2 Corinthians 6:8 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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2 Corinthians 6:8

Comments

The apostle engages in the work of the ministry and urges us also to do so regardless of the reception that we get. Now he lived in times of immense physical hostility, and yet regardless of the reception he carried on. We live in times of intellectual hostility and mounting legal hostility looming on the horizon. And so this verse is so important to us also.We distinguish between honour and dishonour, evil report and good report, by noting that honour and dishonour was what was given to the apostle to his face, whereas evil report and good report is what he received behind his back or unknown to him. He receives the honour of believers – or most of them – and appreciation and praise, whereas dishonour are the insults, scorn, contempt, derision, and indifference which he receives from pagans and so many of the Jews, unbelievers in Christ.But behind his back false teachers got into the church at Corinth and other churches, and they began to promote their heretical ideas. They prepared the way by running down the apostle and trying to convince believers that he was not really an apostle and that they had better credentials: did they not come from Jerusalem? And weak people were often fascinated by their teaching and their fables and their stories.Then he had evil report from the Jewish leaders, constantly informing on him and presenting false charges to the Roman authorities. He had the opposition and the bad report of the Roman authorities also. As well as this there were some people who seemed to be believers, and they seemed to teach the gospel, but they were in it for themselves. They were against the apostle, and did not like his example of going round as a poor man and preaching even in places of great opposition. They wanted to get the reputation and the support of Christian people without those sacrifices.

Application

Today, we get thanks as preachers. Christian people who witness will sometimes be thanked, but you know culture has changed. When I was young, a young preacher I used to get a lot of thanks, every service; so much thanks from people, even when congregations were small, and it was not actually very good for you but you got thanked immensely. But culture has changed, and now you get thanked quite infrequently, quite seldom. In fact, if you get thanked today it is highly probable that the person thanking you for your message is over 70. I think people are grateful but it is not a culture in which thanks is expressed constantly anymore. But we are not here to be thanked. We are not here to be sensitive to those things. We read the word of God – ‘By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report.’ With or without thanks, our great privilege and our task is to declare Christ, and to represent him. Unfortunately here and there, there are even ministers who do live for praise, so they will not touch anything that might cause them criticism or offense. So when contemporary Christian worship comes into their church, they say, I cannot oppose that, I cannot reprove that; nobody would like me anymore, and so they drop it and these things get into churches, here and there. But no, we are to hold the line no matter what. Faithfulness to God means keeping a straight course and telling the truth and urging for the truth no matter what, popularity or not.

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2 Corinthians 6:8 Commentary and Bible Study