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2Co_6:1. Connection and meaning: “We do not, however, let the matter rest merely with that entreaty on Christ’s behalf: be ye reconciled to God, but, since we are His fellow-workers, and there is thus more laid on us to do than that entreaty on Christ’s behalf, we also exhort that ye lose not again the grace of God which you have received (2Co_5:21), that ye do not frustrate it in your case by an unchristian life.”
συνεργοῦντες ] The συν finds its contextual reference not in the subject of 2Co_5:21, where there is only an auxiliary clause assigning a reason, nor yet in ὡς τοῦ θεοῦ παρακαλ . διʼ ἡμῶν , 2Co_5:20, in which there was given only a modal definition of the πρεσβεύειν ὑπὲρ Χ ., but in ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ , 2Co_5:20 : as working together with Christ. It cannot, therefore, apply to God (Oecumenius, Lyra, Beza, Calvin, Cajetanus, Vorstius, Estius, Grotius, Calovius, and others, including Rückert, de Wette, Osiander, Hofmann, in accordance with 1Co_3:9), or to the fellow-apostles (Heumann, Leun), or to the Corinthian teachers (Schulz, Bolten), or to the Corinthians in general (Chrysostom, Theodoret, Pelagius, Bengel, Billroth, Olshausen[246]), or to the exhortations, with which his own example co-operates (Michaelis, Emmerling, Flatt). The apostles are fellow-workers with Christ just in this, that they are ambassadors ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ , and as such have to represent His cause and prosecute His wor.
μὴ εἰς κενὸν κ . τ . λ .] ἐπάγει ταῦτα τὴν περὶ τὸν βίον σπουδὴν ἀπαιτῶν , Chrysostom. For if he that is reconciled through faith leads an unchristian life, the reconciliation is in his case frustrated. See Romans 6; Rom_8:12-13, al.
εἰς κενόν ] incassum, of no effect, Gal_2:2; Php_2:16; 1Th_3:5; Diod. xix. 9; Heliod. x. 30; Jacobs, ad Anthol. VII. p. 328.
δέξασθαι ] is to be explained as recipiatis. So Vulgate, Luther, and others, including Rückert, Ewald, Osiander, Hofmann. Those, namely, who, like the readers ( ὑμᾶς ), have become partakers of the reconciliation through compliance with the entreaty in 2Co_5:20, are placed now under the divine grace (comp. Rom_6:14 f.). And this they are not to reject, but to receive and accept ( δέξασθαι ), and that not ΕἸς ΚΕΝΌΝ , i.e. not without the corresponding moral results, which would be wanting if one reconciled and justified by faith were not to follow the drawing of grace and the will of the Spirit and to walk in the καινότης τῆς ζωῆς (Rom_6:4) as a new creature, etc. Comp. Theodoret. Pelagius also is right: “in vacuum gratiam Dei recipit, qui in novo testamento non novus est.” Hence it is not (not even in Rom_15:9) to be taken in the sense of the praeterite, as many of the more recent commentators (even de Wette) take it, contrary to usage, following Erasmus: “ne committatis, ut, semel gratis a peccatis exemti, in pristinam vitam relabentes in vanum receperitis gratiam Dei.”
ὑμᾶς ] is now, after the apostolic calling has been expressed at 2Co_5:20 in its general bearing, added and placed at the end for emphasis, because now the discourse passes into the direct exhortation to the readers, that they receive not without effect, etc. If in their case that apostolic entreaty for reconciliation had not passed without compliance, they are now also to accept and act on the grace under which they have been placed.
[246] Billroth says: “he does not simply preach the gospel and leave the Corinthians then to stand alone, but he at the same time busies himself with them for their salvation, inasmuch as he stands by their side with his exhortations as their instructor. “Olshausen: “condescendingly Paul does not place himself over the Corinthians; he wishes only to be their fellow-labourer, to exhort them in such wise as they ought to exhort one another.” In that case Paul ought to have written συνεργοῦντες δὲ ὑμῖν , in order to be understood.