2 Corinthians 6:2

‘For he says, At an acceptable time I listened to you, And in a day of salvation did I succour you. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.'

In order to support this urgency he cites Scripture. ‘At an acceptable time I heard you,' (that is ‘heard and responded'), says God. ‘In the day of My deliverance I succoured you.' When God's time came, and come it now had, He would hear and succour those who professed to be His people in order to seek to bring them to Himself and save them fully. And that time, says Paul, is now. God has now begun His final saving work. The time is His accepted time, it is His day of salvation. Let them not be sure that they do not miss out on it.

The words are taken from Isaiah 49:8. They were spoken to the Servant of the Lord as He too was seen as beginning His saving work, the work which Paul and his fellow-workers were now carrying on. The past tenses signify the certainty of that future work, ‘I listened and responded, I succoured'. The application is then made by Paul declaring that they too must ensure that they participate in and be a part of the Servant's work by submitting to Him, lest they be left out and find that it is too late, that God's day of salvation, His acceptable time, has passed..