2 Corinthians 6:2 - Homilies By E. Hurndall

I. GOD HAS PROVIDED A SALVATION FOR MEN . This salvation

II. THE OPPORTUNITY FOR SECURING THIS SALVATION IS LIMITED TO THE PRESENT .

1 . The present age .

2 . In an individual to his brief life on earth .

No unsaved one can afford to waste any time; no saved one will want to. Salvation is so great a matter that it should be sought instantly. To miss it is to miss everything. If we get nought but this, we should see to it that we get this. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" ( Matthew 6:33 ).

III. TENDENCIES TO PROCRASTINATE ARE OFTEN STRONG . Such pleas as the following have power with not a few:

This reflects the human view, and the Satanic (for Satan is a great advocate of delay). The Divine is otherwise: " Now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

IV. THE PERILS OF DELAY .

1 . Life may be cut short speedily and suddenly.

2 . Painful sickness prior to death may render attention to spiritual concerns practically impossible.

3 . Desire for salvation may pass away.

4 . The heart may be fatally hardened.

5 . The Spirit may cease to strive. "God is not mocked."

V. THE SINFULNESS OF DELAY .

1 . What an insult to God!

2 . What a return for the love and sacrifice of Christ!

3 . What a pernicious example!

4 . What an injustice to ourselves!

VI. THE DIVINE URGENCY . When Paul is intensely earnest in this matter it is because God makes him so. It is the Divine mind declared by a servant. And so of all faithful ministers; their voices are echoes of the voice of God. Christ on earth cried, "Repent." "Wherefore even as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts" ( Hebrews 3:7 , Hebrews 3:8 ). The Divine message of salvation is pressed upon the instant attention of those to whom it is delivered. We cannot wonder at the urgency of God, for:

1 . God knows the tendencies of our nature.

2 . God knows what loss of salvation involves.—H.

2 Corinthians 6:3-10 - Not hindering the gospel.

I. PAUL 'S GREAT ANXIETY NOT TO HINDER THE GOSPEL . He preached the gospel faithfully and with utmost earnestness, but:

1 . He guarded anxiously against lessening the effect of his preaching by his conduct.

2 . He realized that life speaks as well as verbal utterance.

3 . That what is built up by the lip is often pulled down by the life.

II. PAUL 'S EFFORTS TO AVOID IN LIFE AND CONDUCT THAT WHICH MIGHT HINDER THE GOSPEL . He sought not to give offence in anything ( 2 Corinthians 6:3 ). He dreaded proving a stumbling block to his hearers. So in every way he endeavoured to commend himself as a true minister of God, and thus to advance the cause which he had at heart. Illustrated:

1 . In his endurance of trial and suffering . Here he exhibited amazing patience and fortitude.

2 . In the conduct of his ministry and life .

3 . In the maintenance of consistency and integrity under specially trying circumstances . Whether he was held in honour or dishonour, whether subject to good report or evil, he strove to be ever the same, to preach the same gospel, to manifest the same spirit, to live the same life. His life and ministry were not dependent upon surroundings.

4 . By not succumbing to adverse circumstances .

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 - Unequal yoking.

Intimate associations ought not to be formed by the people of God with the ungodly. The reference is, no doubt, to Deuteronomy 22:10 .

I. HOW THIS MAY BE DONE .

1 . In religious fellowship. The apostle had occasion to warn the Corinthians against fellowship with idolaters. We may he attracted by a religious community in which the truth is not found or in which it is greatly obscured or distorted.

2 . In marriage . With believers the religious question should be a prime question. Alas! it is often no question at all. Religious inequality is most frequently esteemed as the dust of the balance, and less than that. Consent is asked of the earthly father, but the heavenly Father is too commonly forgotten altogether. Marriages too often are not made in heaven, and that is why they have so little heaven about them, The ill-assorted union does not lead so much to Paradise as to misery and the divorce court.

3 . In friendships . There is often much unequal yoking here. A wise man chooses his friends with care, but a fool takes them haphazard or on mere "liking." The power of a friendship is great, for good or for evil. Believers should choose friends who will help, not hinder, and friends who wilt be friends forever, and not severed at the grave.

4 . In business . Partnership in commerce is a yoke which brings men very close together. They must have very much in common; their lives must run in very much the same channel; their actions must largely agree. Or, if not, their union will be disunion, and the issue, quarrels first, and perhaps bankruptcy or worse next. How often a child of God has lived to rue the day when he entered into partnership with a child of the devil!

II. WHY THIS SHOULD NOT BE DONE .

1 . Unreasonable in itself . Consider what believers and unbelievers are.

2 . Extremely perilous . How many have found this! In marriage, for example. What misery, loss of peace, loss of holiness, loss of everything most prized once, have followed upon an unequal alliance! The life has been utterly ruined and lost. Some marry in order to convert; but we should always convert people before we marry them. The peril applies to all cases of unequal yoking. The evil generally triumphs because the good has robbed itself of power by taking a false step.

3 . Expressly forbidden by God . The Divine Word is emphatic: "Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch no unclean thing" ( Deuteronomy 22:17 ). This is a Divine command which we dare not set aside. This is Divine wisdom; our wisdom may not accord with it, but if so, our wisdom is assuredly folly. This is Divine love, purposing to save us from misery and loss.

4 . A most gracious promise for the obedient . The resolve not to be unequally yoked may sometimes seem to entail large sacrifice. If we lose something, this is what we gain. God says: