Monday, February 9, 2026
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: 2 Corinthians 6
Key Verse
2 Corinthians 6:10 — “As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”
Devotional Thought
Paul writes to the church at Corinth as “a worker together with him,” and his first concern is that they would not “receive the grace of God in vain.” That phrase lands with weight in February, when the resolutions of January have thinned and the year stretches ahead in ordinary weeks. Grace received in vain is grace heard on Sunday and forgotten by Monday; grace admired but never obeyed. Paul presses the urgency: “behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Not yesterday’s altar, not tomorrow’s intention — today.
Then comes one of Scripture’s most remarkable catalogues. Paul does not measure his ministry by applause but by endurance: “in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings.” He names the paradoxes of the faithful life — “as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich.” This is not a portrait of a man spared hardship; it is a portrait of a man sustained within it. The servant of God is “approving” himself, Paul says, “by pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned.” The evidence of grace is not a comfortable life but a Christlike one.
And notice the tenderness that breaks through: “O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.” Paul has held nothing back, and he longs for the same openness in return: “be ye also enlarged.” The heart of a believer is meant to stretch — toward God, toward one another — not to narrow into suspicion or self-protection.
That is why the chapter closes as it does: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” This is not coldness but covenant. Light and darkness have no fellowship; the temple of the living God has no agreement with idols. So the Lord calls His people out and apart, not to isolate them in pride, but to receive them: “I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” Separation is not the end of the story — adoption is. The same grace that calls us out calls us into a family, and today, this ordinary Monday, is the accepted time to live like sons and daughters rather than strangers.
Reflection
- Where in your life have you received God’s grace but left it largely unused — heard, admired, and then set aside?
- In what relationship or commitment are you “unequally yoked,” and what would faithful separation look like without withdrawing from love?
Prayer
Father, we come to You as children, for You have promised to be a Father unto us and to receive us as sons and daughters. Forgive us for the grace we have received in vain — the truth we have heard and not obeyed, the light we have hidden. Enlarge our hearts this day as You enlarged Paul’s, that we might love without reserve and serve without complaint. Give us patience in affliction, purity in secret, and courage to come out from among the unclean and be separate unto You. We ask it in the name of Jesus, who is the accepted time and the day of salvation. Amen.