2 Corinthians 6:1-13 Study Guide: Enduring in Christian Ministry
Community Group Study Guide — Enduring in Christian Ministry
2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Study Information:
It feels like we’re always being sold something in this world that promises ease and comfort for our lives. Usually this sales pitch comes with a promise to remove hardships in your life and to make things simple whether it is a Roomba, a new medicine to cure whatever we need cured, a meal plan, or whatever technology of the day is making the rounds. This makes sense because who wants to buy something that makes their life harder?
Does Paul try to sell us an “easy” Christian life? In our last study guide we discussed how God, by faith, makes his people into new creations in Christ. That the old is gone and the new has come. In many ways Christianity is easy because God does all the work and we receive it by faith. We do not need to be new and improved on our own before coming to faith in Jesus and this is good news. However, following Christ is hard and in our text Paul gives us a window into the challenges that come with gospel ministry as we participate in God’s call for us to be part of the ministry of reconciliation. In this we get a vision of the grace of God and the need for endurance as we serve and share Christ with others. When we talk about ministry, please do not hear “paid staff person” or “someone leading a church program,” throughout 2 Corinthians we’ve defined ministry as God’s call on all his followers to serve and share Christ with others.
Cooperating with God
2 Corinthians 6:1-3
After giving us a big picture vision of God’s saving activity in our lives (2 Corinthians 5:17-19) Paul shifted focus to describe the activity of the gospel in the Christian life. The idea here is that the grace of God has an effect on who we are, what we do and how we live. Paul described this in two ways, first he talked about “working together” with God and not “receiving the grace of God in vain.”
First, we are called to work together with God. We do not need to work together with God in terms of our salvation, that is not a cooperative activity where we contribute something to our salvation or have to work for it. We know that it is by faith alone and grace alone through Christ’s work alone that we are made a new creation. However, Paul does not want his readers to read that and think, “cool, I’m done now!” Instead Paul calls us into the mission of God as ministers of the gospel. We’ve defined ministry in this series as “serving and sharing Christ” and it is something that all followers of Jesus are called to do as part of God’s mission as ambassadors in this ministry of reconciliation. This is great news because it means that God calls weak, needy, sinful people to be part of his kingdom mission and we get to work alongside someone who has all power and authority. Think about being part of a group that has to move a really heavy piano, something we have to do from time to time in the church. Pro tip, stand next to the strongest person, you’ll have to lift less weight! When we “work together” with God we are participating but he carries the weight, we show up and faithfully try to serve and share Christ and he does the heavy lifting of changing hearts and authoring growth.
Second, Paul wrote to not receiving the grace of God in vain meaning that followers of Jesus are part of God’s saving plan in the world and we should not squander that opportunity. It is easy to coast and get complacent especially if you’ve tried to share Christ or serve and were met with resistance. Paul wants his readers to understand that God’s saving work is active now and to be engaged (2 Cor 6:2-3). We will not have a 100% success rate, but God is active and we should take full advantage of the opportunity he has given us today.
Enduring in Christian Ministry
2 Corinthians 6:3-10
Ministry comes with challenges, difficulties and requires endurance. Paul gives a list of the hardships of Christian ministry 4 times in 2 Corinthians, this being the second of those lists. We get nine unique hardships in 2 Corinthians 6:4-5, followed by eight aspects of God’s grace to us in 2 Corinthians 6:6-7. The hardships are given under a call to endurance and include affiliation, imprisonment, riots, sleepless nights, etc. Doing ministry where we serve and share the gospel is not easy and there will be times where we are dishonored, slandered and treated as “imposters” by people inside and outside the church (2 Cor 6:8). This can be a deterrent for many of us with sharing the gospel and serving because we do not naturally like things that are difficult or come with friction.
On the other side, there is grace and blessing in Christian ministry and God forms our character through it. Paul listed out purity, knowledge, kindness, etc as examples of spiritual formation in us. Likewise, he wrote that some people will receive us with honor, praise, and truth. The difficult times are not always evenly balanced with the good times, sometimes we need more endurance and to be sorrowful yet always rejoicing; other times we are received with love and affection. We do not know which season we will be in tomorrow but in faith we respond to God’s call to sacrifice, serve and share Christ.
Affection for One Another
2 Corinthians 6:11-13
The backdrop of this appeal from Paul is that the Corinthians had a negative view of Paul based on his suffering, his “severe” letter and the influence of false teachers who were critical of Paul. In Paul’s call to endurance in Christian ministry, he also built a case for the authenticity of his ministry and now he made his plea “open wide your hearts.” The Corinthians seemed to have narrow hearts towards Paul, God and the world. The verb in Greek for “open” here is one that describe a road wide enough to accommodate more traffic. Imagine if the freeway was expanded through our city and how much more cars could move freely, Paul desires for or hearts to be like that for one another and towards serving and sharing Christ.
What would it be like to have a genuine affection for one another and for people who do not yet know Jesus? If you find that you’re limited in your love for God and one another, spend some time focusing on how in Christ you are a new creation and God’s love for you is not limited. Likewise, sometimes we wait for our feelings to be there before we begin to serve and share Christ; maybe a better path forwards is to pray for opportunities and to start “working together” with God and as you serve you will likely see your heart open wide to the opportunities God provides and the people of God in the church. This can be a great thing to discus with your group leaders or pastors. Finally, know that the road is filled with hardship and blessings and that God uses this to grow our endurance and character so that we can be “sorrowful and always rejoicing; poor and making many rich.”
At your community group:
Take 15-20 minutes to share about how God has been at work in your life, prayer concerns and pray for one another.
How did God speak to you through the scripture and the sermon this week?
Discussion Questions:
2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Do you think there is a desire for things to be easy in our current place and time? How does Paul describe the Christian life as both easy and difficult in this passage?
What does Paul mean by “working together with God?”
Paul listed off many hardships and blessings and then gave us some pairings of times when we will be received and rejected. Which of them stand out to you and have you experienced them in your own attempts to serve and share Christ?
How can someone respond to Paul’s appeal to “open wide your hearts” today? Imagine you’re giving a friend advice.
