6:2

For he says: “In an acceptable time I heard you”: Paul is quoting from the prophecy at Isa 49:8. This statement was apparently made to Isaiah, who represented the nation of Israel and personified that nation as a “servant.” (Isa 49:3) This was a restoration prophecy that had its first fulfillment when Israel was liberated from Babylon. However, Isaiah says that this “servant” of Jehovah would be given as “a covenant for the people” (Isa 49:8) and as “a light of nations, so that [God’s] salvation may reach the ends of the earth” (Isa 49:6). This marks the prophecy as Messianic, applying also to Christ Jesus as God’s “servant.” (Compare Isa 42:1-4, 6, 7 with Mt 12:18-21.) The “time of favor” was when Jehovah would answer and help his servant. Accordingly, during Jesus’ earthly life, he “offered up supplications and also petitions . . . to the One who was able to save him out of death, and he was favorably heard for his godly fear.” (Heb 5:7-9; compare Lu 22:41-44; 23:46; Joh 12:27, 28; 17:1-5.) It was, therefore, “a day of salvation” and “an acceptable time [or, “a time of favor”]” for God’s own Son, the foretold “servant.”​—Compare study note on Lu 4:19.

Look! Now is the especially acceptable time. Look! Now is the day of salvation: The prophecy at Isa 49:8 that Paul quotes is both a restoration prophecy and a Messianic prophecy. While the fulfillment of this prophecy involved Jesus Christ, Paul quoted from this prophecy to indicate that it also applied to Christians. Paul urged them “not to accept the undeserved kindness of God and miss its purpose.” (2Co 6:1) Those Christians had become the spiritual “Israel of God” from Pentecost 33 C.E. onward. (Ga 6:16) However, they needed to prove worthy of God’s undeserved kindness so that the “acceptable time,” or time of favor, might be “the day of salvation” for them.