“For He says: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
“There is only one word on God’s clock: is is now. The devil’s time is always ‘tomorrow.’ God’s time is always ‘today,’ “NOW”! Now is the day to quit looking at things like the heathen. Now is the day to start seeing everything through the revealed word of God, from the divine perspective.” (1)
A Christian was once engaged in a conversation with another person on the subject of Christianity. In the course of that conversation, the second person dismissed the importance of making a decision for Christ by saying, “I don’t want to rush things. I have the rest of my life to decide, right?”
Unfortunately, that response underscored a dangerous misconception: while we may have the expectation of a long life ahead, there are no guarantees. Jesus once illustrated this stark reality by way of a parable…
“…The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, ”You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”‘
But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:16-21 NIV).
The man in this parable operated under the unfounded assumption that he had many years of leisure and prosperity ahead. Because of this, he was ill-prepared when his life ended unexpectedly. Unfortunately, this example is reminiscent of those who acknowledge their need to get right with God but do not feel compelled to act upon it. To such people, 2 Corinthians 6:2 says, “I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.”
For those who act upon their need for salvation by accepting Jesus’ sacrifice on their behalf, Christ makes this promise: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24).
(1) Paul T. Butler, The Bible Study Textbook Series, Studies In Second Corinthians (College Press) [p. 217] Copyright © 1985 College Press Publishing Company https://archive.org/stream/BibleStudyTextbookSeriesSecondCorinthians/132Corinthians-Butler_djvu.txt