We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain.
Read Chapter 6
Basil the Great
AD 379
That man, indeed, is in danger who does not throughout his whole life place before himself the will of God as his goal, so that in health he shows forth the labor of love by his zeal for the works of the Lord and in sickness displays endurance and cheerful patience. The first and greatest peril is that by not doing the will of God, he separates himself from the Lord and cuts himself off from fellowship with his own brothers; secondly, that he ventures, although undeserving, to claim a share in the blessings prepared for those who are worthy. Here also we must remember the words of the apostle: “And we helping do exhort you that you receive not the grace of God in vain.” And they who are called to be brothers of the Lord should not receive in a wanton spirit so great a divine grace nor fall from so high a dignity through negligence in doing the will of God but rather obey the same apostle, saying: “I, a prisoner in the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation in which you ...
We then, as workers together with Him. We, as workers together with God, beseech you to accept this proffered reconciliation, spoken of in vers18 , 19 , and20 , of the preceding chapter.
Beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. He receives grace into a vacuum, says Anselm, who does not work with it, who does not give it his heart, and who, through sloth, makes that grace ineffectual, by not doing, all that he can to express it in good works. In other words, do not suppose that faith alone is reconciliation, for a good life and good works are also indispensable. So Theophylact, following Chrysostom.
Observe that the Apostle applies the word grace to the general benefit of reconciliation of the world through Christ"s redemption; for it was of this that he had just been treating. Nevertheless, under that he comprehends that particular grace which Christ has merited for each one, and which God gives to each one, to enable each one to become a partaker of the general...
SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER
i. He exhorts them not to neglect the proffered grace of reconciliation spoken of at the end of the last chapter.
ii. He points out (ver4) the qualities required in ministers, especially in Apostles and preachers of the Gospel.
iii. He declares (ver11) how his heart was filled with love of the Corinthians, and he strives to stir them up to like love.
iv. He warns them (ver14) by many contrasts carefully to avoid holding intercourse or intermarrying with unbelievers.
We helping, or in the Greek, working together, that is, with God, as employed by him, or as his ministers, and ambassadors, we exhort you not to receive the grace of God in vain, by resisting his interior graces, by an idle, or a wicked life. (Witham)
Paul is telling his hearers that they must not relax just because God has sought them out and sent them as ambassadors. On the contrary, for that very reason we should hasten to please him and reap our spiritual blessings.
For since he said, God beseeches, and we are ambassadors and suppliants unto you, that you be reconciled unto God: lest they should become supine, he hereby again alarms and arouses them, saying: We intreat that you receive not the grace of God in vain. 'For let us not,' he says, 'therefore be at ease, because He beseeches and has sent some to be ambassadors; nay, but for this very reason let us make haste to please God and to collect spiritual merchandise;' as also he said above, The love of God constrains us, 2 Corinthians 5:14 that is presses, drives, urges us, 'that you may not after so much affectionate care, by being supine and exhibiting no nobleness, miss of such great blessings. Do not therefore because He has sent some to exhort you, deem that this will always be so. It will be so until His second coming; until then He beseeches, so long as we are here; but after that is judgment and punishment.' Therefore, he says, we are constrained.
For not only from the greatness of th...
