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Reading 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 where the Apostle Paul encourages the Corinthians to be set apart from the world and be united to Christ. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
2 Corinthians 6 .14 says do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. We used to be unbelievers, but now, as believers in Christ, we must be united to Him, and not to the world, when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand the Text, studying God's Word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Find all our videos online at www .wutt .com, as well as links to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe Hughes.
Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of 2 Corinthians 6. Picking up where we left off yesterday, that puts me at verse 14. But to keep things in context, let me read from verse 11 to verse 18 out of the Legacy Standard Bible.
This is the Word of the Lord through the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth. Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians. Our heart is opened wide. You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections.
In a like exchange, I speakest to children, open wide to us also. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
Or what harmony has Christ with Belial? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has a sanctuary of God with idols? For we are a sanctuary of the living God. Just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people.
Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch what is unclean, and 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.
Now to recap what we looked at yesterday with Paul appealing to the Corinthians to recognize the genuineness of his ministry. The false teachers, they don't care anything about you. Look at what we have preached and how we have come to you.
Not promoting ourselves, not preaching ourselves, we have preached Christ. We have not held anything back. Our mouth is spoken freely to you, verse 11. Our heart is open wide. You're not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections because you're going after things that are worldly.
You like what the false teachers are saying because that's what your heart desires. So in a like exchange, I speak as to children, open wide to us also. Now that statement there in verse 13 is to say, hey, you've got affections for these false teachers, redirect those affections to the right place.
Be affectionate for Christ. Be affectionate for the people whom he has sent to proclaim the gospel to you. Open wide to us. Receive us that you may know the truth of the gospel that we proclaim. And as I mentioned yesterday, you would be reconciled to God and you would be reconciled to one another.
And so verse 14 is a very famous verse. You've probably heard this many times. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness or what fellowship has light with darkness or what harmony has Christ with Belial or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever or what agreement has a sanctuary of God with idols?
Let's break down each one of those. Paul loves his lists in this chapter, right? We saw a list of those things that he had been through showing the genuineness of the gospel that he proclaimed, verses 4 through 10.
And so now we have another list where he's putting a test to the Corinthians to examine themselves and ask how one who is of God can have fellowship with something that is not of God. So he begins by saying in this impassioned appeal, he says in verse 14, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.
Now how do you most often hear that verse applied? That particular statement, how do you most often hear it applied? It's usually with regards to dating relationships, right? Who you date or who you're going to get married to.
An unbeliever can't marry a believer or the other way around. A believer should not be marrying an unbeliever. An unbeliever is probably just fine with that. I'll corrupt you just like I'm corrupted, right?
And a believer might think I can save you, but that's, that's not what happens. As Paul said in first Corinthians chapter 15, bad company corrupts good characters. So most likely the person who loves God is going to be, or says they love God is going to be dragged down by the person who doesn't love God.
That's usually how that relationship ends up. Sometimes God is gracious in that particular situation. And maybe the person who is a believer does end up bringing the unbeliever to the Lord. Maybe God does work in that situation to save the one.
But more often than not, it's the unbeliever who brings down the believer. And I can, I can testify to that in my own family, seen it many times. There are, there are siblings of mine who have been yoked with an unbeliever and they just fell right into apostasy.
It has never worked the other way around. I was in a situation where I almost married an unbeliever, but praise God, he rescued me out of that situation and gave me this godly woman that I am married to today.
Cannot, cannot say enough about Becky, but you guys hear me glow about her all the time. I love this one with all my heart and praise God for this woman because I was making stupid enough decisions on my own.
He brought her to me. So, so the, the statement made here, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. We most often tie that into dating relationships and it applies there, but that's not really the context that would be application.
That's not the context of the passage. So this is the Corinthians who are going after the false teachers. And Paul is saying, if you're going after those false teachers, then you are unequally yoked. You claim to be a believer, but you're listening to unbelievers.
So how can you truly be a follower of Christ? Then that's the argument that's going to flow from that. The rhetorical questions that he asks following that statement, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.
So my friends, it needs to be the same in the things that we choose to listen to the teachers that we listen to, because the context here is with regards to the false teachers that the Corinthians are following.
You may also apply a secondary issue to that. And it's with regards to the unbelievers that are in their midst, whom they should be putting under church discipline and removing from themselves. Paul's statement back in first Corinthians chapter five, purge the evil person from among you.
That can apply in this particular statement as well. But it's first directed to the difference between these false teachers and Paul and his missionary brethren. So if you're unequally yoked with unbelievers, if you're listening to false teachers, then it's going to drag you down.
It's not going to result in growing in godliness. It's going to stunt your growth in godliness. Hence Paul's statement previously, you are not restrained by us. You're restrained by your own affections.
Your affections are for false teachers instead of true teachers of God. Now I will say that I listen to false teachers, but not to learn from them. It is so that I may warn the church of this false teaching that is out there.
My regular diet of teaching is, is sound teachers. I'm probably listening to a sound sermon, eight, eight or nine sermons, every eight or nine sermons. Then I'm also listening to one false teacher so that I'm kind of familiar with some of the arguments that are out there, different things members in my congregation might be hearing so I know how to warn them.
But my steady diet is in sound teaching. Anybody who does ministry in this way has to be disciplined in the same way. There are a lot of those, you know, discernment blogs and the, what we might call heresy hunters kind of tongue in cheek.
They will devote themselves to listening to false stuff. And, and what you will sometimes see happen is either their own teaching will suffer as a result of that because they're listening to more false teachers than they're listening to sound teachers or they become isolationists.
And now it's like everybody's bad and I'm the only one that has the truth. You need to listen to me or, or, or then there's like just a small handful of people that are, that are truly Christians and everybody else is false.
Okay. That, that's the danger that you run into there. Either their own teaching is going to suffer and they will start believing some false ideas or they're going to become isolationists and they're just going to think everybody's a false teacher.
So we need to be devoting ourselves to the sound teaching of the word of God. When Paul tells Timothy in second Timothy four to preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching.
Okay. You hear that and you're like, well, that's for Timothy because he's a pastor or it could be for my pastor to listen to, but that's not for me to listen to. Now how that would apply to you is that you need to listen to sound teachers who are teaching from the word of God.
They are preaching the word. They are reproving you. They are rebuking you. They are exhorting you not just to be hearers of the word, but to do what it says. So there is a responsibility for you when you hear passages, when you hear exhortation like that from the word of God, you need to be devoted to sound teachers.
The Corinthians are following after these false teachers and now they're unequally yoked. They're unequally yoked with those false teachers that are there in their midst and the other people in their church that are listening to those false teachers.
So even the people there in Corinth that are listening to Paul, they're not disciplining those who are not listening to Paul, right? Now Paul says in second Thessalonians chapter three, if there is anybody who will not listen to us, who doesn't hear what we say in this letter, take note of that person so that you have nothing to do with him.
Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother. Okay? So Paul knows that the things that he proclaims are from Christ. The word of an apostle is the same as the word from Jesus Christ. If you reject the word of an apostle, it's the same as rejecting Christ himself.
So there are those within the church in Corinth that are not receiving Paul as a genuine apostle. They're believing in these false super apostles. Paul will kind of sarcastically refer to them as super apostles later on.
Well, they are unbelievers listening to unbelievers. So do not be yoked with those unbelievers. You need to do diligence in your church. You need to be testing these people. If they do not repent, then they need to be removed.
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness or what fellowship has light with darkness. So the result of this, of listening to false teaching is that the person is not doing right righteousness.
They're doing lawlessness. We know that. Surely, you know that, right? That's the warning that Paul gave to Timothy. A day is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and they will turn away from the truth and wander off into myths.
And the result of that is they behave in an ungodly manner rather than growing in godliness. So you listen to false teachers, you will manifest in your life sinful behavior. So you're not going after righteousness, you're going after lawlessness.
What partnership has righteousness and lawlessness? You're either doing the right thing according to what God says, or you're doing the lawless thing opposed to what God says. What fellowship has light with darkness?
In John chapter 3, Jesus says that those who have believed in him come into the light. So it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. But those who do not come to the light, they scurry off into the darkness.
They love the darkness because they love their sin. So what fellowship has light with darkness? What harmony has Christ with Belial? That's just another word for the devil. That one should be obvious, right?
What harmony does Christ, the holy one, have with this fallen angel, this enemy of God? What harmony can be there between Christ and Belial? So if we're in Christ, we are of Christ. If a person is not of Christ, then they are following after the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, as it says in Ephesians 2.
So what harmony is Christ with Belial? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? The answer to that should be nothing. And so notice how Paul goes from Christ with Belial to believer and unbeliever.
There's supposed to be the parallel there. If you're in Christ, you're a believer. If you are not in Christ, you're an unbeliever. And who are you with? Belial, you're with the devil. Jesus addressing the Jews in John chapter 8, saying, you are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.
You are either in Christ or you are after Satan. You don't even have to pledge harmony with Satan. You just are of Satan if you're not of Christ. You're either one way or the other. There's no third way.
There's no middle of the road here. What harmony is Christ with Belial? What has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has a sanctuary of God with idols? This was a contrast even that Paul had made in the previous letter that we have in canon in 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
He says, you are a temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells within you. So we cannot be doing idolatrous things as a temple of the Holy Spirit. Don't go after pagan things. What agreement has a sanctuary of God with idols?
For we are a sanctuary of the living God. We have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. This is not a new concept to the Corinthians. It's something that Paul has said to the Corinthians before. You're a temple of God.
You have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you. This verse in particular is another reason why I like the word sanctuary for that main place where the church gathers to worship God on a Sunday morning. What's the term that you most often hear today?
You hear worship center. That's fine. It's tomato, tomato. But I prefer the word sanctuary. I like that better. And I think it's a biblical term too, especially since we have this statement here in 2 Corinthians 6 .16.
We are a sanctuary of the living God. And so that place where we all gather together as a church, that's just a bigger room that is exemplifying of that sanctuary that we all should be. We should devote ourselves to worshiping God with all that we say and do, as it says in Romans 12 .1.
This is your spiritual act of worship, to devote yourself in holiness to God. So we are a sanctuary of God, a sanctuary of the living God, just as God said. Continuing verse 16 here, I will dwell in them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people.
Do you know where that comes from? You know what passage it is that Paul is citing there from the Old Testament? It's the divine covenant that God made with Israel, Leviticus 26 .12. I will also walk among you and be your God and you shall be my people.
That's what God said to Israel. God has said that to his church. We are the people of God. We are in covenant with God through faith in Jesus Christ, a covenant that is sealed by his blood. And now as sanctuaries of the living God, he dwells in us.
He walks among us and he is our God and we are his people. And we see this repeated in the book of Revelation as well. In the new Jerusalem, we will dwell with God. I will be their God and they shall be my people.
He says all of this is fulfilled in Christ. This isn't talking about the Jews. This is talking about Jews and Gentiles together, reconciled to God in Jesus Christ. He dwells in us. He walks among us. He is our God.
We are his people. And we have heaven to look forward to, to dwell with God forever in his holy presence. So God says, we are to be holy. We're to be holy now. If we are the people of God, we're to be holy.
The church in Greek is ecclesia, which is an assembly. We're a called out people of God. We're called out from the world. So just as Israel called out from Egypt, that was types and shadows of things that was going to be fulfilled in Christ.
We've been called out from the world. We've been released from slavery to our sin. And we have now become the people of God in Jesus Christ. So we are separate from the world. We are to be in Christ. We are to live as holy sacrifices unto the living God.
Verse 17, therefore come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch what is unclean and I will welcome you. Now that also sounds like that's something that comes from the law, right?
Touch nothing that is unclean. This is actually a reference that comes from the prophets. So this is Isaiah 52 verse 11, depart, depart, go out from there, touch nothing unclean. Go out of the midst of her, purify yourselves.
You who carry the vessels of Yahweh. And we are that, aren't we? As vessels and jars of clay, as, as Paul had said previously to the Corinthians. So we are to touch nothing that is unclean. We are to come out from the world, touching nothing that is unclean.
That means we're not to devote ourselves to unholiness, to wickedness, to lawlessness. We're to be devoted to righteousness. Be holy as God is holy. As Peter said in first Peter chapter one, he says that to the church.
And then finally, verse 18, what, what do we receive from this? What more do we receive from this? And I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. Where's that from?
What's the old Testament reference there? That's the covenant to David. Second Samuel 7, 14, I will be a father to him and he will be a son to me, says the Lord God Almighty. The Davidic covenant is fulfilled in Christ and we are partakers of that covenant.
We who are in Christ Jesus, he is our father. We are his sons and daughters. We are reconciled to God through the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so my friends, don't be yoked with unbelievers. You've been called out from that.
You were that, but now you're in Christ. So be united to Christ and his people. The church, love the church that you're a part of. Grow together in your knowledge of these things, according to his word, that you grow in relationship with God and with one another and live daily in that righteousness, in confidence, knowing that you are loved by God as his son or his daughter through what we've received in Christ.
Heavenly Father, thank you for these lessons that we've been in, in 2 Corinthians 6. And I pray that these things would be convicting, that we understand that as the people of God, we cannot be a part of the world anymore.
We're called out from the world to be people of the living God, to be walking in righteousness and holiness before you until your kingdom comes. So may we be doers of the word, not just hearers, but we do what it says also.
May we be convicted not to unite ourselves with those who are unbelievers, but we desire the people of God that we may grow together in Christ Jesus with these people that we will be spending an eternity with, everyone who's a believer in Jesus Christ.
May we grow in our love and affections for you and for each other day by day by the power of the reconciling gospel that is within us, within those who believe. It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.
You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hutes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.
On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.