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If you'd like to turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 6.
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I'm going to read from 2 Corinthians 6:11 down through 7 3 um and agree with some of the commentators that the division is not the best in in
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the scriptures, but we'll read and see what the Apostle Paul has to say.
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Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians. Our heart is open wide. You are not constrained restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections. Now in a like exchange I speak to you as
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children. Open wide to us also. Do not be bound together with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? Or what
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fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with biar? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the
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temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God has said, "I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and
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they shall be my people." Therefore, come out of from that their midst and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch what is unclean, and I will
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welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. Therefore, having these promises,
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beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Make room for us in your hearts. We
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wronged no one. We corrupted no one. We took advantage of no one. For I do not speak to condemn you. For I have said before that you are in our hearts to die
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together and to live together. Let us pray. Our father, we do ask that you might open our ears that we might hear,
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that your holy spirit would speak to us uh through the word that he gave to the apostle. And we ask that we might be changed, that we might be transformed,
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that we might truly be perfecting holiness in the fear of you. We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.
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and filling in for Chuck as he takes a break from Romans 12 this week. Um I remember a recent um adult Sunday school
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lesson from Deuteronomy 7 in which uh this passage this passage 2 Corinthians 6 11-7
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2 or 3 was um discussed as an example as um a New Testament example of what our our brother Aaron was teaching from
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Deuteronomy that that God has not covenanted with the unbelieving peoples of the world, but with his chosen people. And he had given them a warning that those nations
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around them would be a snare to the Israelites. In Deuteronomy 7, he he says it positively, "For you are a people holy
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to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be be his people, his treasured possession.
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Paul sees the believers in his day in Corenth as included in those people, the treasured possession of God.
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But he speaks to them as I think Moses speaks to the people in Israel of his day as as children.
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There's a tenderness in verse 11. Our our mouth has spoken freely to you, oh Corinthians. Our heart is open wide. there. He says,
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"There's no restraint on me, but I feel a restraint in you and your affections."
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And I again the echo from Deuteronomy where Moses would stand before the people. I I think there Paul is kind of having that moment, that palpable
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moment. He is He is not restraining his love but feeling their restraint. their restraint. He's asking them to examine
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who they are. That you are children in the Lord, but you're a family in the Lord as well.
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Remember who you are that you are believers because of what God has done. Again echoing Deuteronomy 7. The Lord did not set his affection on you and
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choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples. The Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from
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a land of slavery. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God. He is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand
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generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. The Holy Spirit is still speaking to those generations after generations
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But Paul seems perhaps to some without warrant in verse 14 to change his tone from that tender love when he says, "Do not be bound
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together with unbelievers." And there are those who have actually essentially taken a razor blade to verses 14 through 16 and excised them
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from the scriptures because they feel like somebody else put this in. This is not Paul. This does not follow. But I would disagree with them. He's seeking to point out
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a glaring constraint in their relationship. the whole section six and seven, chapters six and seven here or there is
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an issue that's gone on in this church of Corenth and we don't know if it's from what we read as 1 Corinthians chapter 5 that issue but Paul has
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written to them and it doesn't really matter what the issue was but what he's seeing is a fracture in his relationship with them with them their part fracturing it from him. But
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also, it's bigger than that. As our brother has said from Deuteronomy, getting these people to recognize they are a family, that that there's a their
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relationship with one another, this call that they've been called to to come together as a church.
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22 where it says,"Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yolked together." Now, you might think, well, okay, what a strange illustration, but think about the
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compromise in that relationship. Think about the compromise in the relationship between a believer and an unbeliever.
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It's unnatural It's unnatural to yoke a donkey and an ox. It's unnatural to yoke a believer and an unbeliever. It's self-contradictory
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associations. As the writer Richard Lensky says, it's like helping to pull the wagon of the unbeliever's belief.
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You can picture a cartoon of someone coming along and in that wagon is all his unbelief, all his uh vitriol against
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the word of God, against God himself as as a as a man, as a natural man pulling his wagon and an unbeliever coming along and yoking himself in and
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helping him pull that wagon. And Paul is saying, "Don't go back. Don't go back to that incompatibility because it won't break his neck, it'll
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break yours. break yours. And he asks this or re reinforce this this in five rhetorical questions.
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What fellowship of righteousness and iniquity? Remember what fellowship means? The teaching of our brother Chuck. It's a
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partnership. But can a partnership exist with unbelievers? There may be points of contact as was brought up in Sunday school. We we work
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among unbelievers. We work sometimes in the same building in the same uh
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calling. But there cannot be a partnership, a true fellowship.
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One conforms to the law of God. One is categorically opposed to everything that God stands for. Paul goes on, "What communion of light and darkness?"
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and darkness?" I don't know how to answer that except to say that's an impossible combination. You can't have darkness where there is light and light where there is darkness. What concord of Christ and belar or that
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is Satan? He's really an asking the question who is your ruler? Who is the one that you follow? Christ is the son of righteousness. And
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who is Satan? He is the deceiver, the father of lies. He is the personification of lawlessness. What portion has a believer with an
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unbeliever? This relates to the previous question who is your ruler. A portion relates to how you relate to that ruler. It it is in relation to the ruler as to
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your life and to your destiny. To the believer, he looks forward to that portion from
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God of righteousness. The follower of Satan to lawlessness. The believer has a pardon.
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The unbeliever has condemnation. The believer looks forward to a life of peace and rest. The unbeliever, The unbeliever, what awaits him is chaos
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and unrest. and unrest. The believer has a hope of salvation. The unbeliever, The unbeliever, he's lost in sin.
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What portion has a believer with an unbeliever? There is a chasm between them. And he ends the rhetorical questions with this. What agreement has God's
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sanctuary with idols? Images of false gods cannot exist in the sanctuary of God.
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What exists in the sanctuary of God is people who are born in the image of God. And he uses this premise to set up what
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follows beginning in the second part of 16. For we are the temple of the living God just as God said, "I will dwell in them
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and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people." You see, he brings this back to the Old
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Testament people looking for a building, looking for a place that God would dwell with them, the material building that
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even when we get to Solomon's day, looking at a building that he would build for God, but in the New Testament, God dwells in
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his people his people through the Holy Spirit. And even as I said as Solomon built that temple and dedicated that temple, what did he
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realize? This building, This building, this material building that I have built, this magnificent thing will not hold God. That is not
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where he will dwell. He will dwell in his people, not merely with them. And so Paul speaks to them as brothers. He speaks to them as as children. He is
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saying what God is saying to them. Come out from their midst and be separate and do not touch what is unclean and I will welcome you and I will be a father to
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you and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. this great my translation in verse 17
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says therefore says therefore some of the translations say wherefore apply the scriptures that you know Paul is saying apply them here he has made
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this announcement he has called you out from the nations to be separate not to partner with them yes you may be among them but not to be in fellowship with
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Leave it behind. Leave it behind as the Israelites were told to leave it behind in Egypt and later to leave it behind in Babylon.
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And I think Paul can say to them, be delivered from idols. Even though you now live in Corenth, you can be delivered of these things
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because separation is necessary for fellowship with God. One of the commentators warned, he says, "Do not make this a barren renunciation.
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It's necessary that we enjoy the fellowship with God in the company of fellow believers. We can't just say, well, I I won't do that anymore. That's
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not the intention here. It's as our brother has brought out in his teaching that there is a family there. There's a responsibility, a partnership, a
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fellowship with one another that goes beyond the individual. And no, I do not believe that Paul is asking us to take monastic vows either
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because in 1 Corinthians 5, he said, I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with immoral people, but he says not at all, meaning the people of this world. In that case, you would have
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to leave the world. You live in this world, but you can still be separate from their influence on you.
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on you. Because remember that God is your father and he has called you to be his people and he is echoing in these passages in
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17 and 18 from 2 Samuel 7 again where Solomon dedicates the temple but also from Isaiah 43 which says bring my sons
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from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth everyone who is called by my name whom I created for my glory whom I formed and made. See, he's bringing us
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back to you are sons and daughters of the king of the Lord Almighty. He's formed you. He created you for his
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Be different because you are different because I have called you. And if we are corporately the temple of God, verse 16, the temple of the living God, it also means that individually we are
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members of God's family. And that means responsibility. And that means the calling that he gives us
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in the words of chapter 7 that follow. Paul says, "Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse
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ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." Paul is not content that we would treat
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these promises these promises that God is our father. He has called us to be his people. Do not treat them
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lightly. I bristle every time I read and I notice that it it's been changed in the online version of the New American Standard from the fear of God to reverence of
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God. That's not what's in view here is just an acknowledgment of who God is, but is fear.
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Believers are required to cleanse themselves from everything that defiles them. See, it's no longer about temple rituals or ritual uncleanness,
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but there is still a requirement to be unclean in relation or to be clean in relation to sin.
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Because unwillingness to cleanse ourselves from every stain of sin shows that we have not been cleansed from the guilt of sin.
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But be assured and be encouraged. Paul does not say be perfect in holiness. He says, "Perfecting holiness in the fear of God." It's almost I guess if you wanted to
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have an explanation of this perfecting holiness in the fear of God, you could go to Ephesians 3 where he very eloquently brings out this. He says, "I I want you
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to know every width and breadth and depth and height and length of the love of God, of the knowledge of him." And he says that you may be filled up to
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all the fullness of God. That's a continuation. That's something that it's on and on and on and going. An
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endurance. As one of the commentators said, we we should have a holy discontentment in our lives. Holy discontent that we we daily ought to be growing in holiness, in
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grace, and in faith, a continual and continuing bringing holiness to completion. Only on that great day will it be there.
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But we ought to live in a holy discontentment for ourselves and to those around us. that we might see as Paul says and again bringing out his
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great affection for them in verse three. I do not speak to condemn you for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live
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together. Paul is looking at them and saying, "Do you not understand who you are as the people of God? Moving on together in holiness.
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This is the goal. You will not be perfect, but I have written to you in great confidence." He says that I see you
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changing. And I won't expound on all of chapter 7 here, but it is amazing that Paul was depressed after he wrote the letter,
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whatever letter that had been, wondering. He says with regret. Regret means there a a pain that he
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experienced by what he considered a folly in that writing that letter. But he says, "My my regret gave way to a greater rejoicing
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greater rejoicing because I saw your sorrow give way to true repentance.
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They changed their attitudes. They changed their minds. They changed their actions. They had what Paul calls in verse 10 of chapter 7, they had sorrow according to
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And he greatly rejoiced and he knew that there had been a change. and our sorrow according to God again reminds me of Chuck's teaching
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from Romans chapter 12. Present yourselves to God by the renewing of your mind.
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Repentance according to God is seeing your sin in light of God's word. your sorrow in full agreement with the mind and will of God. And how do you
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know if your repentance is in accord with the mind and will of God? It's in his word his word and by the power of the Holy Spirit in
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that word that word to the point that re the respect
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of your repentance is that God approves of your sorrow. When I first read this in one of the commentatories, I I wasn't quite sure
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that I understood that the more I thought about it, I think it's at least for me, it makes sense. There is a grief in repentance of sin.
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We we we we think sometimes that we we have such affection sometimes for our individual sins
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that we we don't want to let them go. We think that repentance is somehow a loss. But Paul is telling us, no, it is godly gain. Perhaps it's what the writer
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to the Hebrews had in mind in chapter 12 when he writes this. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every
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encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before
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Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. running with endurance the race that is set before us.
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But Paul says the opposite of sorrow according to God is sorrow according to the world. Some would call it repentance, but it's more along the lines
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of remorse and regret. Remorse and regret are not true repentance.
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Sometimes we treat sin as something that I I just did something wrong. And Paul says there's no no remorse and regret are not true
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repentance because that leads to bitterness which leads to despair and that has a death sentence.
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But true repentance, I think he's spelled out here at the end of chapter
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he writes of a true repentance according to God. And I won't belabor these, but I think they're worth keeping in mind as an evaluation as a
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as a as a light into our own concept of He says there is an earnestness that he's recognized in them. an earnestness.
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There is a care in this case for Paul that results in a godly sorrow, but also a concern for restitution.
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There's a self- vindication. They're they're clearing themselves of any temptation to condone the sin any further. Whatever that sin is, we don't
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need to know. But I think again it applies universally to our sins. There's an indignation directed at anyone or anything that that
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defied Paul's teaching as an apostle and the word of God. An indign indignation at themselves for listening to them to those things.
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And there's a fear again. The fear is not of Paul's eye that that Paul's upset and we don't want to upset
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Paul. But fear is an awakening of the fear of God's judgment on sin that his eyes are too holy to look upon.
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But there's also a longing, Paul says, a vehement desire vehement desire to see Paul's renewed favor, but also to see God's renewed favor in their lives.
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And attached to that was a zeal. A zeal to defend righteousness in the face of those accusers of Paul. But
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again, generally in those who would accuse our God of not being God Almighty. And there was actually an avenging, a
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revenge upon the offender in this case, wanting to make things right. and see God's justice done.
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That's true repentance according to God. And again, the issue and I don't bring this up and teach this because I see
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something in our church. I think there is a universality among us as believers. Not seeing
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Not seeing the sins in our own lives or sins among the congregation
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outside. The issue was not Paul's sorrow, but the issue was their future as God's people. What fellowship
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What fellowship could endure conflict and disregard for God's mind, for God's heart, for God's
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What fellowship has light and darkness? What fellowship has the believer and the unbeliever? What harmony is there with Christ and Satan? What agreement has the temple of God with idols?
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I think we know the chasm between them. But Paul would have us remember we are the temple of the living God.
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come out from among them and be separate and be the people of God. Let us pray.
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Our father, we thank you for the word. We thank you for the depth of Paul's teaching. We thank you for the tenderness of his heart and the concern and the
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the way in which he desires not just these people but by the power of the Holy Spirit through all the believers that they would live in a manner that honors you honors you and that perfects your holiness in our
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fear of you. We ask that you would build your church and you would do these things for your glory and your honor in Jesus name.
