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2 Corinthians 6

Paul joins an urgent appeal to receive God’s grace with costly service, openhearted affection, and separation from idolatry.

Paul appeals to the Corinthians to receive God’s grace with urgency, declaring that the day of salvation is now. He describes the hardships and conduct that mark him and his companions as God’s servants, including sorrow alongside rejoicing and poverty alongside spiritual riches. He asks the Corinthians to open their hearts to them. Then he warns against being yoked with unbelievers, grounding the command in their identity as God’s temple and God’s promise to dwell among his people.

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1Working together, we entreat also that you do not receive the grace of God in vain.
2For he says, “At an acceptable time I listened to you. In a day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
3We give no occasion of stumbling in anything, that our service may not be blamed,
4but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God: in great endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses,
5in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in labors, in watchings, in fastings,
6in pureness, in knowledge, in perseverance, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in sincere love,
7in the word of truth, in the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,
8by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true,
9as unknown and yet well known, as dying and behold—we live, as punished and not killed,
10as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things.
11Our mouth is open to you, Corinthians. Our heart is enlarged.
12You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.
13Now in return—I speak as to my children—you also open your hearts.
14Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship do righteousness and iniquity have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?
15What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what portion does a believer have with an unbeliever?
16What agreement does a temple of God have with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk in them. I will be their God and they will be my people.”
17Therefore “‘Come out from among them, and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you.
18I will be to you a Father. You will be to me sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.”
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Key verses
2 Corinthians 6:16The Corinthians’ identity as God’s temple grounds Paul’s rejection of idols in God’s promise to dwell among his people.
2 Corinthians 6:14The command against unequal yoking begins a series of contrasts showing the incompatibility of allegiance to Christ and evil.
2 Corinthians 6:17The call to separation makes holiness concrete, while God’s promise of welcome gives the command its relational setting.
Where this chapter reaches

The temple language connects with 1 Corinthians, where God’s people are also described as his temple and participation in idolatry is opposed. The promise of God dwelling among his people links with Leviticus, Ezekiel, and Revelation through their shared language of divine presence and belonging.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

Which contrast in Paul’s account of service most challenges your picture of faithfulness, and why?

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How do God’s promises of presence and fatherhood shape your reading of the command to separate?

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Questions people ask about 2 Corinthians 6

What does “unequally yoked with unbelievers” mean in 2 Corinthians 6?

The image describes a binding partnership between people whose allegiances conflict. Paul explains it through contrasts between righteousness and iniquity, Christ and Belial, and God’s temple and idols. Marriage is a common application, though the passage does not name it. The immediate concern is entanglement that compromises faithfulness to God.

What does it mean to be a temple of the living God?

Paul addresses the Corinthians as a community belonging to God, among whom God promises to dwell and walk. That identity explains why idols have no place in their worship. The chapter joins the temple image to God’s promise to receive his people and be a Father to them.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).