2 Cor 5:20. for Christ. Christ has earned this reconciliation, and proclaimed it to the world.
ambassadors. St. Paul is ambassador for Christ, because he bears His Person, and speaks in His name and by His power (Matt. 10:20; 2 Cor. 13:3).
be reconciled. Though God has reconciled all mankind on His part, and in intention, yet He has left to man the exercise of free-will, by which he can either accept the reconciliation through Faith and Penance, or reject it.
2 Cor 5:21. knew—that is, by experience.
he hath made him sin. This may mean, according to the Hebrew idiom, hath made Him a sin-offering, or sacrifice for sin. But it probably has a stronger meaning, namely, He hath made Him the representative of sin, on whom the burden of the sins of the whole world was heaped, as if He were sin personified, so that in His death sins died in their collectivity. Another interpretation of the words is that they mean made him appear as a sinner, but this is not so probable.
justice of God is the justice which God gives, as opposed to that in which a man trusts in his own merits, and tries to make himself just without the co-operation of God’s grace (cf. Rom. 10:3). St. Paul uses the noun “justice” instead of such an expression as “that we might be made just,” both to mark the antithesis with “sin” in the former clause, and also to signify that in Christ we become truly inwardly justified; justice permeates our whole being, if we in here, by faith and Charity, in Him who is Justice itself.
2 Cor 6:1. and we helping.… There is no break here in the subject-matter. This verse follows immediately on v. 20 (v. 21 being parenthetical). We beseech you, be reconciled to God.… We exhort you that you receive not the grace of God in vain.
helping—that is, either “helping Christ,” whose ambassadors we are (v. 20), by forwarding the work of reconciliation which He has on His side accomplished; or “helping God,” acting as His coadjutors in the work of reconciliation (cf. 1 Cor. 3:9).
in vain, i.e., by not corresponding with grace.
2 Cor 6:2. for he saith.… This verse is parenthetical. It is quoted from Isa. 49:8, where God addresses these words to the Messiah pleading and suffering for sinful humanity. The moment is now come of which we were assured by the prophet. The Messiah has appeared. God has heard His prayers, and has supported Him in the day of His suffering, which is the day of our salvation.
he saith, that is, God, speaking in the Scriptures.
accepted … acceptable: rather, “accepted” … “most accepted.” It means the time which is accepted and approved of by God.
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