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II Corinthians 6.11-end
December 30th 2018
MEAT
2nd Corinthians 6:10 As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
And we wrapped up last week talking about “all things” Christians possess in this world in and through their relationship with God.
At this point Paul continues on now with a new line of thought, and after having explained all that they had gone through, and how they had gone through it, says:
11 O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.
12 Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels.
13 Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged.
14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
So, let’s go back to verse 11 where we read:
2Co 6:11 O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.
In these last few passages Paul has been explaining what He and others have gone through as apostles and in so doing he seems to want to communicate to them that his heart and soul are dedicated to open honest, truthful expression. This line appears to be a colloquialism Paul employs that means, “We are speaking freely and fully to you.”
It appears to be an affectionate turn of phrase and refers to their heart being engaged in the communication given, and that the language was one of love.
Our mouths convey the contents of our full or enlarged hearts and then with this being the case, he adds: (verse 12)
12 Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels.
This word, translated “straightened” here, is translated to “distressed” in another place in scripture and means a number of things – including “limited,” “pressed in” and “narrowed.” The best way to understand this is that Paul is saying:
“Our hearts are opened to you, we do not hold you narrowly or with distress in our hearts, but you are distressed in your own heart toward us.” IOW, “we love you fully and openly but you are holding ought against us in your own affections.”
And then he adds:
13 Now for a recompence in the same, (meaning, in return for the way we see and think of you – I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged.
In other words, open your hearts toward me and us in the same way that we have opened our hearts to you.)
Paul didn’t require payment from the believers in his day – he simply wanted them to receive and treat him and those with him with the same respect that he had given them. And he adds that he is speaking to them as children – as his son or daughter – as a loving parent addresses his or her children. I sustain toward you the relation of a spiritual father, and I have a right to require and expect a return of affection.
And his invitation to them is for them not to let their hearts be restricted but enlarged. We are talking about two Greek terms here:
Stenochoreo (for hemmed in or tight)
And
Platoono – (to make wide or enlarge)
In this particular case, Paul is asking them to open their heart to him, make it big and refuse to hem it in).
I think that there is something fundamental about these two words as far as principles go in the faith.
Yes, there are times when God will hem certain things in, and even ask us to do the same.
For instance, God tells us in Proverbs 4:23
“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”
So there is one place where we are challenged to guard the heart. But in many many more places Christians are encouraged to enlarge their hearts – to open them, soften them, receive others with and in them, to be merciful, compassionate, and to not harden, close, or develop a bitter heart. Of course, all of this equates to Godly love – from the heart.
The Syriac translation of this passage reads, “Enlarge your love towards me.”
Having written this Paul now extends out into another direction. But it is closely connected with what he has been saying and he adds:
14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
At this point we have to embark upon a discussion about unity in the faith, exclusivity within, and keeping the body pure.
To do so we have to start way, way back.
To Deuteronomy 2 where God says to the Nation of Israel:
Deuteronomy 7:1 When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.
5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.
6 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
Major reasons.
Exodus 34:15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;
Exodus 23:31-33 God says through Moses:
“And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.
32 Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.
33 They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.
Double Mindedness (Elijah and the priests of Baal)
1st Kings 18:21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.
TO BOARD
So we have the NATION OF ISRAEL
So, under the Law, the Nation of Israel, who had to remain independent of other Nations and their gods as a means to rely upon YHWH, the purpose of exact division was clear – to keep them out of the world and all of is impure gods and influences. Why? Because those influences WOULD stumble (or corrupt) them – and lead them astray to sin including the worship of other Gods.
So, in the Old Testament mingling was forbidden and there was no sign more supportive of this stance than the Laws of the Nation AND the veil that separated the Most Holy Place which is where God typically visited the Nation.
That veil actually expressed the idea that ONLY a Jew could enter God’s presence, and that Jew had to be male, had to be of the right tribe, had to be washed and cleansed, and it had to be at the right time.
All of these things are external applications to a relationship with God – and so external rules and policies had to be in place.
Remember this!
So, then we come out to the arrival of the Messiah and His purpose to carve His bride out of the remaining Nation.
And Jesus calls his apostles to go out to all of Israel preaching the Good News of the Kingdom.
This was all in preparation for His coming with rewards and judgements upon them.
And this bride is described in very similar terms as the Nation of Israel before it.
She is the bride of the Lamb – simple as that. And she was to be pure, and undefiled, and separate from the pollutions of the world.
Isaiah has God say in Isaiah 61:10
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
In preparing this bride to be received, Paul wrote of his heart toward the whole thing, saying in 2nd Corinthians 11:2
“For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”
As a means to present the Church-Bride as a chaste virgin to her husband (Christ) Paul had specific instructions for the believers in His day.
And these instructions were very similar to what God himself said to the Nation of Israel. Our passages today in 2nd Corinthians 6 are some of them, as Paul says:
14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
Now, it is really important to use all of scripture to define this passage and the passages that follow:
And what I mean by this is when we go to 1st Corinthians 5:9-12 he says
9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
But in the very next verse he explains what he means by this, saying:
10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
From this advice we know that it is impossible to be in this world and not keep company with those who do not believe and practice their flesh. Paul says that to do so a believer would have to exit this world all together, right?
The key, in my opinion, is to “not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.”
A yoke is an emblem of labor and work. It is a symbol of pulling, bearing, and carrying that is associated with labor.
Paul has been talking about what he has gone through as an apostles – the things he was in . . . (distresses, etc) how he endured such things (the BY’s) and then how he was perceived in the world as a result (in the AS’s).
Now he speaks to them about being similarly yoked – as a means to labor in the harvest of souls for Christ.
And he simply tells them to avoid being “unequally yoked with unbelievers.”
Again, remember why? Paul espoused to that bride to one husband, that he might present her as a chaste virgin to Christ.”
To have believers laboring with those unequally yoked is a recipe for disaster when the goal is to present to Christ a chaste virgin bride-church.
And so, Paul gives this advice.
It’s important when yoking beasts of burden to ensure that they are of similar stature and size. A water buffalo yoked to a rabbit or goat would make the labors really difficult to accomplish.
Paul makes it clear that for a believer to be yoked to an unbeliever in that day and age would be unfruitful and lend to great difficulty – for the work and in keeping the bride pure, after all, he asks:
“for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?”
15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
Let’s break these words down on the white board.
On the far left is the (+)
for what fellowship has . . .
And on the far right is the (-)
righteousness (of course the Christian righteousness comes by faith)
with unrighteousness? (which is contextually interpreted as the absence of faith in Jesus as Lord)
and what communion hath light
with darkness?
Which to me is the essential, end of the line, eternal difference between children of God through Christ and children of the world.
15 And what concord hath Christ
with Belial?
There is none – no concord. Remember what Jesus said in John 14. He had been teaching his apostles and then said:
John 14:30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
It is comforting to know that the wiles and ways of Satan, the Prince of Darkness had no place in Jesus. Nothing. At all.
or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel?
The Greek for infidel is epistos – and since pistos is the Greek for Faith, ipistos is the Greek for without faith.
16 And what agreement hath the temple of God . . .
ON BOARD
(add two intersecting circles on board and talk about the intersecting part)
Having asked what the temple of God has to do with idols (things that are not of the Living God), Paul wraps this all up in chapter six with . . .
“for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”
The words, “come out from among them” are taken, with some slight change, from Isaiah 52:11 and speak to the Jews that were in Babylon to leave that land of exile and return to their own land.
Interestingly, the land every Christian is called to return to now is the New Jerusalem, which is located in heaven but is a place where our citizenship is known even here.
To come out of Babylon is emblematic of exiting a place of idolatry, pride, arrogance and things that are opposed to the righteousness of God. This was Paul’s use of the verse – to call the Corinthians out from among the faithless souls surrounding them.
It the verse has application in your life, take heed, because even with God in us, we are susceptible to going back to the vomit of our former flesh.
hat city, and return to their own land. See Barnes for Isa 52:11. Babylon, in the Scriptures, is the emblem of whatever is proud, arrogant, wicked, and opposed to God; and Paul, therefore, applies the words here with great beauty and force to illustrate the duty of Christians in separating themselves from a vain, idolatrous, and wicked world.
The phraseology of “and be ye separate,” and “touch not the unclean thing,” again refers to association and not the literalness that the COI assigned to such directives.
Then Paul adds, as if speaking for God to the Church-bride of that day
“And I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”
This was the goal of Adam and Eve, of the Nation of Israel, of the Bride and now of those who are part of the body – to be adopted by God as His Sons and daughters. To literally become His children by faith in His Son wherein our righteousness dwells.
In coming out from the world of faithlessness, and therefore self-love, and therefore its pollutions, God receives us and becomes a Father to us.
Unlike being just our creator, a father is the protector, counsellor, and guide of his children, he instructs them, provides for them, and counsels them in time of difficulty.
He also disciplines and cuts his children back.
There is no higher honor to be conferred upon a human being than for him or her to be adopted into the family of God and to be actually permitted to call the Most High our Father.
Interestingly, it is often the lowest in social rank, the least among brethren, the weakest among the strong, the humble and kind and broken who rightfully call God father.
It is of interest that the phrase Paul uses here,
“And I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”
Is not used anywhere else in the entire Apostolic Record except in a number of places in the Book of Revelation.
The Greek word is PAN TOK RAT ORE and it means the one who has all power and stands in contradistinction from lesser idols and gods. The word in the King James is almost always Almighty.
In describing what the age looks like after the end of all things, John the Revelator writes in Revelation 21:7
“He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.”
I am convinced that the goal of becoming sons and daughters continues and will continue as long as the Human Race exists on earth.
I am simultaneously convinced that the call to come out from the world is applicable, but on a personal even individual basis and that those who want His as their father will have Him – as they abide in the vine by the Spirit, and become increasingly emancipated from the Spirit of this world, but not necessarily the people on it.
with idols?
Of course, this all hearkens back to the literal actual temple or sanctuary established among the COI.
We read in Exodus 29:43-46
43And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory.
44 And I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar: I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons, to minister to me in the priest’s office.
45 And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God.
46 And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them: I am the LORD their God.
Then in Leviticus 26:12 we read:
And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.
Zechariah 8:8 And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.
Jeremiah 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
This prophetic utterance in Jeremiah is the very day that Paul was speaking of here. It had come – that age – and God WAS, in fact, in them, as their God.
This presents us with a couple of concepts that sort of intersect with each other.
The first is that the temple of Old, which was about to fall and be destroyed, was to be replaced with another temple – which is spiritual.
That lively temple – living temple – was composed of believers who themselves were temples to the most high God and who unitedly created the spiritual temple. For this reason Paul says in
1st Corinthians 3:16-17 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
But then he also says in Ephesians 2
Ephesians 2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
And then in
Hebrews 3:6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
And then finally in . . .
1st Peter 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ
6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
12 Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Because they were all looking “to the day of visitation,” as “the lively building of God or bride then and there on earth at the time, and were considered the chosen GENERATION, Paul is instructing them in this manner.
Because all of this was aimed at the Glory of God in THAT day of visitation, we have to ask:
Are Christians today to be concerned with keeping the Church unspotted and holy like the Nation of Israel and like Paul is suggesting to them then here in our text?
Most zealous Christians gatherings tend to think so – and there is some sound thinking in this but not relative to what people think is the church.
Remember, the church-bride was taken, and in the New Covenant, God would reside in the individuals.
The gathering or church was only needing protection from outside sources when it was collectively going to be taken up at the end of that age.
Today, this is not – cannot be – the case.
However, as individual temples of God, and in the face of the fact that we do get influenced still by the ways of the world if and when we literally yoke ourselves to members of it, the advice is purposeful and ought to be considered.
But not in the way Paul is suggesting it.
In my estimation, Christians today are not only able but are expected to engage with the wanting world.
And the same ought to be welcome in the gatherings of believers around the world.
But the very Spirit of God in believers tells the individual to use caution, does it not? Are we not warned internally when we are getting too close to the things of the world, too unequally yolked?
It’s not a matter of law. Its wholly by the Spirit, and we know. We are aware, and we are therefore also responsible.
The funny thing is without the law or rules to avoid the world in my life I have personally and over time distanced myself from much of it by virtue of the Spirit anyway.
I’m mentioning all of this because we do not need to dogmatically take these words of Paul and insist upon them the way some suggest we should.
These words were to them/then – but admittedly do bear some wisdom in the life of the individual believer now.
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