Matthew Poole and continuators on 2 Corinthians 6:1

1 WE then, as workers together with him , beseech you also , that ye receive not the grace of God in vain .

Ministers of the Gospel are Fellow workers together with Christ; though but as Instruments, serving him as the Principal Agent, and efficient Cause: He trod the Wine-press of his Fathers wrath alone, and had no Partner in the Purchace of mans salvation; but in the application of the purchased salvation, he admits of Fellow-workers. Though the internal work be his alone, and the effects of his Spirit upon the Souls of those whose hearts are changed; yet there is a Ministerial part, which lyeth in Exhortation and Argument, by the Ear conveyed to the Soul; thus Ministers work together with Christ. And without him they can do nothing: They are Workers, but they must have Christ work with them, or they will find that they labour in vain.

Grace signifieth any free Gift; and 'tis in the New Testament variously applied; but here it signifies, the Doctrine of the Gospel, held forth in the Preaching of it; which these Corinthians had received with the Ears of their Bodies. And this was Paul's, and should be every godly Minister's work, not with roughness, but with all mildness and gentleness, to beseech those to whom they preach the Gospel, that they would believe and embrace it, and live up to the holy Rules of it; without which (as to their Souls benefit) all the kindness of God, in affording them the Gospel and means of Grace, is in vain and lost; (though God yet hath his End, and his Ministers shall be a sweet savour to God, as well with reference to them that perish, as those who shall be saved). For the effectual Grace of God in the heart, that cannot be received in vain; nor is that here spoken of.

Marginal references: 1 Cor. 3.9.; Heb. 12.15.