free heart of all that was comprised in his ministry, he returns with affection to his beloved Corinthians, showing that it was with them that he had all this openness, this enlargement of heart. "My mouth is open unto you, O Corinthians," he says, "my heart is enlarged; ye are not straitened in me, but in your own affections." As a recompense for the affections that overflowed from his heart towards them, he only asks for the enlargement of their own hearts.
He spoke as to his children. But he avails himself of this
tender relationship to exhort the Corinthians to maintain the place
in which God had set them: "Be not in the same yoke with
unbelievers." Having a hold upon their affections, and rejoicing
deeply before God in the grace which had restored them to right
sentiments, his heart is free to give way, as though beside
himself, to the joy that belonged to him in Christ glorified: and,
with a sober mind after all when his dear children in the faith
were in question,* he seeks to detach them from all that recognised
the flesh, or implied that a relationship which recognised it were
possible for a Christian — from everything that denied the
position of a man who has his life and his interests in the new
creation, of which Christ is the Head in glory. An angel can serve
God in this world: little would it concern him in what way,
provided that way was God's; but to associate himself with its
interests, as forming a part of it, to ally himself with those who
are governed by the motives that influence the men of this world,
so that a common conduct would show that the one and the other
acted according to the principles that form its character, would
be, to those heavenly beings, to lose their position and their
character. The Christian, whose portion is the glory of Christ — who has his world, his life, his true associations, there where
Christ has entered in — should not either; nor can he, as a
Christian, put himself under the same yoke with those who can have
only worldly motives, to draw the chariot of life in a path common
to both. Separation: coming out from among the worldly to enter into the relationship of sons and daughters to God as a Father and be so owned of HimWhat communion is there between Christ and Belial; between light and darkness; faith and unbelief; the temple of God and idols? Christians are the temple of the living God who dwells and walks among them. He is a God to them; they are a people to Him. Therefore must they come out from all fellowship with the worldly, and be separate from them. As Christians, they must stand apart, for they are the temple of God. God dwells among them and walks there, and He is their God. They are therefore to come out from the world and be separate, and God will own them, and will be to them in relationship of a Father with sons and daughters who are dear to Him.
This, observe, is the special relationship which God assumes
with us. The two preceding revelations of God with men are named
here, and He takes a third. To Abraham He revealed Himself as
Almighty; to Israel as Jehovah or Lord. Here the Lord Almighty
declares that He will be a Father to His own, to His sons and
daughters. We come out from among the worldly, for it is just that
(not physically out of the world, but while in it), in order to
enter into the relationship of sons and daughters to the Almighty
God: otherwise we cannot practically realise this relationship. God
will not have worldlings in relation with Himself as sons and
daughters; they have not entered into this position with regard to
Him. Nor will He recognise those who remain identified with the
world, as having this position; for the world has rejected His Son,
and the friendship of the world is enmity against God: and he who
is the friend of the world is the enemy of God. It is not being His
child in a practical sense. God says therefore, "Come out from
among them, and be separate, and ye shall be to me for sons and
daughters." Remember that it is not a question of coming out of the
world — it is while we are in it — but of coming out from among
the worldly, to enter into the relationship of sons and daughters,
in order to be to Him for sons and daughters, to be owned of Him in
this relationship.* |
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