Patrick: 00:13

Thank you for listening to FirstDay. I'm Patrick Cooley, pastor of Northport Methodist Church. You can visit the podcast website at www.firstday.us. And if you listen on Amazon or Spotify or, Apple Podcasts, please consider leaving a review and a 5 star rating if, this, if if this podcast has helped you in your discipleship to to grow closer to God, to go closer to Christ, so it can bump the podcast up or any, recommendation list. So, again, thank you for listening.

Patrick: 00:51

You can reach out if you have any questions or want a deeper conversation about anything on the podcast. You can reach out and and hit me at, connect at first day dot us. Or if you know my phone number, you can just shoot me a text. So without further ado, let's, hop into 2nd Corinthians chapter 6. Paul writes, as we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain.

Patrick: 01:21

For he says, at an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you. See, now is the acceptable time. See, now is the day of salvation. So here, Paul quotes Isaiah 498 from the Septuagint. And just by way of reminder from the Bible translation class, podcast episodes did last year sometime.

Patrick: 01:55

The Septuagint is the Old Testament in Greek. It differs sometimes in translation from the, Masoretic text or the Hebrew, Old Testament text and from time to time in places. It is, however, the Septuagint version is typically the default, in the new testament when, the old testament is quoted. So just kinda just to throw that out there, and maybe we can talk about it someday. So here's what Paul, so the here is again Isaiah 49:8 from the Septuagint, and this is what Paul has just quoted to the Corinthians.

Patrick: 02:44

And so, let's give a little, context here. Isaiah writes, this is what the Lord who rescues you, the God of Israel, says, sanctify the one who despises his life, who is abhorred by the nations, the servants of rulers. Kings will see him and arise, rulers will also worship him for the sake of the Lord, because the Holy One of Israel is faithful, and I have chosen you. This is what the Lord says, I have listened to you at the acceptable time, and I have helped you in the day of salvation. And I have formed you and given you as a covenant for the nations to establish the land and to allot deserted lots, saying to those in chains, come out, and to those in darkness, be revealed.

Patrick: 03:44

These verses from Isaiah are the foundation of Paul's message to the Corinthians and to the church. We work together with Christ to bring reconciliation to the world as Christ's ambassadors. Paul tells the Corinthians that God heard their cries and has brought them salvation through Christ from the death of sin. And now they are charged with a purpose, and that is to become god's righteousness and god's presence in this world. Just as the holy one has made a way for us to come into god's presence to be reconciled to him, so too must we now do the same to reconcile others to God.

Patrick: 04:33

Because the Corinthians have died to self, they can now live for God, 2 Corinthians 63. We are putting no obstacle in in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry. But as servants of God, we have commended ourselves in every way, through great endurance and afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger, by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left, in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute, we are treated as impostors and yet are true, as unknown and yet are well known, as dying and see we are alive, as punished and yet not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing everything. Here, Paul provides the Corinthians with proof that his new life is in keeping with the purpose for which it has been given to him. He isn't trying to make them feel as if they cannot live into Isaiah 49.

Patrick: 06:06

He doesn't want them to feel guilty for their failure, but to use his own life as an example of what the ministry of reconciliation looks like. Starting in verse 8b, Paul reminds them of something that he wrote to them in 1st Corinthians, which is the world will see his life as a failure and nothing to emulate. Yet, quite the opposite is actually the truth. His is the only way to live for the life of Christ. His is the only way you live if you live or if we live in the life of Christ.

Patrick: 06:48

The world's gonna think he's foolish. The world's gonna think he's abandoned. The world's gonna think he's poor. But in fact, he's not. He's the opposite of these things.

Patrick: 06:58

Verse number 11. We have spoken frankly to you, Corinthians. Our heart is wide open to you. There is no restriction in our affections, but only in yours. In return, I speak as to children.

Patrick: 07:12

Open wide your hearts also. Paul's concern for the Corinthians is genuine. His heart is wide open. He loves them unconditionally, although it seems this is not reciprocated in Paul's direction. Paul's heart remains vulnerable because he has chosen to live life as it has been defined by his call to be an apostle.

Patrick: 07:38

Interestingly, here, Paul delivers his instruction to the Corinthians commandingly. He he doesn't include any caveats like decide for yourself, etcetera. He speaks to them as to children, and he commands them as their spiritual father to open wide their hearts as he has opened his heart to them to make themselves vulnerable and to share the gospel and live their calling unreservedly. He didn't give them an option. They can't this is one of those things like, you know, in first Corinthians, he gave them an option every now and then.

Patrick: 08:17

This is not me saying this is not the Lord saying that this is me. You know, those kind of things. He says here, you, Corinthians, have no choice but to make yourselves vulnerable and to share the gospel. He wants them to love others and he wants them to love him as freely as he has loved them and as God has loved them through Christ. That's why I think he quotes again that passage from Isaiah.

Patrick: 08:48

This is what God has done for you. Now is the time that you repay. Now is the time that you love others in the same way that God has loved you in Christ. He wants their relationship to be as it once was. He wants their relationship, as in Paul wants his relationship with the Corinthians, to to be as not strained anymore.

Patrick: 09:14

That that there, you know, aren't any hindrances between them. He wants a reciprocated, completely open love, a love of agape, a love of grace, a love of a love that shares the life of Christ and reconciliation with the other. Verse number 14. Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness?

Patrick: 09:44

Or what fellowship is there between light and darkness? What agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God.

Patrick: 10:01

As God said, I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their god, and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from them and be separated from them, says the lord, and touch nothing unclean. Then I will welcome you, and I will be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord almighty. Paul's fatherly command to his spiritual children goes further here. Not only do they have no choice, but to open their hearts to Paul and to others, they must also cease contact with the way they used to live their lives.

Patrick: 10:44

The life of Christ, in other words here, is a full time commitment. His examples are of extreme contrasts here, light and dark, Christ and Beliar, which is a name for Satan, believer and unbeliever, the temple of God with idols for God's people. God's church is the temple of God, the place where the nations come to find life. So the church has no room for any idols other than to focus on God since the church is that place where people can come and know for certain they are going to encounter God. Paul closes this chapter with a combined quotation from the Septuagint's Isaiah 521112 and 2nd kingdoms 7 and 14a.

Patrick: 11:47

And by the way, in the Septuagint, 2nd kingdoms is what they call second Samuel is what the Septuagint calls second Samuel 714, if you're kinda following with your bible. So this is Isaiah 5211 and 12, and second Samuel 714. Depart. Depart. Come out from there and touch no unclean thing.

Patrick: 12:13

Come out from the middle of her. Be separate, you who carry the vessels of the Lord, because you will not come out with trouble or go in flight. For the lord will go before you, and the one who gathers you is the God of Israel. That's Isaiah. I will be a father to him, and he will be like a son to me, 2nd Samuel.

Patrick: 12:39

When the verses that precede Isaiah 52, 11, and 12 and follow 2nd Samuel 7 14 are considered, Paul's point comes into focus. In the former's case, Isaiah 52 is a rallying cry for God's people to put on their strength and prepare to be redeemed. Through them, God will declare salvation and good news of good things and will make their salvation heard. How can they demonstrate a more excellent way if they lose themselves in the ways and things of the culture and in the in the society around them. How can they live this life that says, let me show you a better way to live if the church is living exactly like everybody else?

Patrick: 13:34

Finally, second Samuel 7 is concerned with David's plan to build God a temple, a desire most likely prompted by his guilt for living. Forgive the irony, high on hog. God tells Nathan to remind David that he is the one who builds, that God is the one who builds. He is the one who blesses, not David. After the Lord promises to be David's father in the first part of verse 14, he continues, and if he should demonstrate injustice, then I will disgrace him with the rod of man and with the infections of the sons of mortals.

Patrick: 14:18

However, in the next two verses, God promises to not withdraw his compassion from David or his house. So when we take, the meanings of both of these passages into consideration, the reason for Paul's command becomes very clear. The Corinthians have been claimed by God in Christ Jesus as his own children. And as such, they must demonstrate a more excellent way of living, and always be prepared to bring the good news of salvation. 2nd Corinthians chapter 71 serves really as Paul's conclusion to this.

Patrick: 15:00

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves of every defilement of body and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God. Thank you for listening to FirstDay. Visit the website at www.firstday.us, where you can reach out to me. And until next time, blessings, and goodbye for now.