VI.
(1) We then, as workers together with him, beseech you... — The thought of the marvel of the atoning love fills the heart of St. Paul with an almost passionate desire to see its purpose realised in those whom he has taught; and so, “as a fellow-worker with Him” — the pronoun may be referred grammatically either to God or Christ, but the general tone of the context, and St. Paul’s language elsewhere (1 Corinthians 12:6; Ephesians 1:11; Ephesians 1:20; Philippians 2:13), are decisive in favour of the former — he renews his entreaty. The language in which he does so is every way significant. Those to whom he wrote had believed and been baptised, and so they had “received the grace;” but the freedom of the will to choose good or evil remained, and if they chose evil they would frustrate the end which the grace was intended to work out. (Comp. the language of 1 Corinthians 9:27; 1 Corinthians 15:10.)