devotional post # 2178

2 Corinthians 6:11-13

2Co 6:11 Our mouth has been opened to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open.
2Co 6:12 You have not been narrowly limited by us, but you are narrowly limited in your own affections.
2Co 6:13 In exchange (I speak as to children) make room in your hearts also.

open wide

Paul returned to the theme of openness because the situation in Corinth had become painfully ironic. His team had opened their mouths wide to proclaim the gospel. They had held nothing back. They had spoken the truth plainly, sacrificially, and with deep affection. Through that proclamation, the Corinthians had come to Christ. Their entire spiritual existence was the result of the missionaries’ willingness to speak freely and boldly.

But now the Corinthians had closed their hearts to the very people who had brought them life. They were no longer willing to receive the full scope of the team’s ministry. Perhaps they were still willing to hear praise, affirmation, and encouragement. But rebuke? Correction? Calls to repentance? Challenges to their behavior? Those things they no longer wanted. They had narrowed the range of what they were willing to accept, filtering the message so that only the pleasant parts reached them.

Paul understood what was happening. The Corinthians were not rejecting the missionaries; they were rejecting the parts of God’s message that made them uncomfortable. They were treating the gospel as something to be curated rather than something to be obeyed. They wanted the benefits of grace without the demands of discipleship. They wanted the comfort of Christ without the correction of Christ.

So Paul urged them to open their hearts again. He was not asking for emotional sympathy or personal loyalty. He was asking them to receive everything God had to say through his team. The missionaries were not speaking on their own authority. Their words—whether comforting or confronting—were part of God’s work of shaping the Corinthians into a mature community of faith. Closing their hearts to the messengers meant closing their hearts to the message.

Paul’s appeal was pastoral and urgent. The Corinthians had once received the gospel with joy. Now they needed to receive the ongoing ministry of the gospel with the same openness. Growth requires correction. Holiness requires challenge. Faithfulness requires listening even when the words sting. Paul longed for them to widen their hearts, to make room again for the full counsel of God, and to restore the relationship that had once brought them life.

His plea remains timeless: the gospel cannot be selectively received. It must be welcomed in its fullness, through both encouragement and rebuke, because both come from the God who loves and transforms His people.

LORD, when we start to limit the form of instruction we are willing to receive from your servants, show us how to resist that temptation.