Transcription
Introduction
Be seated. I want to invite you to open in your New Testament to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. 2 Corinthians chapter 6. It’ll take us a minute to get there. In fact, we’ll go a little bit in 1 Corinthians before we get there. Uh but that is the passage we’re to look at tonight. 2 Corinthians 6 beginning in verse 14. You know, if you’ve been a a Christian for any length of time, one thing you know is that it is not always easy to live up to the commitment that we made to Christ when we chose to obey the gospel of Christ.
And that’s true of everyone who is a Christian, but you may have also noticed that for some people that is just kind of a continual struggle. It’s more so for some people than it is for others. And so there are some who are constantly being tugged in the wrong direction, and they have a hard time resisting temptation. Uh when the opportunity comes to do wrong, it’s easy for them to give in. And of course this is not a new problem. In fact, much of what is written in the New Testament, it seems to me, is written because that’s true.
And so you can’t read through the letters that Paul wrote to the church in Corinth without seeing that some of the Corinthians struggled with being the people that they had been called to be in Christ. And so Paul would say about them in 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 2, he would describe them as those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, or as a different translation puts it, called to be his holy people. But the rest of that letter reveals to us that many of them struggled to live up to that calling. And they struggled with a variety of things. And one thing that can stand in the way of us being what God wants us to be, perhaps even more than anything else, is relationships with people who are not what God wants them to be.
And so I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve heard the the words that that Paul wrote to the church in Corinth quoted many times before. First Corinthians 15 and verse 33 that that bad company corrupts good morals. And what I want us to see in our study this evening is that Paul also touches on that same principle in the second letter that he wrote to the church in Corinth. And so I want us to begin reading Second Corinthians 6 verse 14. Where Paul says, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.
For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them. And I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst and be separate from them says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing and then I will welcome you.
And I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me says the Lord Almighty.’ And then going into chapter 7, “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” And so our passage for this evening I took it from the the one-year Bible reading schedule that we have back on the round table. And as I was looking at at what I might talk about from the reading schedule this past week, it it occurred to me that I don’t often preach from Second Corinthians.
1. Do Not Be Unequally Yoked With Unbelievers
And I’ll go ahead and tell you I don’t even know why that’s so. You know, I there’s a lot of good stuff in this particular letter. And so Paul begins this [clears throat] section with the command there in verse 14, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers,” he says. And although it doesn’t necessarily come out in in the way that our English translations render it, the way Paul worded things seems to suggest that the Corinthians were actually engaging in the very thing that he was forbidding here.
And if that’s the case, then basically what he was telling them is you stop doing this, you know, quit doing that. Not just giving them some kind of, you know, preventative warning. I know you don’t need this, but just to be sure you don’t do it. No, this is something I think they were engaging in. And I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s one of the reasons why they were having some of the problems that existed among them. They were being influenced, at least in part, by the unbelievers with whom they chose to associate.
And so when Paul talks here in verse 14 about being unequally yoked, he seems to have been alluding to a principle that’s found, you know, back in the Old Testament. You know, the law had said back in Deuteronomy chapter 22 and verse 10, “Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.” Don’t don’t put those two animals together. And of course, one of the reasons for that prohibition is that a combination like that would make for an uneven team, and one of the animals would very likely overpower the other, and it wouldn’t work well at best, it would could possibly be harmful at worst.
And what Paul was doing here, it seems to me, was recognizing the principle that is involved in that that command. He recognized that that some of the commands in the law of Moses went beyond the situations that they literally addressed. And you see that in other places. For example, when Paul wanted to prove that he had the right to be supported in his work as an apostle of Christ, even though he didn’t take advantage of that right, he would quote from the law of Moses.
He do this in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 and verses 8 and following, and he would say there, “Do Do I say these things on my own on human authority? Does the law not say the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Then he says, “Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop.
He says, there is a principle involved here. And that principle that was involved applied to more than just oxen. We’re meant to learn something about human relationships from this. And I think the same thing’s true of this command not to, you know, not to plow with an ox and a donkey yoke together. There’s a principle involved in that command. And that’s when you put two people together who are not compatible, there’s a good chance that there’s going to be a problem there.
At best, it’s not going to work well. And again, at worst, you’re likely just going to cause harm. And so, one of the people involved in that relationship will likely overpower the other person, so to speak. And that often happens when Christians associate with non-Christians. As one commentator put it, and I think stated it well, it is impossible for the purity of the Christian and the pollution of the pagan to run in double harness. You just get into all kinds of problems when that happens.
2. Some Things Just Don’t Go Together
And so, what Paul tells us is that some things just don’t go together. After saying, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, Paul then goes on to say there in verse 14, for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? Again, some things don’t belong together.
And one of those, Paul tells us, is overly close relationships between believers and unbelievers. Now, it’s not uncommon for people to bring up what Paul said here when they talk about the marriage relationship sometimes. And I can see why they do that. In fact, I’ll just go and tell you, I’ve done that at times. Because there is no closer relationship that two people can enter into than the marriage relationship. And there is no telling how much damage has been done through the years as a result of people simply choosing to ignore the principles that are found in this passage.
I mean, it has caused all kinds of problems. And so when people are considering marriage, I definitely think they need to take into consideration what Paul said here. But I also want to tell you this evening that Paul’s not really just talking about marriage when he wrote these words. In fact, he’s not primarily talking about that. They may These words may apply to that relationship, but they’re certainly not limited to it. They apply to other relationships as well. Have you ever noticed as you’ve read through scripture just how often the Bible addresses the subject of of friendships?
I I we see that especially in that part of the Bible that we typically refer to as the wisdom literature. In fact, the the Psalms begin with what amounts to a warning not to be influenced by people who are ungodly. You blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked. Uh nor stands in the way of sinners. Nor sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night, he says. And so there is no doubt that the people we associate with, there’s no question that they can be a tremendous blessing to us, benefit to us.
And we see that as well. For example, in Ecclesiastes chapter 4 and verses 9 and 10. Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift him up. But pity the one who falls without another to lift him up. That kind of thing is a blessing. And it seems to me that Paul was basically stating the same principle when he would say in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 2, “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
It it’s great when you have people like that in your life, isn’t it? You we need to have relationships like that. There’s no question about that. But I doubt I have to tell you though that it’s also possible for us to associate with people who will do nothing but bring harm to us. And the Bible addresses that as well. And so in Proverbs chapter 13 and verse 20, it begins on the good side of the equation. Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise.
But the companion of fools will suffer harm. Not might suffer harm. Not it’s possible that they could suffer harm. The companion of fools will suffer harm. Truer words have never been spoken. And that scenario has played out more times than anyone count can count or anyone cares to even think about. And so what all of this says is that we need to be really careful when choosing our companions, regardless of the nature of the relationship we may be talking about.
And so I think sometimes what happens is we give ourselves a little too much credit, it seems to me. We often think we’re stronger than we really are. And we have a tendency not to see how much we’re being influenced by the people with whom we choose to associate. And so there are a lot of people, many people who think they’re going to be the strong one in a relationship, but I just going to tell you experience tells us that it often doesn’t work that way.
And the Bible tells us that it often doesn’t work that way. As we looked at earlier in your 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 33, bad company corrupts good morals. And so if you can tell me the kind of people that you choose to associate with, I’ll tell you what, I can tell you what your future will look like with a fair degree of accuracy. I mean, it’s not perfect. This is not prophecy or anything along those lines. Yes, there are exceptions, but that is precisely what they are.
They are exceptions. And so it is not easy being different, is it? When you look at the letters Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, It appears that there were some who were being influenced by the way by the life that they left behind. You know, they had had given it up. They had begun to be disciples of Jesus, but that old life would kind of creep back in. And that that thing hap- That kind of thing happens. We see it quite a bit. And so, one thing that is implied in what Paul said is that becoming a believer means that we are to be different, different from the way we used to live, different from the world around us.
And when a person becomes a Christian, there is a fundamental change that takes place there. There is to be a difference that is just as as stark as the difference between light and darkness. And it doesn’t get a lot more different than that. And that’s hard to accomplish under the best of circumstances. And we don’t make it any easier when we choose to surround ourselves with people who don’t share the same convictions. We know that what Paul said is true.
We know that it’s easier to be the kind of people that we are supposed to be when we’re surrounded by others who are trying to do what is right, and that it is harder to be what we’re supposed to be when we’re surrounded by those who aren’t necessarily concerned about doing the right thing. We know all of those things. And what God wants for us is to be people who are different. He wants us to be holy. He doesn’t want us to be like everybody else.
3. We Are the Temple of the Living God
He doesn’t want us to continue living the same kind of life we lived before we became Christians. He wants us to value the relationship that we have with him in Christ, and Paul tells us about that here in this passage. He begins with a remarkable fact. And then he also points out some remarkable promises that God has made in light of it. And so, the remarkable fact that Paul pointed out in verse 16 is that we are the temple of the living God. And of course, this isn’t the first time that Paul has said something about that to the Corinthians back in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 16.
He would say, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s spirit dwells in you?” So, Paul has has already addressed this in his in his writings to the Corinthians. And in the passage we’re looking at this evening though, Paul pointed out that this is what it meant when God said in verse 16, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people.” God’s dwelling place was always meant to be with his people.
That’s what God always intended. And so, not only are we God’s people, we are his children, his sons and daughters. In verse 18, “I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me,” says the Lord Almighty. And I’m just going to tell you, maybe we have heard that so often and that we have known the principle involved in that for so long that it doesn’t really impress us like it should. The Apostle John though would point out just how remarkable it is that we should be called children of God.
In 1 John chapter 3 and verse 1, he would say, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God.” And and the word that the way that John worded things in this passage implies astonishment with that. It’s the same word that was used by by the apostles when they were across the Kidron Valley and they were looking at across it at Jerusalem and the temple and all the buildings associated with that and they would say to the Lord, “Look at what wonderful buildings or what wonderful stones.”
4. These Promises Are Conditional
All those things that that you see there. Of course, Jesus told them that was all going to be torn down, but it was the same thing. They were astonished with just how beautiful all of that was. And John is saying, “Be astonished with this fact. The kind of love the Father has given to us that we we should be called children of God.” These are some remarkable that Paul highlights here. But what I want you to see this evening is that these promises they’re conditional.
Look again at what Paul says there in verse 16. I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing. Then then I will welcome you and I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me says the Lord Almighty. And so we can’t expect God to dwell with us and walk among us if we’re not willing to go out from the midst of and separate from those who don’t belong to him.
Isn’t that what Paul’s saying here? God has promised to dwell with us, but it’s a conditional promise. He’s promised to be a father to us and and that we would be sons and daughters to him, but that’s conditional as well. Again, go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the Lord, touch no unclean thing. Then I will welcome you and I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me. What God wants for us is to be holy.
To be separate. To be distinct. He wants us to be like him ultimately. That’s what Peter would say in 1 Peter chapter 1 in verses 14 and following he would say as obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. Don’t don’t be like you used to be. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. Be like your father. Holiness is one of the most fundamental attributes of God.
5. Bringing Holiness to Completion in the Fear of God
And what we mean when we say that God is holy is that he is like no other. He is distinct from everything else that exists. And that’s basically what the word holy signifies. A a a a separation there, a distinction is there. And what God wants for his people is for them to be holy as well. In some ways God has already made us holy. He did that when he set us apart for himself in Christ. The writer of Hebrews would say in Hebrews 10 and verse 10 that by God’s will we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
That’s how that took place. And so in some sense holiness is, I guess you could say, positional. We have been made holy in Christ. But I think we also need to see that holiness is practical as well. And that’s what Paul is talking about in our passage there in 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 1. While we read into chapter 7, “Since we have these promises of God dwelling with us and us being his sons and daughters,” all the things he talks about there at the end of chapter 6 chapter 6, “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”
Or some translations put it perfecting holiness. What Paul was emphasizing is the fact that we as Christians, regardless of how reliant we are upon God and the sacrifice that Jesus made in our behalf, all the same, there still needs to be a decisive personal action over the way that we live our lives. We need to make the decision about the people we are going to be. And what that means is that there must be a be conscientious separation from the influences of the people that we come into contact with.
The ideas that are prevalent in our in our world, the the common cultural practices that that so many people just kind of take for granted that this is okay. We need to understand that there needs to be a difference in the way that we live. The way the world lives and what the Bible calls us to to do in our complete and loyal service to Christ, those things often aren’t anywhere close to touching one another. We are to bring holiness to completion.
Conclusion
We are to perfect holiness in the fear of God. Now, as we bring things to to a close this evening, and I and I don’t mean like in like 30 seconds, but maybe a little little longer than that. Let me ask you a question. Are you doing that? Are you bringing holiness to completion? Are you perfecting holiness? Are you doing that? It’s important that we do, and I’ll tell you why. It’s important that we work toward perfecting holiness, to bringing it to completion.
And the reason it is is because if we don’t, if we choose not to, we won’t see the Lord. Isn’t that what the writer of Hebrews tells us? Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 14, he would say, “Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” I want to tell you that ought to be an attention-getting passage right there. It ought to be something that we focus in on. And Paul was saying basically the same thing in the passage that we’ve been looking at this evening.
Although there’s so many people today who treat holiness as though it’s just kind of an optional extra. I mean, I believe that Jesus is the son of God, and I did some things and ultimately wound up in water, and I was buried in it, and I came up out of it, and you know, that’s all fine and good. I’ll tell you what, there’s more to being a Christian than that. Many people may treat holiness as if it’s optional. But the scriptures tell us that we can’t be right with God without it.
Now, I recognize that that’s not something that comes easily. See, it’s something with which we that we have to strive for. That’s what the writer of Hebrews says. But what I want us to state what I want us to see this evening is that our efforts along those lines they’re worth it. They’ll be worth it in the end. As we read, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them. And I will be their God and they shall be my people. I will be a father to you. You shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.
Isn’t that what we want? Isn’t that why we’re here? Isn’t that why we called ourselves disciples of Jesus? Because we want to be right with the Lord. We want to be right with him today and we want to be right with him tomorrow. And we definitely want to be right with him in eternity. And if we are not working to that end, not working in the sense that we kind of we earn a relationship or anything like that. It is by grace that we have been saved through faith, an obedient faith.
But it is by grace. That’s not an opposition to what we’ve talked about tonight. It all fits together. In a world that wants to to separate these principles, we need to be people who call for them to go together. Thank God for his grace for who he allows us to be in Christ, to be his sons and his daughters, to be the one who dwells among us in part because of the kind of lives that we’ve chosen to live. We’ve chosen to be like him. If you’re here tonight and you’ve never obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ, we ask people to obey the gospel.
We’re not just saying, “Please come and and go up here and get down in the water and be immersed.” That’s important. It is. It’s important when it’s understood. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, that he is Lord, turn from your sins. Call that repentance. It’s essential to to being a Christian. Can’t be one without it. And confess Jesus as Lord. Paul would talk about that in Romans chapter 10. If you confess Jesus as Lord, believe that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Not because that’s all that’s involved in that, but it is involved in that. And for people who do that, who truly believe in Jesus and turn from their sins and commit themselves to Jesus as Lord, that person needs to come and to be buried with him in baptism so that they can be raised to walk in a newness of life. That’s what it means to obey the gospel. It is a complete change. And if you’ve not done that, why not tonight? Why not become the person that God is calling you to be, calling you through the gospel?
And if you’re here and at some point you’ve done that, but maybe you’ve not been making the the holiness that that we’ve talked about tonight the a priority in your life. Let me just read the passage again. Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. I want to encourage you to strive. And if we can help you tonight, we ask that you come as we stand and as we sing.