2 Corinthians 6:13 Commentary and Bible Study

To make up your lack, to make up your deficit of affection, ‘be ye also enlarged.’ ‘Stir your hearts, reflect on what we brought to you, and how you have been changed by the blessing of God, and have come to light and salvation. Just reflect for a moment on who with great difficulty brought you this message despite persecution and resistance, and when you have done so take a stand on the truth.’ So he exhorts them to stir their hearts and to be grateful and to be much warmer.Now, to a large extent this had already happened, because in 2 Corinthians 7:7 he says, ‘And not by his [Titus’] coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning,’ your regret for your coldness, ‘your fervent mind toward me; so that I rejoiced the more.’ To a large extent they had recovered themselves, but the gentle reproof still needs to be made. It was unworthy of them to grow cold towards the apostles and the band of preachers that he brought to them.Now what caused their lapse and their growing disregard for the apostle and his fellow preachers once their backs were turned? The answer is – the Judaisers. That is the name given to the party of false teachers that were going round and infiltrating the recently formed churches and perverting their views. They were not converted people, they were infiltrators. They told these Gentiles, ‘You cannot have reconciliation with God unless you adopt the ceremonies of the old Jewish law.’ The ceremonial law was now passed and finished and done. But no they said, ‘You have to become a ritualist, you have to be circumcised, you have to follow the rites and the ceremonies of the law. To believe in Christ is not enough.’ It was a contradiction of the gospel. Many of the Corinthians were rather impressed by this and taken in by this, because these Judaisers were very good at what they did. They were very eloquent in their preaching, and they told fantastic stories and people enjoyed listening to them. There was no TV in those days and this was great entertainment – to hear an accomplished speaker. Orators and speakers were very accomplished in the days before mass public entertainment arrived. ‘We come from Jerusalem the home of true religion’, they said. They began to denigrate the apostle Paul, and the people unworthily believed a lot of this, and were in doubt of the apostles and the preachers who brought them the true gospel. Now however, they had recovered to some extent their warmth for the truth and for the apostles, and it had begun to dawn on them what they had done in letting in these people.