The Danger of Receiving Grace… But Never Living It
What does it mean to receive the grace of God, and still miss its impact? 2 Corinthians 6:1–13 challenges us to stop delaying obedience and start responding to grace today.
-
1 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says,
“In a favorable time I listened to you,
and in a day of salvation I have helped you.”Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 3 We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; 7 by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.
11 We have spoken freely to you,[a] Corinthians; our heart is wide open. 12 You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. 13 In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also.
Don’t Waste Grace: Making Room in the Garage of Your Heart
Last week in the text we covered, the Apostle Paul confronted us. This week, he continues in that spirit, only what he shares is not just information, it’s an invitation. It’s an invitation not to take the grace of God for granted. It’s an invitation that’s not just about theology, but about what we’re living into as Christ followers.
2 Corinthians 6:1 begins with this: “Working together with him…” Some translations say “God’s coworkers.” “We appeal to you.” Some say “we urge you.” Think about the emotive language Paul is using. We urge you, we appeal to you. In fact, you can also translate it this way: We plead with you not to take the grace of God in vain.
Let’s ask a question. If God is inspiring the Apostle Paul to instruct the church, “Don’t take this for granted,” what is the grace of God?
What Is Grace?
The grace of God is the power of God at work that saves us. We are saved by grace through faith in the person of Jesus Christ. But that is not all that grace is. We want to make much of that, but that is not all that grace is. Grace is also the ongoing work of God, which is the power of God to transform your life after you have come to know Jesus Christ.
The grace of God, to use a definition, is all of God for all my needs. Let me define it in another way, because grace is so much a part of the character of God. The grace of God is God working in your life.
Paul here is appealing to the church at Corinth: do not take the grace of God in vain. A few months ago, as we were journeying through the early part of 2 Corinthians, Paul taught us that the grace of God is available to us only for a limited time. Do not take for granted the window of time we are living in, because a day will come when the grace of God is no longer available in the context of our ongoing development. Because one day, as we learned two weeks ago, we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
There is a sense that this man of God, the Apostle Paul, is begging the church at Corinth not to waste grace.
Paul introduces a tension: grace can be received, but still not applied for the believer. It can be present but not productive. It can be available but not activated in the life of a believer. So the question is not just, Do you believe in the grace of God? The deeper question, in light of where the text takes us, is: Is God’s grace changing anything in your life?
There are five primary matters that the Apostle Paul brings up and navigates us through.
1) Grace Requires a Response
The first matter is this: grace requires a response. That is why Paul says, “Don’t receive the presence of God, the grace of God, in vain.” This means God’s grace can, in a sense, be in your hands, but not shape your habits, your mindset, your relationships, or the way you work with and get along with people.
This is where many people get stuck. We celebrate grace at the moment of salvation, looking back at what God did when we were saved by grace through faith in the person of Jesus Christ, but we neglect the grace that God has declared is available to us. In fact, it is the way that grace is defined most of the time in the New Testament: the very power that transforms our lives.
In other words, we love that grace forgives us. We want to make much of that. But we hesitate when the grace of God begins to confront us.
This is why the Apostle Paul quotes Isaiah 49:8 in 2 Corinthians 6:2: “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” But then he takes that verse, and he makes it personal. He says this: “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
We need to pause here and consider what Paul means by salvation in this context. We understand we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. But the root word for the word salvation, the Greek word sozo, not only means to be delivered from a kingdom of darkness and redeemed into a kingdom of light, to be saved, but sozo, that root word, also means to be made whole.
What he is talking about here is not only our salvation that puts us in the kingdom of light and delivers us from judgment and wrath from God, but it also develops wholeness, our development into the image of Jesus. Paul is declaring: now, do not put this off, now. This is Christianity applied to our circumstances now, not later, not when life slows down, not when our emotions line up in some way. Now.
Is it not true that all of us are capable of being professional procrastinators when it comes to spiritual things? We have a capacity within us to delay obedience as if it is optional. “I’ll deal with this bad attitude later. I know that I need to forgive this person, but I’m just going to work it out where I get there someday. I’ll get serious about the things of God when things settle down.”
But grace, according to what we are being taught by the Apostle Paul, does not operate on delay. It calls for a decision.
To use a parallel, it is like if you had a deadly disease and you went to the doctor and the doctor gave you a prescription and the doctor declared, “This will cure you. This will save your life.” But you go get the prescription, set it on your kitchen counter, and never take it. The medicine is real, the power is there to heal you, but if it is not taken, it does not heal.
The grace of God is not meant to be admired alone. It is meant to be taken in, lived out, and walked in daily.
Here is the tension. God’s grace is free, but it is not passive. It invites. The grace of God invites you into participation. The grace of God invites you into application. God will not force transformation on you. You have to respond.
2) Grace Shows Up in Real Life, Not Ideal Life
The second matter Paul brings up is this: God’s grace operates in real life, not in an ideal life.
Paul does something here that really challenges our expectations. He starts listing what life looks like when somebody is walking in the grace of God. And to keep it real, it does not look comfortable. Look at verse 4:
“But as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities…”
Let’s pause for a moment because what Paul is doing here is keeping it so real and so relevant. If we are honest, that is not the kind of Christianity most people think they are signing up for. What we want is the grace of God working in our lives to remove problems. Instead, the grace of God operates in a way that it sustains us through problems.
Paul says that this is what God’s grace looks like in real life. This is why he uses himself as an example. This is why he takes a moment to describe troubles, hardships, distress, being beaten, imprisonment, chaos, sleepless nights, and hunger. When he is doing this, he is not describing failures. He is describing faithfulness. He is describing fruitfulness as God being faithful to give grace to sustain him.
Properly understood, that shifts our perspective on how God works. Some of us have misinterpreted our struggles as signs that something is wrong when, in reality, they may be evidence that something is right. Because God’s grace does not change your circumstances. God’s grace changes your capacity as you walk with God in your circumstances.
Think about the building of a bridge that is designed to carry heavy loads. You do not know the strength of the bridge when it is empty. You know the strength; however, when the weight is applied.
Some have been under severe pressure for a season. You may have even been asking the question: “God, why is this happening? Why is it so tough?” And God may be saying: “I’m showing you what I’ve built into you. I’m showing you that my grace is sufficient for you.”
If that was the Apostle Paul’s testimony with a thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:9), then do not think that any of us are above that as well. The grace of God operating in your life is internal reinforcement that allows you to carry what would otherwise crush you.
3) The Paradox of a Grace-Filled Life
The third matter Paul navigates is what we would call the paradox of a grace-filled life. Paul moves to one of the most powerful sections in this passage, navigating through verses 8 through 10:
“Through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.” 2 Corinthians 6:8-10
That is a picture of the paradox of the Christian life. From the outside, it does not always make sense. There are seasons when you are misunderstood, but you remain faithful. There are seasons where you are overlooked, but you are still called. There are seasons where you are pressed, but because of a greater grace operating in you, you are still standing. There are seasons where you are sorrowful in the natural, but you are rejoicing because of an inner strength that is coming from God.
That is not being Pollyanna. That is not denial. That is depth in Christ.
Your joy is not dependent upon circumstances. “As poor, yet making many rich.” Even when you feel like you do not have much, God is still using you to pour into others. “As having nothing, yet possessing everything.” Your identity, because of the grace of God in you, is rooted in Christ, not your circumstances.
A grace-filled life is like an iceberg. When you see what is on the surface, that is only a fraction of what is really there below the surface. A grace-filled life is deep beneath the surface. We do not let appearances fool us because we know God is always doing more than what is being seen in the visible.
4) Integrity Is the Container of Grace
Paul talks about how his own life is lived in purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, sincere love, in the Holy Spirit, with genuine truth. The question we would ask is, why does he emphasize that?
The grace of God operating in our lives does not just change what we believe. The grace of God working in our lives changes how we behave. It changes how we live.
But listen to how he nuances this. Verse 3: “We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry.”
He understands that the way he lives will affect the message that he gives. That is true for all of us. It is also especially relevant because we live in a time in Western culture when many people are skeptical of the church, not always because of doctrine but because of inconsistency.
The Apostle Paul is saying: Do not let your life contradict the message of God’s work in your life.
If someone handed you a bottle and said, “This is clean water,” but the bottle was dirty and cracked, you would hesitate to drink it. To use it as a parallel, your life is the container, and the message is the water.
When we use the word integrity here, it does not mean perfection. Integrity is the container of grace. What it does mean is alignment. I am seeking to align my heart and my life with the grace of God, the revelation of God, the Word of God, and the way of God. It means that what is happening in private does not conflict with what you are presenting in public.
God, through His grace, empowers that kind of life. But what Paul is challenging the Corinthian church with is the need to cooperate with it.
5) A Restricted Heart
Finally, Paul is about to address the real problem in Corinth. And it may be the real problem for many of us. For the grace of God to work in our hearts and lives to transform us, Paul addresses what is the real issue: A restricted heart.
He shifts from speaking to them generally. Now he gets personal. He says in verse 11: “We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open.”
You can feel there is emotion here. There is a father’s heart for the church. He is not speaking to them from a distance. He is getting close to them.
Then he says this in verse 12: “You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted…” In other words, he is identifying something that is limiting them from experiencing the kind of grace from God that transforms their lives. “…in your own affections.”
They are getting in the way of God’s grace at work in them in a transformative way. That is a hard truth.Paul is saying that the limitation, the governor on your life, is not on our end. It is not in the Word of God. The governor is in your heart. There is something in your heart that is restricting you.
That hits home because we often blame external factors for internal resistance. We say things like: “I would grow more if…” and you fill in the blank. “I would grow more if my schedule were different. I would grow more if people treated me differently. I would grow more if I had fewer distractions.”
Paul is saying here that the real issue is not just what is in your heart, but what has your heart. Let me put it this way: your affections determine your openness.
The Garage of Your Heart
Imagine we all decided to go to a Grizzlies game and park in the same garage. We get there, and we find out there are all kinds of festivities on Beale Street, and the city has also decided to have the world’s largest yard sale in the parking garage. We pull into the parking garage, and because of activities on Beale and the game, there is no place to park. There is a yard sale going on. There is no room to get your vehicle in there.
Here is the picture. Some of us do not have room in our hearts for what God wants to do, not because God is not willing, not because God has not provided it through the power of His grace, but because the garage of our hearts is already full.
Full of other affections. Full of distractions, things we have placed a higher value on. Full of hurt, people we need to forgive. Full of disappointment in circumstances. Full of pride. Full of things we just will not release to make room for God.
Paul’s appeal here, in terms of the bottom line and transformative grace at work in the lives of the Corinthians, is this: Make room. Open your hearts also, not halfway, not cautiously. Wide open. Open your hearts to God.
This is what it means not to waste God’s grace. This is what it means not to receive the grace of God in vain.
What Does This Look Like?
What does that actually look like, not to waste grace?
It means that when God is convicting you of something, you respond now. It means that when you are under pressure, you stay faithful. It means that when you get offended, you are quick to forgive. So the grace of God is operating. Remember, this whole chapter starts out that we are co-laborers with God. We are working together on this. When I choose to forgive, God says, “Oh, my son, my daughter is making this choice. I am going to co-labor with them to set them free. We are going to work together on this.” That is how the grace of God operates.
You pursue integrity when no one is watching. You keep your heart open. You keep your heart guarded against hardening. It means God’s grace is not just something you treasure in your past by saving you. It is something that you are walking in right now.
One of the unique things about this area of our city is that we have workout gyms everywhere. They are everywhere. You can be a member. You can sign up and pay for it. You can tell people you’re part of the gym. But if you never go, it never changes anything.
God’s grace is not a membership. God’s grace is intended to be an active movement in your life that transforms you, that moves you to a place where you are not what you were.
This is why Paul does not end this passage with a command. He ends this passage with an appeal. Make room in the garage of your heart. Open your heart, because at the end of the day, that is where everything starts.
If your heart is open, transformative grace from God can flow. If your heart is open, growth happens, transformation happens. If your heart is open, God can do Ephesians 3:20, which says God is able to do exceedingly above and beyond all that you dare to think, ask, or imagine. He can do more than you imagine.
But if your heart is closed, if you do not make room in the garage of your heart because it is cluttered with other affections, God can be present, but you will not be changed.
The Question
Here is the question: What are you doing with the grace that God has given you?
Are you delaying it? Are you ignoring it? Are you distracted from it? Or are you allowing the grace of God to shape you right now?
Because the time, according to the Scripture, is not later. The Apostle Paul could not have said it more clearly. “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
Do not waste the opportunity. Do not waste grace.
The invitation is simply this: Open your heart. Open your heart to a loving God. Open your heart to God in Christ, who declares He did not come to condemn you. He came to forgive you. He did not come to condemn you. He came to save you. And He did not come to condemn you. He came to give you life, new life, transformative life.
Don’t waste grace. Open your heart and let God do His work.
TL;DR
Grace must be responded to, not just received.
God’s grace often strengthens you through difficulty, not around it.
A grace-filled life can look paradoxical, weak yet strong, sorrowful yet joyful.
Spiritual growth is often limited not by circumstances but by a closed heart.
