devotional post # 2174

2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2

2Co 5:20 For this reason, we are envoys in behalf of Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you in behalf of Christ, make friends with God.
2Co 5:21 In behalf of us, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2Co 6:1 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God without result.
2Co 6:2 Because he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of deliverance I have helped you.” Notice, now is the favorable time; notice, now is the day of deliverance.

grace without result

Paul’s warning to the Corinthians strikes at the heart of what it means to receive God’s grace. Grace is never meant to be a passive possession. It is meant to produce a transformed life. Christ died for all, Paul reminded them, “that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” That is the intended result of grace: a reoriented life, no longer centered on self‑interest but on devotion to the risen Lord.

To receive grace and then continue living as before would be, in Paul’s words, receiving the grace of God “in vain”—grace without result. Paul and his missionary team had not done that. They had responded to God’s grace by surrendering their lives to the mission of proclaiming Christ. Their hardships, sacrifices, and tireless efforts among the Corinthians were evidence that grace had taken root in them. They had allowed grace to reshape their priorities and redirect their lives outward toward others.

Now Paul turned the focus to the Corinthians. They had heard the message of grace. They had received it gladly. But receiving grace in word is not the same as receiving it in truth. If their lives remained unchanged—if they continued living for themselves, clinging to old loyalties, tolerating sin, and resisting Paul’s ministry—then the grace they claimed to possess would be empty. The time to respond was now. Paul emphasized the urgency by quoting Isaiah: “Now is the favorable time; now is the day of salvation.” The window of deliverance does not remain open forever. A day of judgment will come, and those who have only professed grace without living it will find themselves unprepared.

Paul’s appeal was pastoral, not harsh. He longed for the Corinthians to experience the full power of God’s grace—the kind that produces repentance, obedience, generosity, unity, and mission. He wanted them to join him in the work, not merely applaud it from a distance. The grace that saved them was the same grace that could transform them, if they would yield to it.

Paul’s message remains clear: grace is a gift, but it is also a summons. It calls believers out of self‑centered living and into a life shaped by the cross and resurrection of Christ. To receive grace without result is to miss its purpose. To receive it with a changed life is to enter fully into the salvation God offers.

LORD, show us how to live for you, while there is still time.