“We have this ministry”
“God's fellow workers”
April 22, 2007 2 Corinthians 6:1-10
Introduction
As we come again to 2 Corinthians I am more and more aware of your indulgence as I check out my exegetical labors with you. Today we deal with the paragraph in Paul’s letter entitled “The Life of An Apostle,” in 6:1-10. From this text we can go on to ask, “What is it that most of all forms a disciple?”
An Apostolic Introduction, 1:1-11 The Apostolic Ministry, 1:12—7:16
Paul Reveals His Intentions, 1:12—2:17 Paul Characterizes His Ministry, 3:1—6:10 1. Thanksgiving for Triumph in Christ (2:14-17) A Ministry of the Spirit (3:1—4:6) 3. A Ministry of Suffering (4:7—5:10) 4. A Ministry of Reconciliation (5:11—6:10) a. The fear of the Lord and the love of Christ (5:11-15) b. The perspective of reconciliation (5:16-21) c. The life of an apostle (6:1-10) We remember that the first part of 2 Corinthians has to do with Paul’s defense of his apostolic ministry to the Corinthian Church. In the two previous lessons from 2 Corinthians we have been listening as Paul expands on his assertion that “we have this ministry” (4:1, see vv 1-6). In the paragraph for today we are completing Paul’s third characteristic of his ministry, that of reconciliation (5:11-6:10). We saw first that the selflessness of his motives is guaranteed by both the fear of the Lord and the love of Christ (5:11-15). Last time we examined his message as that of the reconciliation of God in Christ (5:16-21). Today Paul seeks to show how his manner of life as an apostle is consistent with his message (6:1-10). It follows that if we have received the message of reconciliation, then our lives as Christians, like Paul’s, flow from the nature of the message of reconciliation in Christ. As we see how it works out for him, we can expect that the Spirit of God will illumine and inspire our path as well. But first let us see where we have been in our journey through Paul’s exposition of “A Ministry of Reconciliation in 5:11—6:10, for the power of our more “horizontal” text cannot be known apart from the more “vertical” text that precedes it, To do this we begin with our “From the Text” section which normally comes last in our treatment of a delineated passage.
[From now on, except for bracked comments, we quote from the commentary text. We will give our attention to the larger type. The rest you can read at your leisure.] From the Text:
In the past several decades much has been said about the Christian ministry, its nature and its task. Extensive research, detailed how-to books, and high-powered seminars have penetrated the life and work of many a busy pastor. Models of the minister have been appealed to--Shepherd, Rancher, CEO, therapist, coach, among others. How do we define what the ministry is in a day like ours with its complicated demands? Where do we turn to find a model relevant, or better, sufficient for a postmodern world with its new age ethos? What most of all is to determine our model? Where do we look first? To the tastes of popular culture? To the demands of the market place? To the success techniques of the corporate world? To the role of the secular healing professions? To the modus operandi of the political world? To the managerial skills of winners in the world of sports? To the assured views of the academic elite? All these certainly have their value. But where do we find a model ultimately trustworthy for ministry and for the minister, a model that is fully in touch with the reality of a world defined by confrontation with the gospel of Christ?
As Paul continues the apologia or defense of his ministry as a ministry of reconciliation (5:11—6:10), he views it as one open always to the judgment of Christ (5:10). In that light he seeks to set forth the motive, the message, and the manner of his apostolic ministry. In the process he lifts up the one model of ministry, though often neglected and forgotten as such, that has served the Church well for over two millennia. As Paul seeks to understand correctly his own ministry he takes us to the very heart of the Christian ministry and indeed to what our every day lives are all about as Christians. Thus we can look into our text for (1) the motive of Christian life and service, (2) the message of Christian life and service, and (3) the manner of Christian life and service.
11Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
We start with Paul’s almost inexpressible articulation of the motive of Christian life and service (5:11-15). Paul knows “what it is to fear the Lord” as one whose motives are well known to God and he hopes to the consciences of the Corinthians. As he thus seeks “to persuade men,” Paul is drawn like a magnet directly to a more profound level of motivation: “Christ's love compels us.” An adequate motive for Christian life and service is simple and single, the love that Christ has for us: “Faith arises when God’s love is encountered at the Cross.”We are motivated by love, God’s love for us as revealed in the life and ministry of the son of God. When all is said and done, that is what makes us tick. We are controlled by Christ’s love for us, that is, the figure includes the images both of “kept from” and “held to”: Paul would say, “Christ’s love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and last word in everything I do” (The Message).
This means that we will often be misunderstood as to what drives our attitudes and conduct, considered perhaps a little weird or even insane. We can be perceived as “out of our mind” for God because “the world does not know us” (1 John 3:1; cf. John 15:18-19). Many cannot understand our spirit of forgiveness, our willingness to deny ourselves for others, and our giving of our time and talents to the scandalous institution called the Church—those crazy, misguided even dangerous evangelicals! But if our lives are motivated and controlled by God’s love for us in Christ “we are in our right mind” for others, for the needs of those around us, and for the kind of world in which we live.
How can such a life be—it hardly seems natural or even human! But it can be, for it is patterned after and enabled in a mystery as Paul attempts to give words as to why: “we are convinced.” What is this “Christ’s love” that we have put our faith in for life and eternity? It is twofold, not only that Christ died for all of us, but that when he died we also died. So first, Christ died “for all of us” as ones sharing in putting him on the cross, and “for all of us” as sinful and alienated from God. We are in desperate need of what Christ accomplished in his death. Second, not only did we “do him in” as he died “for us,” but also we are all dead with him. Human life itself has changed; we were all redefined by his death; the cross of Christ has become the fundamental criterion of who we are, whether we are with faith or apart from faith. With faith we are not only defined by his death but also by his resurrection from the dead, for as Paul put it, “he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” This is the Christian gospel in a nutshell. Our identification by faith with Christ in his death involves us inherently in his resurrection life. We are set free to live love-controlled lives because he lives (Rom 6:6-11; Gal 2:20; Phil 1:21; 2:5-18). It is not our doing for our lives are now grounded in the mystery of grace, in the cross and resurrection of Christ. In sum, “To live for Christ is to live like Christ” (Hafemann 2000, 241).
16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. With this Paul leads us forthrightly into the message of Christian life and service (5:12-21). As those who have been given “the ministry of reconciliation” our message is “the message of reconciliation.” What all does this involve? Again at the heart of it all is Christ “who had no sin,” whom God made “to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” This once for all event of the deed of God in Christ means first that we view everyone and all things, not “from a worldly point of view,” but from the perspective of Christ’s cross and resurrection. The old human or this world set of values has been turned upside down. To be guided by worldly distinctions is to know only a few people and that by what is superficial in their nature; but to see that all such distinctions died with Christ in his death, and to look at others in relation to Christ, is to know everyone, not merely on the surface, but more to the heart (Denney 1894, 768). Who and what Christ is now determines both who and what we are.
Involved second in this message of reconciliation is a new order of human existence, “a new creation” formed or “transformed” “in Christ.” We are new persons living as members of a new society on earth, the body of Christ (Rom 12:4-5), a humanity and a society that belongs to and partakes of the end time expectations of the whole of Scripture, God’s final purposes in Christ. This is the Church!
Third, as entrusted with the message of reconciliation God is actually making his appeal to the world through us for we are “Christ's ambassadors.” In virtue of our participation in the resurrection life of Christ, our lives as possessed by the Spirit of Christ, God is actually and continually talking to those around us in our world. Our “be reconciled to God” is at the same time God’s! This is inherent again, in who and what we are. For the preaching ministry this means that God discloses himself in the act of preaching, for “for revelation and proclamation partake of the same nature.” Or as P. T. Forsyth put it over a hundred years ago, preaching “is the Gospel prolonging and declaring itself.” Our hearers need more than our human assurances, the message is so vital.
Fourth, the message of reconciliation draws us inevitably back to who does the reconciling, that is, “God was in Christ reconciling” (NASB). How did God do it? God “made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf” (NASB). Again we bow in faith at the foot of the cross of Christ where we can declare to all that “in him” they “might become the righteousness of God,” that is, might be fully restored to fellowship with God, their sin and alienation taken into and suffered in God’s own being. Entering the sphere of such faith in Christ brings us in touch with the holy, into “the sanctuary of life.” If Paul has correctly interpreted the death of Christ as the fundamental criterion of human life, how much more then does the cross and resurrection of Christ together constitute the “first” model of the Christian minister entrusted with a ministry of reconciliation as well as the basic paradigm for the whole of a truly “Christian” life? In Christian faith and ministry in the words of Paul Tillich, “any acceptance of Jesus as the Christ which is not the acceptance of Jesus the crucified is a form of idolatry;” and therefore “the ultimate concern of the Christian is . . . the Christ Jesus who is manifest as the crucified.” The cross—and resurrection—of Jesus is the final criterion by which Christian ministry and life are now measured.
[Now we are ready for the paragraph at hand.]
6:1As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. 2For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation. 3We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. 4Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
In the Text
[Here we will point up what are hopefully interesting interpretative issues and helpful comments.]
[6:1As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain.]
As Paul continues the defense of his ministry from the standpoint of his conduct and experiences as an ambassador of Christ, he turns to a description of the life of an apostle (6:1-10). Although he opens with a transitional word of appeal (vv 1-2), for these verses form a practical conclusion to Paul’s presentation of the new order of salvation that God has brought into being in Christ (5:17-21). The thought of 5:20 is continued with an added nuance. The verbal linkage is significant. There God was “making his appeal” (parakalountos) through Paul and here Paul is appealing (parakaloumen, we urge) directly to his readers. He did follow up in 5:20, however, with “we beg you (deomai) on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (NASB). Although the opening participle, working together (synergountes) stands alone or unqualified in the text, the preceding verses make it most likely that Paul is referring to God as the one with whom he is cooperating in ministry. As Christ’s ambassador Paul and God are co-workers (5:18, 20; cf. 1 Cor 3:9). Beardslee suggests, however, that the apostle is cautious in speaking of God and man as working together, for to say that all real human work is God's work would be truer to Paul's thought than to simply say that God and man work together. As Isaiah declared, “in truth all our works are thy doing” (26:12; NEB).
The nuance Paul adds is seen in the appeal not to receive God's grace in vain. Those addressed are most probably the Corinthians as the emphatically placed your (hymas) at the end appears to indicate. The phrase “the grace of God” (NRSV) summarizes Paul’s gospel of salvation (cf. sōtēria in 6:2) particularly with the emphases given in 5:16-21 on its prophetical newness. No doubt there are implications in the exhortation for their relation to the apostle. The aorist infinitive to receive (dexasthai) has reference to no particular time and here probably looks to future acts of receiving, viewed as one act (Harris 2005, 458). The Corinthians are encouraged by Paul not now or ever to receive God's grace in vain (cf. Gal 2:2; Phil 2:16), that is, without its achieving its intended effect. Paul’s fear is that they will not allow God's salvation in Christ to really produce the holy life that properly answers to the death of Christ (5:14-15) and that can face the judgment unashamed (5:10; cf. 1 Cor 3:10-15). The new relationship with God brought into being by Christ does not automatically maintain itself. Paul urges his readers not to "let it go for nothing" (NEB). The exhortation, God’s as well as Paul’s, involves the Corinthians’ reconciliation with Paul as well as with God, for failure to become reconciled to God’s messenger can be equated to receiving God’s grace in vain (McCant 1999, 54f.).
[2For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.]
[1] Verse 2, viewed by some as a parenthesis, reveals a fundamental assumption of Paul's gospel. Paul reinforces his urging or encouraging of 6:1 by a prophetic word from Isaiah 49:8 in 6:2: "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” In the second of Isaiah’s four “Servant Songs” (Isa 49:1-12) the servant of the LORD is called upon to restore the nation from their exile in Babylon (49:6). In verse 8, quoted by Paul, the servant is promised help in that day of Israel’s salvation. Using the Jewish interpretative method known as pesher, Paul interprets the Isaiah quotation making its contemporary application the point to be grasped: Behold, now (idou nyn), or I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, behold, now is the day of salvation. The LXX term for favor (dektō) in Isaiah and in Paul’s interpretation (euprosdektos) is often translated as “acceptable” (NRSV) in the sense of welcome. Paul has changed Isaiah’s word to a strengthened form as he emphasizes to the Corinthians that what they have experienced through the apostle’s proclamation is the actual fulfillment of prophecy.
[2] As the two fold Behold, now . . . behold, now stresses, the time of God's final salvation action is now, it is taking place in the present; the last things are not just a far-off event. The gospel era is the crisis moment in salvation history, the unique time accepted or favored by God for all to partake freely of his reconciliation in Christ. Paul views his preaching as part of the eschatological event itself as it provides the word of the Cross; it creates a crisis that demands a response to the age initiated with the resurrection of Christ (cf. 5:16; Martin 1896, 169). The Corinthians are to recognize that Paul’s preaching encounters them as God’s eschatological message (McCant 1999, 55). Paul’s role in the history of redemption is strategic.
[3We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited.]
The exhortation of Paul and his helpers is consistent with the quality of their apostolic ministry; their conduct conforms to the nature of the gospel. This continuity is strengthened grammatically if verse 2 is taken as parenthetical then the participles giving (didontes) and commending (synistanontes) in verses 3 and 4 are dependent along with “working together" (synergountes, NASB) on the “we urge” (parakaloumen) of verse 1. Most translators, however, see didontes as standing for a finite verb as does the NIV as it starts a new sentence: We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited (v 3; cf. 8:20). Either way, in 6.3-4 Paul is restating the essence of 5:12. It is clear that someone has already discredited Paul’s ministry, but that he believes he has done nothing to deserve the charge; the apostle's conscience is clear; his claim is polemical in this context (McCant 1999, 56). Paul’s conduct has provided no proskopēn, or “occasion for taking offense” (BDAG 2000, 882); no real or legitimate fault can be found for the rejection of the apostolic message. This is the inherent character of what is a truly “Christian” ministry. Although Paul has written simply “the ministry” (hē dianonia) as NASB translates, the context supports the meaning of our ministry rather than the apostolic ministry in general.
[4Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger;]
[1] Since his Corinthian detractors apparently felt that the honor of an apostolic appointment by God meant success and preeminence, Paul felt he needed rather (alla), or to the contrary, to point out that even his sufferings were demonstrations of the genuineness of his apostleship (vv 4-5). In every way, or possibly in all circumstances, Paul and his fellow laborers were commending (cf. 3:1; 4:2; 5:12) themselves as ministers or servants (diakonoi) of God (cf. 3:6; Matt 20:26; Mark 10:43). As the word order here (synistantes heautous) with 4:2 (cf. 5:12) rather than 3:1 suggests, the apostolic self-commending is not illegitimate self-praise, for it leads to the praise of God exhibited through human weakness (Harris 2005, 470), as what follows is designed to stress. Redpath suggests that all the conditions mentioned in 4-10 "provide a platform for the display of God's grace" in the lives of His servants.
[2] Beginning in verse 4 Paul employs a lyrical rhetorical structure with its lists of hardships, virtues, vicissitudes, and antitheses (McCant 1999, 56). Paul’s first descriptive phrase of his conduct, in great endurance, due to its general rather than specific reference and other considerations, is taken by most as a heading for at least verses 4b-5. The structure of verse 4b-10 as indicated by Paul’s repeated use of three prepositions is composed of three triads of phrases introduced by in (en) naming hardships (vv 4b-5), eight phrases introduced by in (en) listing virtues (vv 6-7a), three phrases introduced by by (dia) referring to vicissitudes (vv 7b-8a), and concluding with seven antitheses (vv 8b-10) introduced by as (hōs). Keeping as closely as possible to the wording of NIV the rhetorical character appears as follows: [Changes from NIV text are in bold italics indicating the consistency in the Greek wording.]
in great endurance;
in troubles, in hardships, in distresses; in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots; in hard work, in sleepless nights, in hunger;
in purity, in understanding, in patience, in kindness; in the Holy Spirit, in sincere love; in truthful speech, in the power of God;
by weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; by glory and dishonor, by bad report and good report;
as imposters, yet (kai) genuine, as unknown, yet (kai) known; as dying, yet (kai) behold we live; as beaten, yet (kai) not killed; as sorrowful, yet (de) always rejoicing; as poor, yet (de) making many rich; as having nothing, yet (kai) possessing everything.
[3] Paul’s elevated style is most likely his own as he uses the catalogue form to point to the paradoxical yet authentic character of his ministry. An overarching characteristic of Paul’s apostolic ministry is that it has been conducted in great endurance. Endurance, greatly stressed by Jesus (Matt 10:22; Luke 8:15; 21:19) and certainly significant for Paul (1:6; 11:23-30; Rom 5:3-4; 1 Thess 1:3), is placed at the head of three triads of difficult circumstances. The first triad, climactic in order in verse 4, presents Paul's sufferings in general terms. These appear to refer to those hardships that are independent of human agency. Included are afflictions or troubles (cf. 1:3-10; 2:4; 4:8, 17; 6:4; 7:4; 8:2, 13; Acts 14:22; 20:23), all experiences of physical, mental, or spiritual pressure that might possibly be avoided; hardships or calamities that could not be evaded; and distresses or "dire straits" (NEB, cf. 4:8), from which no escape was possible.
The second triad (v 5) specifies particular sufferings as inflicted by others. Paul commends himself as a true servant of God, showing the utmost patience amid beatings (11:23-25; Acts 16:23), imprisonments (Acts 16:23-40) or as he put it later, “far more imprisonments” (11:23, NASB), and riots (Acts 13:50; 14:19; 16:19; 19:29; 21:30). The third triad consists of those disciplines that Paul imposed upon himself in the furtherance of his mission: in hard work, in sleepless nights, in hunger. This hardship list presupposes the one in 4.8-10 and anticipates the one in 11:23-29.
[6in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7in truthful speech and in the power of God;]
[1] Having finished with the nine conditions indicating the sphere of apostolic endurance, Paul now takes a fresh breath. He enumerates eight spiritual characteristics introduced by in (en), the means by which God has enabled him to endure as a minister of Christ (vv 6-7a). These were first a life of purity, for he had kept his motives single and his behavior above board. Further Paul possessed an understanding, perhaps specifically the knowledge of what God had done in Jesus Christ (cf. 8:7; 11:6; 1 Cor 2:6-16) both for his own life and in its implications for all mankind. With God-given patience or forbearance he could endure the injuries, insults, stubbornness, and stupidity of people without anger or revenge (cf. Rom 12:19; Col 3:12). In addition Paul exhibited kindness; he was sweet-tempered in his sympathy with such people (cf. Luke 6:35; 1 Cor 13:4; Gal 5:22; Eph. 4:32).
[2] Next in Paul’s list of instrumental means is in the Holy Spirit or as some prefer, “holiness of spirit” (NRSV). Although Paul could use pneuma to refer to the human spirit (7:1, 13, 34; 1 Cor 2:11), he never adds the adjective hagios when he intends this meaning. Further, when he does apply the adjective for the expression hagios pneuma, the reference is almost always to the Holy Spirit (e.g., Rom 9:1; 14:17; 15:16; 1 Cor 6:19; 12:3; 2 Cor 13:14; 1 Thess 1:5-6; 4:8). With the Holy Spirit mentioned in midst of a list of moral qualities rather than at the end or beginning, the phrase could stand for the “the gifts of the Spirit” (NEB, cf. Gal 5:5). But it is also probable that Paul sees the Spirit as the inner dynamic of all the virtues listed and the virtues as evidencing the Spirit’s inner operation. Paul professed his own ministry to be a “ministry of the Spirit” (diaknia tou pneumatos; 3:8. Cf. 1 Cor 2:4; 1 Thess 1:5) in which these virtues were on display. The primary fruit of the Spirit is of course sincere love (Gal 5:22-23; cf. Rom 12:9; 1 Tim 1:5; 1 Pet 1:22), reflecting the very attitude of Christ (cf. 5:14; 1 Cor 13:1-13) in the life of the apostle. Sincere (anupokritō) is to be “without pretense” (BDAG 2000. 91), not as a mere play-actor (hupokritēs).
[3] The final two in Paul’s list of eight virtues that have enabled his “endurance” as an apostle (vv 4-5) are in truthful speech and in the power of God (v 7a). Although in truthful speech is a possible translation of en logō alētheias, also possible is in the word of truth. In the first instance alētheias would be an attributive genitive, in the second an objective genitive. In view of 4:2, “setting forth the truth openly” in parallel to “the word of God,” the latter translation appears preferable. Therefore we take the expression “in the technical sense to denote the gospel” (Bultmann 1985, 172), that is, in reference to Paul's proclamation of the gospel as the truth (Eph 1:13; Col 1:5; 2 Thess 2:12; cf. 2 Cor 5:19). All this Paul has done in the power of God (cf. 4:7-11; 12:9-10; 1 Cor 2:3-5). Paul’s ministry is the very activity of God himself (5:20), again as is any truly Christian ministry. But ministry as such is a matter of obedience and faith, not of presumption!
[with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report;]
With a change in prepositions (dia replacing the en of 4-7a), perhaps to break the monotony, Paul states in formal unity three more characteristics of his apostolic ministry (vv 7b-8a). The first is instrumental, that is, weapons (cf. 10:4) that Paul wields in the right hand and in the left. These are an armor (cf. Isa 59:17; Rom 13:12; Eph. 6:13-17; 1 Thess 5:8) that consists of righteousness (cf. Rom 6:13), an epexegetic genitive, or the weapons provided by the divine righteousness (5:21), righteousness functioning as a subjective genitive. Either way, from the resources of his relationship to God, Paul is fully equipped with both offensive-- in the right hand--and defensive armor--in the left. In Ephesians the imagery is extended to "the sword of the Spirit" (Eph 6:17) in the right hand and to "the shield of faith" (Eph 6:16) in the left. Paul is fond of military metaphors (10:3, 4; Rom 5:13; 13:12; Philem 2). The second two dia characteristics, best translated by through, describe some of the responses to his ministry that Paul encountered: glory and dishonor, bad report and good report. With a chiastic construction (abba), Paul indicates that he was held in high esteem by some and treated with contempt by others; he endured the vicissitudes of both disrepute and good repute; in sum he knew both success and failure in the reception of his ministry (cf. Isa 6:8-10).
genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.]
[1] Paul now lists seven antitheses or contrasting conditions that he suffers cheerfully for the sake of his calling (8-10), all introduced by as (hōs). The formal structure is clear in NASB:
as deceivers and yet (kai) true; as unknown and yet (kai) well-known, as dying yet (kai) behold, we live; as punished yet (kai) not put to death, as sorrowful yet (de) always rejoicing, as poor yet (de) making many rich, as having nothing yet (kai) possessing all things.
[2] This is the third interchange of opposite experiences in Christ that Paul has listed in the letter (1:3-7; 4:7-12; cf. 7:5-7; 11:30; 12:5-10; 13:2-9). These paradoxes of Paul’s apostolic life illustrate two central themes in the letter, life in the midst of death, and the power of God in the midst of human weakness. The same paradox of humiliation and glory that characterized the career of Jesus is now an integral part of Paul's ministry--already evident in the nature of the message committed to Paul and known by the Corinthians. In the first two sets of contrasting realities, although the apostles are regarded as impostors or deceivers by some (cf. 1:15-2:1; 7:2; 12:17), they are true or genuine (v 8); and although regarded as unknown (v 9) generally in the human world or more probable by Paul’s rivals in the Corinthian church, they are truly known by both some in the Church and certainly by God (1:1; Gal 1:1; 2:7, 9; 2). In the second pair of paradoxical experiences Paul alludes to Psalm 118 (LXX, 117), the climax of the Egyptian Hallel (Psalms 113-118), sung at the great Jewish religious festivals. As they celebrate a God-given military victory there are “shouts of victory and joy” because “the LORD’s right hand has done mighty things” (118:15-16). Then the Psalmist adds,
I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done. The LORD has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death (118:17-18).
[3] Although often exposed to death (1:8-9; 1 Cor 15:30), surprisingly (idou, behold), Paul says, we live on in language similar to Psalm 118:17 in LXX (117:17). In the following contrast, as (hōs) beaten, and yet not killed, paideumenoi has the sense of punished with the connotation of “disciplined” as in the Psalm. Though humanly administrated (11:23) Paul sees the hand of God in it (cf. 1 Cor 11:32) as evidence of his loving care (cf. Prov 3:11-12; Heb 12:4-11). As (hōs) sorrowful, yet always rejoicing (v 10), then, characterizes his life in the midst of many of the events that took place in his ministry. As (hōs) poor, yet making many rich refers no doubt to Paul’s material poverty even by ancient standards (11:9, 27; 1 Cor 4:11-12) in contrast to the Corinthians enrichment in Christ (1 Cor 1:5) as a result of his ministry to them (cf. 8:9; Prov 13:7). With as (hōs) having nothing, and yet possessing everything Paul brings his antitheses to a climax in a rhetorical flourish relating to the previous contrast.
[4] At first glance it appears merely to repeat it [“as poor, yet making many rich”], but the striking wordplay (echontes-katechontes) is more comprehensive, indicating perhaps a summary-like contrast between a simple and temporary possession on the one hand, and a secure and permanent possession on the other. The first is literal, or of this world, and the second reaches out to take in all things real and worthwhile, everything of eternal value (4:18; 1 Cor 3:21-23; Phil 3:7-8; Rom 8:17). To the idea that having nothing in the way of material goods frees one to possess everything in a higher sense, there are Stoic and Cynic parallels (Furnish 1984, 348; Thrall 2004, 457-468). Paul here may have Christianized a familiar philosophical motif. On this high and beautifully simple note Paul has defined and commended his ministry to the Corinthians with his lists of his apostolic hardships and triumphs (Harris 2005, 485-486).
[For the conclusion we use the “From the Text” section on our primary text, 6:1-10]
From the Text
This Cross/Resurrection perspective determines then the manner of Christian life and service (6:1-10). The ministry now defined as “together” with God, that is, our works are God’s doing, has penetrating and profound implications. Since the ministry is “God at work” in the power of Christ’s death and resurrection through human lives, it is a “grace” that by its very nature transforms life and character, “minds and manners” (Clark 1854, 337). Therefore it can never be truly received “in vain,” that is, without changing the recipient. This is the nature and power of Christian life and service--the ministry--, placing a heavy and urgent responsibility on the hearers in relation both to the message and to the messenger: “see, now is the day of salvation!” (NRSV). Now is God’s time for us, “the time of God's favor.”
With such a life and witness “who is adequate for these things?” (2:16, NASB). Therefore, we seek to walk in tune with the gospel we profess and in humble dependence on the Spirit of Christ lest we become “stumbling block” to others and our witness “be discredited” in their eyes. But how do we do that? Paul sets forth in lyrical form just what a manner of life, what a ministry is like that is fully consistent with the gospel of Christ. For Paul and for us what commends a Christian life and witness is one that at heart partakes of the cross and resurrection of Christ. This is a ministry that in the midst of normal and abnormal hardships shows “great endurance” for it is graced with the virtues of the gospel (vv 4-6):
in troubles, in hardships, in distresses; in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots; in hard work, in sleeplessness nights, in hunger; in purity, in understanding, in patience, in kindness; in the Holy Spirit, in sincere love; in truthful speech, in the power of God;
It is a ministry open to unexpected circumstances both positive and negative, both uplifting and depressing (vv 7-8a).
by weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; by glory and dishonor, by bad report and good report;
Most significantly it is a life and witness penetrated by the paradoxes of the incarnate life and earthly ministry of the resurrected Christ, powerfully expressed in the exalted rhetoric of the great apostle (vv 8b-10):
as imposters, yet genuine, as unknown, yet known; as dying, yet behold we live; as beaten, yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.
There is a profound sense in which our Christian lives and witness, a truly Christian ministry if you please, can be poured into Paul’s final antithesis, “as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” In his “Sketch of Mount Carmel” the poetic lines of John of the Cross seem certainly to have been inspired by the great apostle:
To come to possess all desire the possession of nothing.
Now to return to our initial question, where can we find a model for the ministry in our day in a world for which Christ died? Is it too simple, or is it profoundly attractive though unsearchable and unfathomable (Rom 11:33) to find our model in our Lord Jesus himself, the incarnation, the life and ministry, the crucifixion and death, and the resurrection of Jesus as the Christ?
In 2001 Duke Divinity School invited a group of pastors, lay leaders, and theological educators to join a Colloquium of Excellence in Ministry as part of a Pulpit and Pew research project on the lives and work of American Christian pastoral leaders. The group included lay and ordained and were varied in race, gender, denomination, theological background, and assigned function in the work of the larger Church.
After many months of scriptural study, the reading of classical and contemporary writers, exposure to Pulpit and Pew research data, and extended conversations, they published the results their work in the book, Resurrecting Excellence: Shaping Faithful Christian Ministry. With Philippians 2:6-11 as a focal text they took the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as both the basis and the goal of their summons to excellence. They “glimpsed in the stories of the pastors and their congregations the cultivation of . . . a common life marked by Christ’s dying and rising.” Intersections were discovered that are often turned “into false alternatives—youth and age, strength and weakness, joy and suffering, abundance and sacrifice, tragedy and hope, community and solitude, church and world.” In conclusion they believed that “resurrecting excellence is fundamentally shaped by a lifelong attentiveness and obedience to the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.”
The outline of 2 Corinthians as followed in the Commentary. An Apostolic Introduction, 1:1-11 Paul Greets the Church, 1:1-2 Paul Praises God for His Comfort, 1:3-11 The Apostolic Ministry, 1:12—7:16 Paul Reveals His Intentions, 1:12—2:17 Paul Characterizes His Ministry, 3:1—6:10 1. Thanksgiving for Triumph in Christ (2:14-17) A Ministry of the Spirit (3:1—4:6) 3. A Ministry of Suffering (4:7—5:10) A Ministry of Reconciliation (5:11—6:10) C. Paul Has Confidence in the Church, 6:11-7:16 The Grace of Christian Giving, 8:1—9:15 A. Paul Collects an Offering, 8:1-15 B. Paul Chooses Messengers, 8:16—9:15 Vindication of Paul’s Authority, 10:1—13:14 Paul Answers His Opponents, 10:1-18 Paul Boasts in His Foolishness, 11:1—12:13 C. Paul Plans for a Third Visit, 12:14—13:10 D. Paul Concludes the Letter, 13:11-14
Reuben R. Welch, Preaching from Second Corinthians 2 through 5 (Kansas City, Missouri: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 1988), 59.
Mounce, 152. P. T. Forsyth, Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1980 reprint, 1907), 5. Paul Tillich, Dynamics of Faith (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1957), 12. Ibid., 98. W. A. Beardslee, Human Achievement and Divine Vocation in the Message of Paul (Naperville, Illinois: Alec R. Allenson, 1961), 60. Scripture in bold type is the NIV text under consideration, scripture in both bold and italics is my translation of the text under consideration, and scripture within quotation marks are other texts, sometimes NIV, sometimes other versions as indicated. Op. cit., p 114. From the “Behind the Text” section: Described in “Behind the Text” in the previous section (4:7-5:10) was the hardship catalog rhetorical form that Paul makes use of again (6:4-10) with verses 8-10 being an example of the antithetical list. These catalogues were used to demonstrate one’s superiority over circumstances. The literary background ranges from Greco-Roman philosophy to Jewish literature. In contrast to their use by the Stoic or Cynic sage Paul uses such lists in defense of his apostleship to illustrate how divine power is manifested though human weakness. In 6:4-10 the catalogs are used not to communicate new information, but to reorient the Corinthians view of Paul’s apostleship (McCant 1999, 60).
Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez, tran., The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross (Washington, D.C.; ICS Publications, Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1991), 111. L. Gregory Jones and Kevin R. Armstrong, Resurrecting Excellence: Shaping Faithful Christian Ministry (Grand Rapids: William Be. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006). Ibid, 3, 19, 29, 176.
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Frank G. Carver