2 Corinthians 6:11-18
11 O Corinthians! We have spoken openly to you, our heart is wide open. 12 You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. 13 Now in return for the same (I speak as to children), you also be open.
14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:
“I will dwell in them
And walk among them.
I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.”
17 Therefore
“Come out from among them
And be separate, says the Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean,
And I will receive you.”
18 “I will be a Father to you,
And you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the LORD Almighty.”
We are called as sinners to find our righteousness in Christ yet still pursue holiness in return not to earn salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9), but to work it out as prepared for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). We are called to be holy in willing obedience (1 Peter 1:13-16) by the power of His Spirit now living in us (Romans 8:13-14, Ephesians 1:13) that we may please Him who saved we sinners by His great sacrifice of grace on the cross. Paul reasoned openly about these things with the church in Corinth that we might also hear and consider them as we respond in kind. To be holy incudes not marrying unbelievers because that inhibits holiness as we conform to the bad habits () of a lawless person not ruled by God’s word to please Him; we would only fall into the same trap as Israel did in marrying outside of His people as commanded (Deuteronomy 7:3-4) to their own shame and destruction. Even the wisest man Solomon made this error and it cost him dearly (1 Kings 11:2, 4-6), even to losing his kingdom (1 Kings 11:11)! May we who are in Christ not imagine we can escape the consequences if we are yoked to an ungodly person as we remember this command and the examples of those who made this mistake in the past. As children called into the light of Christ, why would we desire to creep back into the darkness of hopeless idolatry? As the temples of ages where He now lives in (1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 6:19-20) we cannot allow idols of other worship and devotion to replace or supplant the worship of the only God in whom we now exist. He dwells in every regenerated believer who has been changed and sealed by His Spirit who also gives us understanding of right and wrong, the knowledge of good and evil which we still vainly attempt to gain in our pride on our own as in Eden’s Garden (Genesis 2:17, 3:6, 22) to our own demise instead of learning such understanding from God (Hebrews 5:14). He now walks among us again as our God and calls us to follow in holiness as we keep ourselves separate from the sin that keeps us from fellowship with Him. We are to shun what is evil and cling to what is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22) as we listen to our Almighty Father who alone knows best as His adopted children and heirs of the righteousness to which we have been called. We are now holy His who have been called out of darkness into His marvelous light!
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