Today’s study picks up in the middle of the chapter, and prior to this, we read of how the church in Corinth doubted the credentials of Paul and the apostles, and therefore their message. Yet, Paul tells the Corinthians that now is the favourable time, now is the day of salvation (2 Cor 6:3). Paul and Timothy commend themselves to the Corinthians through their suffering and by God’s power working in their weakness (2 Cor 6:4-8a).
They also seemed to lead a paradoxical life where they found strength in God in their weaknesses (2 Cor 6:8b-10). Paul also calls the Corinthians to widen their hearts just as Paul and Timothy have widened theirs. Essentially, Paul is calling for them to respond by repenting, and turning away from the false teaching that some has turned to in the church.
In today’s passage, we’re going to read of how the Corinthians, like so many churches, was in the grip of worldliness. Holiness demands we be separate from the world.
(A) Complete Opposites: No Partnership, Fellowship, Accord, Portion, and Agreement (2 Cor 6:14-16b)
Paul gives a command to the believers in 2 Cor 6:14. He calls on the believers in Corinth to not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. This is Paul’s main point for our passage tonight.
We might not be acquainted with a yoke these days but a yoke is a crosspiece that you fasten over the neck of two animals so that they can pull a plough or something. ESV Study Bible says that to be unequally yoked is then to be “hitched up” or even cross-bred with another animal who is not the same. The NLT says to not “team up” with unbelievers. Paul is therefore teaching the Corinthians how to relate to unbelievers of the gospel of Christ.
In Deut 22:10, it is said that the Israelites were not to plough with an ox and a donkey together. The point is that you can’t attach an ox to a donkey: they don’t have the same gait, they don’t have the same disposition, they don’t have the same strength, they don’t have the same instincts. It will be fruitless to do so, they are incompatible. Paul commands for believers not to be joined (as in yoked) with unbelievers, in situations where one’s life strongly influences or controls the other’s. Paul is telling us that we are not to be in partnerships that allow principles contrary to Christ to control us.
This command does not mean that we avoid and cut off all unbelievers since we are not to be “unequally yoked”. How then would evangelism ever take place? After all, we also have our mission from Jesus in Matt 28:18-19 is to go out and make disciples of all nations. We know that Paul’s life itself is one of missions for the gospel of Christ; so he cannot be possibly telling us to avoid unbelievers at all cost (2 Cor 2:14). This is not a command now to tell you, you should only hang with Christians, work with Christians, eat with Christians, etc. Therefore, there is a way for Christians to be amongst non-Christians, and yet not be unequally yoked.
Paul goes on to ask five rhetorical questions in 2 Cor 6:14b-16a.
“For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?“ (2 Cor 6:14b)
Righteousness is what pleases and honours God and here it is contrasted with lawlessness or sin. Lawlessness rebels against God and his commands. It has no regard for God’s commands. It tells God: “I know better”. This displeases and dishonours God. Believers are the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ (2 Cor 5:21). The righteousness of Christ is counted as theirs by faith. Paul is telling them that there is no partnership between one who wants to please God and one who goes against God
“Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” (2 Cor 6:14c)
Jesus makes a clear distinction between light and darkness (c.f. John 8:12, 2 Cor 4:6). Jesus says that He is the light of the world. The darkness therefore stands for the absence of light and Christ. All who follow Jesus have the light of life. Thus, there are 2 ways to walk — in light vs darkness.
“What accord has Christ with Belial?” (2 Cor 6:15a)
Belial means “worthless” thus, what harmony does Christ, the Son of God have with Belial, or Satan who opposes God and tries to prevent whatever Christ wants? Christ seeks to please the Father but Satan does not!
“Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?” (2 Cor 6:15b)
Believers enjoy all the new covenant realities that Paul has spoken about in the previous chapter access to God (2 Cor 3:7-18), hope of future glory (2 Cor 5:1-10), reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:18-21), new Creations in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). However, unbelievers enjoy none of the blessings of the new covenant; there is no future glory, there is no reconciliation, and they are blind to light of Christ.
“What agreement has the temple of God with idols?” (2 Cor 6:16a)
God, the one and only God is to be worshipped in the temple. But the idols are false gods. In Mark 12:28-30, Jesus teaches on what is the most important commandment of all. He quotes Deut 6:4 and says that to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. That is the first of all commandments. We are to have no other idols for we cannot worship God and idols at the same time.
It is good for us to examine our lives right now. Today, worshipping an idol might not come in the formed of a carved image or statue like during the time of the Corinthians where pagan worship was common. Our idols can be anything we worship with our lives. Anything that we hold above God is an idol, even good things that are given by God. A good question to ask ourselves is what we are worried or anxious about? Usually that is very revealing as to what are our idols.
Paul’s main point here through the five rhetorical questions is to show that there are two distinct worlds or kingdoms. Paul here puts a sharp contrast between the two. One is associated with righteousness, light, Christ, faith, and worships God, the other is characterised by lawlessness, darkness, Satan, no-faith and presence of idols. The two realms don’t mix, they are completely different and incompatible. Some of the Corinthians were being led astray by false teaching, and they were trying to worship God and idols at the same time. It is not possible to live in these two worlds at the same time.
1 John 2:15 warns us against loving the world or the things in the world. For if we do so, the love of the Father is not in him. James 4:4 also tells us that friendship with the world is enmity or hostility with God. It is not neutral. Friendship with the world pits us against God!
Many of us would have read these verses in the context of marriage, but when we look at these poitns, we see that it isn’t just about marriage. These verses make it clear that Christian identity and community are very distinct from the world. In Singapore, our relationships could be built on pragmatism and shared experiences (e.g. the schools we went to). But Paul is also telling us that if we have come to Christ, the core things we have in common with people change. What do we have in common with people who don’t know Christ? It depends on what Christ means to you! Is what you have in Christ so precious and central that it shapes your identity and community!
The world could be trying to convince you and I that there is room in our hearts for both God and idols in our lives. False teachers would love to make the Christian faith less exclusive, less different, less demanding compared to the world, that it might become more popular and so they could gain from it (cf. 2:17 where Paul calls out the peddlers of God’s word). Maybe even we ourselves are sometimes tempted to blur the lines between our Christian faith and what other religions believe to seem agreeable with others.
Have you ever been caught up with conversations when you were tempted to just agree with the other person that Christ is really no different from the gods of other religions? Isn’t it better not to get into arguments? The Bible doesn’t allow us to do this. We cannot sit on the fence with regards to our worship: if you worship and love the things of this world, you will not be obeying the commandment laid out by Jesus to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. We must be clear that we are talking about opposites when speaking about these two kingdoms. That is why Paul calls believers to not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.The two are ultimately worshipping different things and are opposites.
This does not mean that we cut out unbelievers from our lives: but we have to be clear about what we worship — the worship of believers and unbelievers are different.
In 2 Cor 6:16b, Paul calls believers the temple of the living God. This should not be new to them as Paul mentioned it in 1 Cor 3:16, where he says that the Corinthian believers are the God’s temple and God’s spirit dwells in them. Again, in 2 Cor 3:3, Paul says that the lives and hearts of believers are being changed by the Spirit of God. The heart in the Bible is the centre of every human: It represents our motivations, our desires, our affections, our worship. Paul says that the changed hearts and lives of the Corinthians is the letter of recommendation for Paul’s gospel ministry.
The heart, and therefore the life of a Christian is profoundly different from the life of an unbeliever. The believer has different thoughts, different values, different standards, different goals, different attitudes because they have a different God. Instead of living for themselves, Christians live to glorify God.
How is your life different in school?, in the way you relate to your teachers? In the way you relate to your classmates?
How is your life different at home?, in the way you treat your family?
How is your life different at the workplace?, with the way you treat your subordinates?, or relate to your boss, or with your colleagues?
How is your life different in your social life? How do you show love to your friends? Do you love them in way that leads them to godliness or do you conform to their worldliness?
Are our churches different from the world around us? Or do they operate like all other companies trying to make a profit?
Individually, and collectively as a church, Christians are not meant to be the same as the world. As incompatible as God and Idols, Christians are Non-Christians are not to be joined.
(B) God's Promises to His People: Presence, Relationship and Favour (2 Cor 6:16c-18)
In 2 Cor 6:16c-18, Paul quotes several OT passages and lists two promises and a command. The promise from Lev 26:11-12 For their obedience to God’s commandments, God promises to dwell with them, and be their God and take them to be His people. This is a promise of relationship and this is a God that is intensely personal. This is at the end of Leviticus, at the end of the Law. Their obedience to the Law means that a sinful people might dwell with a holy God. He is not a God that is far off, but one who desires relationship with his people.
What is the command? From Isa 52:11, we see that when God’s salvation comes, God’s people are to leave Babylon and all her associated idols. God’s people are not meant to remain in their idolatry of the gods of this world but they are to go out, depart, and be separate. That is what it means to be holy. The problem for Israel is that they tended to participate in idol worship as they mingled with the nations. They are not to defile themselves and touch unclean things, but purify themselves to be in God’s presence. That is the reason for this call to be separate.
The verses also end with a promise that draws from Eze 20:41, 2 Sam 7:14, Isa 43:6. God promises to accept/welcome his people after he has brought them out from the peoples, when they have left the idolatry. It is a picture of God’s favour upon his people. The relationship that God and his people will have is a Father-child relationship, as God had promised David in his covenant and spoke through Isaiah.
Do you see what Paul is doing here? Paul is applying all of these OT promises to the believers of a new covenant. In Christ, all of these promises of God’s presence, favour and relationship are fulfilled. Remember what Paul says in 2 Cor 1:20: “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him”. These promises are ours also by faith in Jesus Christ: God’s presence, relationship and favour.
(C) Our Response to God’s Promises: Bringing Holiness to Completion in the Fear of God (2 Cor 7:1)
Paul tries to convince the Corinthians to respond in gratitude. (2 Cor 7:1). He points to them all of the wonderful promises that God has given them to call them to respond. He is saying: “do you see all of these wonderful things that are yours in Christ”, “do you see what God has given you?” It is because of God’s new covenant promises that we do not partner with unbelievers and idols.
This is what grace is: we never earned God’s favour nor our righteousness before God. We have a saviour who died in our place, and lived the righteous life in our place. Our salvation is all by grace, and God’s promises to us are ours by His grace. See what Paul calls the believers in Corinth, they are beloved, loved by God.
And now, their response to these promises is to cleanse themselves from every defilement of body and spirit. This was to be done outwardly in their actions, and inwardly in their thoughts and in their affections and worship. Holiness involves purification of all aspects of life. By doing so, they bring to completion holiness in the fear of God. Another way of saying it is that they will make perfect/finish their holiness. This is what Christians call Sanctification, or being made holy. We read about this in 2 Cor 3:18, where believers are being transformed into the image of Christ as they behold his glory
That leads us to the last phrase: “in the fear of God”. This means to revere and worship God for who He truly is. As we see and behold his glory rightly and clearly with our faces unveiled, we are bringing our holiness and separate-ness from this world to completion, and being ever closer to God just as he has promised in Christ. How are we separate? Are we clinging on tightly to the things of the world, or are we holding on to Christ and holiness? Are we headed for holiness or away from it? What is the trajectory of your life?
In these verses, Paul here calls the Corinthian church to be separate from the world, presenting two kingdoms, one of the world, and one of God. Even as we consider our own lives and walk with God, may we hold on more closely to the promises of God than the things of the world, that we may grow closer and closer to God.