2 Corinthians 6:2, commentary and pictures

Now is the accepted time and the day of salvation, when God hears in his favor and helps, so his grace must be received now and not in vain. Its now is ever the eternal now, for no tomorrow belongs to us and today alone is the day of visitation and probation when his Spirit strives to save all who are willing. Christ still offers freedom from sin and pardon even for the blackest crimes repented of and forsaken, but he does not force the will. This life is the only probation God gives with no second trial after death, and time is very short, so delay hardens the heart and presuming on mercy adds to guilt. Therefore the call is to come at once in full surrender and thorough work of character, and as workers together with God to urge all others to be reconciled without delay.

Meaning of Accepted Time

The present is the accepted time and the day of salvation, when God hears in the time of His favor and helps in the day of salvation in the time He has appointed. His grace must therefore be received now and not in vain, for the opportunity to receive salvation is urgent now. This appeal calls for trust in Jesus as personal Saviour and growth in faith, and presents believers as workers together with Christ in urging others to accept that grace.

The NOW of the verse is ever and ever the eternal NOW, for there is no tomorrow that belongs to us, so the accepted time and the day of salvation mean present action. Today is the day of visitation given to each person individually, meaning the present time and not tomorrow. Today each one must hear Christ's voice without hardening the heart and receive Him as Saviour, and receiving Him today brings peace, heaven, and pardon of transgressions. Everyone who takes the name of Christian is under obligation as a worker together with God not to receive the grace of God in vain, but to rise to the exalted possibility of excellence in humanity by revealing Christ's character in works as His chosen representatives to an apostate world.

The accepted time is the present hour of probation and day of mercy, when God is offering salvation now. His Spirit is striving with minds and with the whole family, and will save all who are willing to be saved in His appointed way. Those who are willing should therefore become reconciled to Him while the opportunity remains, using the limited time at once and not delaying, surrendering to Him now. Salvation in this time calls for humble, earnest effort, working out salvation in humility with fear and trembling.

Conviction is the Holy Spirit striving with the mind, working to convict and convert, and urging immediate response while salvation is offered. Now is therefore the time to accept salvation and give oneself to Christ, an urgent call especially to the careless and indifferent because the opportunity is limited. God's love and heavenly messages must be heeded at once by denying self, lifting the cross and following Jesus, rather than hardening the heart. Disregarding light while Satan makes error attractive is choosing darkness over light, and makes sin greater.

Setting in Second Corinthians

The verse is spoken to those working together with God, who are not to let the grace of God be received in vain because God hears in the accepted time and helps in the day of salvation, and now is that accepted time and day of salvation. As fellow laborers, teachers especially are to take these words for their work, appealing to others to be reconciled to God at once rather than receiving His grace in vain. Those who carry the light of the gospel can use this same appeal as they reach others, urging that the present moment is the time to respond to salvation without letting it go to waste.

The verse belongs to the instruction of the sixth chapter of Second Corinthians, which sets forth God's Word as the highest education. There is no education higher than that contained in its principles, no higher education than was given to the early disciples and is given through the Word, and nothing in the world in the line of education so exalted as that instruction. It is light and instruction from God about what constitutes the higher education, to be diligently studied and comprehended by students, to be searched out in the Word instead of falling in line with the world and studying what the world studies. Its principles are to be advanced in only just as far as the Word leads, to be worked for intelligently, with righteousness as the sign of understanding the will of God committed through His messengers.

That chapter is to be read and studied and its instructions put into practice, bringing encouragement to those who have a genuine sense of the gospel message. It calls every servant to be under the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, living as the temple of the living God, separate from unbelief and uncleanness, with God dwelling and walking in them as their God and Father and receiving them as sons and daughters. Heeded in this way, its instructions safeguard families from errors that threaten the churches. The verse is joined to commending oneself as a minister of God through patience in suffering and affliction and through pureness, knowledge, kindness, truth, and the power of God. Applied to school work, this requires that schools not be run in a cheap careless manner, that small mistakes be corrected at once, and that every task in temporal matters and in eternal interests be done faithfully and well. Applied to medical workers and to all working with Christ, it is an exhortation to work faithfully, to give no occasion for blame on the ministry, and to show themselves to be God's ministers.

Salvation Offered in Christ

Christ now offers freedom from sin and grace in the present accepted time, yet He does not force the will, and persistent refusal can bend the will toward evil until it no longer desires to choose that grace. His mercy is still pleading today, and He is still speaking in love to the stubborn sinner who builds hope on self while facing impending ruin and doom.

As heaven's Gift still waited for Jerusalem's acceptance for a little space while Jesus wept over her and she could still have repented, each sinner still has a short space to turn from evil ways, open the door to Christ, accept heaven's Gift, and flee to the sure foundation before the tempest breaks and ruin comes. Christ's mercy is still appealing to sinners to turn and receive His grace now in response to His loving invitation.

The light from the cross of Calvary shines in clear, bright rays in the day of salvation, revealing Jesus as the sacrifice for sin, through whose blood there is redemption and forgiveness of sins. In Him is restoration of God's moral image in man, with mercy and forgiveness to all who draw near to God with confession and repentance while God draws near to them. Therefore no sinner who responds need come under the coming denunciation of God's wrath in righteousness against all who persist in disloyalty and transgression of His law.

People should come to Christ now, accept Him as personal Saviour and righteousness, and repent, because pardon is available to all who repent. Even the blackest crimes are pardoned to the full when they are repented of and forever forsaken, with penitence and confession and reform of character and a new heart. His righteousness answers the demands of justice, so those who accept Him will not be found wanting when the Lord comes.

Salvation calls for humble, earnest effort, becoming reconciled to God in His appointed way while opportunity remains and working out salvation with fear and trembling. Everything is owed to God as the author of salvation, for it is God who works in the person both to will and to do of His good pleasure. This present hour of probation is God's time for salvation when His Spirit is striving, and it must be used at once without delay by all who are willing to be saved.

The opportunity stands in the context of Christ's present intercession in the heavenly sanctuary and the work of the great Day of Atonement. In this day of grace people should humble themselves before God, confess their sins, seek pardon, and cooperate with Christ in preparation to reflect the divine image. Those who do not join Christ in this work of salvation will be found wanting in the sanctuary judgment.

Urgency and Danger of Delay

Now is the time to respond without delay because the opportunity is limited, the time to seek pardon and break free from Satan's snare is brief, and God's patience and mercy must not be presumed upon. Death may come when a person can no longer act, so while reason remains character for heaven and immortality must be formed and preparation for the Lord's coming must be made rather than waiting for a more convenient season. Time is very short, so readiness must come while probation lingers, in sympathy with heaven and awake to catch the first tones from the heavenly Father, surrendering the will just now, dying to self, breaking down every barrier to let the Saviour into the heart, placing oneself in connection with heaven and leaving God to make the way, heeding entreaties, reproof and warnings rather than choosing one's own course.

The day of the Lord is right upon us with no time to lose, so grace must not be received in vain and the word of God must be diligently heeded without delay and without neglect. Probation may soon close and Christ is soon to come, which makes the present the time to accept salvation. Response to God's mercy and compassion and love is shown by loving one another as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it to sanctify and cleanse it and present it holy and without blemish.

Persistent rejection can bend the will toward evil until a person no longer desires or chooses to accept the freedom from sin and grace now offered without forcing the will, so the appeal must not be delayed. When conviction comes as the Holy Spirit strives with the mind, immediate response is urged while salvation is offered, by denying self, lifting the cross and following Jesus rather than hardening the heart. Disregarding light while Satan makes error attractive is choosing darkness over light and makes sin greater.

Neglecting the brief time of probation and offered mercy does not remove obligation but adds to guilt, so the time must be used to surrender to God. The soul's eternal interests must not be trifled with, nor human praise and flattery relied upon, because the last call of mercy is being made to a guilty world for present and eternal good. There is no second probation after this life and no second trial; this present life is the only and last probation that will ever be given. Salvation must be secured in this present life or the person will be forever lost, by resisting every kind of sin, waging valiant warfare against every species of sin, gaining the education needed to live in heaven in this primary school while the whole heavenly universe watches with deepest interest, and forming a character fit for the home God has prepared for those who obey His commandments, for only those who do so will pass through the portals of the holy city while the church on earth is still militant and not yet triumphant. The warning must be clearly proclaimed before probation closes, with definite, decided, self-denying and self-sacrificing missionary work to warn the world and save souls now, because year by year thousands from all kindreds, nations and tongues pass into eternity unwarned and unready, and those who hear and persist in rejecting it cast away their last hope of salvation with life-or-death urgency.

God has given Christ and all heaven's treasures and has no further means in reserve to bring people to repentance. Though He bears long with rebellion, His forbearance has limits, and those who persist in obstinate rebellion until their day of grace is past lose His protecting care and are left exposed to Satan's power. Resisting the Holy Spirit repeats the refusal seen when God revealed Himself again and again in Battle Creek with deep and unexpected movings upon hearts and minds, a letting go of selfish purposes, a bringing into the treasury of things convicted as forbidden, and blessing extending to large numbers. The sweet, holy working was not continued because some were annoyed at the outpouring, manifested their own natural dispositions in unbelief and bitterness of soul and did not drink in of the Spirit, saying it was only excitement and not the Holy Spirit and not showers from heaven of the latter rain. Those who resisted at Minneapolis waited to travel over the same ground again with the same spirit, and afterward with evidence heaped upon evidence those not softened and subdued put their own interpretation upon every manifestation of grace and pronounced in heart and soul and words that it was fanaticism and delusion. They stood like a rock while waves of mercy flowed upon and around them, beaten back by hard and wicked hearts, a disgraceful treatment of Jesus Christ represented by the Holy Spirit witnessed by all the universe of heaven, the same treatment the Jews gave Christ, and they lost much that if received would have made them wise unto salvation and holier men prepared to do God's work with sanctified ability.

Call to Respond at Once

Now is the time to decide for God without delay, to surrender at once, deny self, lift the cross and follow Jesus. Young men and women are to urge one another to decide and act at once, taking a firm stand to be true to obligations to God. The call is for an unqualified, instantaneous renunciation of every unchristlike and questionable habit.

To respond is to forsake the wicked way and unrighteous thoughts, to seek the Lord while He may be found and call upon Him while He is near, and to return to Him with assurance of mercy and abundant pardon. It is too late to remain half-hearted, serving divers lusts and cherishing traits of character that exclude from heaven, so evil is to be put away without delay and thorough work made for eternity. This invitation rests on the promise that God's ways and thoughts are higher than ours, and that Jesus yearns with intense earnestness for sinners to be saved.

Response means surrendering the whole heart, soul, strength, and mind to God in humility, falling on the Rock and being broken and undoing what has been done wrong. Even one centered in self, spiritually deceived and ruled by selfishness, wayward in heart while Jesus offered blessing and putting the Saviour to shame, still has hope if the heart is humbled before God at once. Now, just now, is the time to surrender the will and die to self, to break down every barrier and let the Saviour into the heart and place oneself in connection with heaven, leaving God to make the way.

While mercy still invites, each person is to give self to the Lord, heed His voice without hardening the heart, and not put off answering until a more convenient time. Today is the day of visitation given to each person individually, meaning the present time and not tomorrow. Receiving Him today brings peace and pardon, even heaven and pardon of transgressions.

Now is the time for a decided, determined effort for the soul's salvation, with nothing allowed to divert the mind or hinder, seeking God at once by penitence and confession and making thorough work before present impressions wear away. Character is to be reformed by cleansing from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfecting holiness, receiving a new heart of flesh, for Jesus pardons to the full even the blackest crimes when they are repented of and forever forsaken. Such immediate reform prepares to inherit eternal life and enter the pearly gates, forming a character fit for heaven and for the home prepared for those who obey.

Self is to be subdued, weaknesses of character corrected, and people made ready to serve in unity with their brethren, choosing to love and serve God and do what pleases Him. Time is very short, so readiness must come while probation lingers, in sympathy with heaven and awake to catch the first tones from the heavenly Father. Departing from God and standing on Satan's ground places a person in the enemy's power and leads to perishing, while God has built a wall of protection around His people lest they become exposed to the temptations that beset them on every side.

Sharing and Living the Message

Those who carry the gospel are to use this appeal to plead with people not to let the grace of God be wasted but to accept it now, and all believers as fellow workers with Christ are to bring the light of truth before as many minds as possible. Canvasser-evangelists going from house to house are to employ this beseeching, letting light shine by placing the precious light of truth before the greatest possible number. Medical workers are included in the same charge to labor together with Christ, to avoid bringing blame on their ministry, and to prove themselves ministers of God.

The present accepted time and day of salvation demand urgent labor for perishing souls, sharing the light that has been given and seeking help in earnest prayer while opportunity still lingers. Because year by year thousands of every kindred, nation, and tongue pass into eternity unwarned and unready, and because this present life is the only probation ever to be given with no second probation afterward, definite, decided, self-denying and self-sacrificing missionary work is required to warn the world and secure salvation now. The call is to act at once to warn of approaching judgment and to carry truth to the people, including large audiences in the cities. Time is fleeting and golden opportunities to save souls are passing, so believers with a work to do for the Master cannot turn aside to waste hours, since any hour may prove to some soul the hour of repentance and salvation, and grace qualifies human weakness for useful living in this saving work.

Immediate response means giving no offense in anything so that the ministry is not blamed, especially by refraining from words that disparage one another and from unkind dealing and harsh words. Lack of power is often chargeable not to the ministry but to the members, who hear the Word without mixing faith with their hearing. Ministers are to be people of faith expressing pure love, and all are to answer mercy and compassion with love for one another as Christ loved the church and gave Himself to sanctify and cleanse it and present it holy and without blemish.

Families are to seek the Lord earnestly and do His work now, praying for help to overcome hasty speech and blame. The home preparation belonging to the present accepted time is to cultivate kindness, courtesy, thoughtfulness, and care.

Teachers as fellow laborers are addressed directly as workers together with God who must not receive grace in vain, since God hears in the accepted time and helps in the day of salvation. In school work this means acting at once, refusing to run schools in a cheap careless manner, correcting small mistakes immediately, and doing every task in temporal matters and eternal interests faithfully and well, approving workers as ministers of God in patience, affliction, pureness, knowledge, kindness, and truth. Everyone bearing the Christian name is under obligation to rise to exalted human excellence by revealing Christ's character in works as His chosen representatives to an apostate world, for the NOW is ever the eternal NOW with no tomorrow belonging to us, and the whole chapter from first verse to last with its conditions is of great importance and its principles must never be neglected.