We Plead With You

We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

-- 2 Corinthians 6:1

Paul packed a huge amount of information in that one short sentence. It contains an overall plea not take lightly the wonderful gift God has given us, but also several other messages of equal importance. Let's take this apart and try to get all the goodness out of it we can.

Although this verse comes to us from Second Corinthians, many Bible scholars consider this to actually be Paul's third letter to the church in Corinth, the second being long since lost and not included in the scriptures. Remember that Paul started the church in Corinth and stayed there for nearly two years, eventually turning it over to the young disciple Timothy. The first letter addressed issues Paul saw arise in the church after he left it. The second is suspected to be a scathing reply to the church as they failed to heed Paul's cautionary message in the first letter. Perhaps this message carried a little too much emotion or fire, or maybe it was too narrowly focused so as not to be suited for the universal audience that the Bible was intended, and that is why it has been lost to us. Whatever the reason, the text of Second Corinthians seems to indicate a previous letter was delivered, received, and acted upon by the church members and that they now were following Paul's instructions. This third letter was then to let them know they were doing the right thing but that they should now forgive the offender that caused so much trouble before and allow him back into the church.

In this verse, when Paul uses the word "we", he could be directly referring to himself and Timothy, and possibly including Titus, another disciple who served as messenger in carrying these letters, or he could be implying all of us, the entire body of Christ left on earth, His whole church. In either case, it is clear he considers this message important enough that he shows that others are in agreement with the plea, that others share the concern of the message. We plead with you, not just myself but my friends and colleagues also, and maybe the entire church. We all care about you and want you to be pleasing to God.

And who are we? We are workers, together, with Him. Those four words, workers together with Him, should make everyone who tries to follow Christ's example fall humbled to their knees and swell up with pride both at the same time! We are workers. We don't simply sit on the sidelines watching, we don't lean on a shovel while others toil, we don't sit at the table waiting to be fed while others toil in the field. We are workers. We work together. Two can accomplish more together than they could ever effect alone, and many working together, united as one, with one common goal, can show truly wondrous results from their efforts. We not only work together, friends side by side, but we also work with Him, with Christ, with God. We don't work _for_ Christ, we work _with_ Him. He toils right alongside us. Doesn't that fill you with pride, that the God of all creation would be willing to work right beside you in the fields of humanity to harvest souls? But doesn't that also humble you, to know that our risen Savior would so lower Himself to labor with you?

Paul cared so much about the church in Corinth that it was important to him that they not think he was trying to tell them what to do, even though he was. Too much was at stake for them to turn a deaf ear. Too great was his love for the people, the congregation, that they ignore advice. So what could he do but beg them to listen? When we pray, we should always remember to thank God for all He gives us, but we also almost always ask for something we or our loved ones need. We plead with Him, please Father help us in this trial. It was in this manner that Paul addressed the church in his letter: he wanted them to understand he was praying, that he was pleading with them. By extension, he and the other disciples and all of the church of our Lord are pleading with all of us to heed this message, to pay attention to these words.

And that message is to caution us not to receive the grace of God in vain. How can we receive God's grace in vain? Everyone who has ever given a gift to an unappreciative recipient can answer this. Have you known someone who takes the gift and squanders or wastes it to where they get little or nothing from it in the end? They have received that gift in vain, for it did them no good. God's grace is the most wonderful, beautiful gift anyone could ever receive. It is given freely to everyone, yet deserved by none. Nothing we could possibly do would ever merit such a gift, no amount of gold could ever equal its worth. The price of the gift has already been paid, at horrendous cost: the blood of our pure and living Savior. This is a gift not to be taken lightly, a treasure not to be squandered wastefully, but one to be savored and rejoiced over, one to be shared with everyone we come across, one made perfect on the cross. That gift is our salvation, our freedom from death, a life of eternity spent at the foot of our Lord.

Thank Paul for his insistent warning. Thank God for His grace and faithfulness. Amen.