So we're going to 2 Corinthians
chapter 6 and I want to read from verse
11. 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse
11. O ye Corinthians, our mouth is
open unto you, our heart is enlarged, ye are not straightened in us,
but ye are straightened in your own bowels. Now for a recompense
in the same I speak as unto my children, be ye also enlarged. Be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light
with darkness? And what concord hath Christ
with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God. As God hath said, I will dwell
in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among
them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you,
and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Amen, may the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Sometimes I wonder when I'm,
thinking about these passages, I get into them and then I kind
of realise that I've bitten off more than I can chew and there's
far more in these passages than I'm going to do justice to, but
you'll perhaps forgive me for that, it's just the way of things.
But the lovely thing about this passage, I think, although there
are some fairly challenging statements to be made in it, is that we
see the Apostle's affection for the Lord's people at Corinth
as he writes these things. It's evident as the Apostle begins
to turn the minds of the believers in that city to some of the burdens
that is that are upon his own heart for their well-being, that
he couches what he has to say in some delightful principles
of gospel truth, some beautiful gospel applications that he brings
to mind here. and Paul has important issues
to address with respect to church and relationships and separation
in this world. And we don't know what the reason
was particularly that made Paul think about this matter and raise
this matter with the church at Corinth here. We don't know what
the occasion was that triggered it in his mind. but clearly he
had this burden that he wanted to unload and to speak to them
about. but he opens up this section
in the most gentle and tender way. And I don't think that we
should miss that point, much as there is a huge amount of
material in the rest of this passage. We shouldn't miss the
fact that when it came to talk about potentially contentious
things, things that might involve people's feelings, things that
might involve people feeling hurt and challenged, that the
apostle was careful and he was gentle in the way in which he
dealt with these matters. And that pastoral dimension to
the apostle, I think, is good, and we may not find ourselves
in formal pastoral roles, but nevertheless as we deal with
one another, as we share together with one another, let us not
be censorious, let us not be sharp and brittle and edgy with
one another, but let us remember the example that the apostle
gave in his own writings and in his own dealings with people
that there was this tenderness, even reservedness about the way
in which the Apostle brought some of these challenging issues
to bear. So this is where we see the apostle
dealing really with these people in this tender, in this humble,
in this positive way in order to bring spiritual encouragement
to them rather than challenge them as it were with a big stick.
Paul refers to being open-mouthed and writing with an enlarged
heart. That's a reference to being honest
and sincere, and yet doing it with this enlarged heart, this
great affection. So that he doesn't write harshly
to condemn, but gently to guide and to direct. And he draws on
scriptural examples to support his admonitions, and he endeavours
to stir up the Christian spirit of the Lord's sheep. rather than
whipping stubborn goats. And these gospel principles are
given to us rather than formal instructions. And again, I think
we can see the wisdom of the apostle in this. He's giving
us principles that we can understand in the context of the gospel
rather than formal instructions about do this and do that and
don't do the next thing. He sets before the people at
Corinth and thereby the Holy Spirit sets before us, helps
to safeguard our souls and inform our conduct. The Apostle doesn't
employ the law, the law of Moses or the Old Testament commandments
in order to forbid or prohibit certain actions. But he sets
before the people principles of conduct. and methods of examining
the challenges that they faced in the world around about them
and that they were likely to come up against in their day-to-day
activities. And I think it's interesting
to note that Paul's direction here is aspirational. I tried to find a better word
than that. And I'm not sure that that's
the best word to use. But what I mean is there that
it's positive and it motivates people rather than being punitive
and disciplinary. He doesn't write about the punishments
that will follow for getting things wrong, but he talks about
the blessings to be enjoyed when the walk of life and the course
of action that he suggests are followed for the right reasons,
for the glory of God, for the testimony of Christ, for the
well-being of our brothers and sisters in the church. And Paul's
message in this passage, just perhaps to get onto the core
of what he writes about here, is talking about separation. And there's no question that
he's firm in what he's saying here. But he's also very dignified. And he draws on these scriptural
parallels and analogies to set before the Corinthians and us
the sort of things that we ought to consider and contemplate and
upon which we should meditate when we have to make decisions
that don't necessarily lie easy on our consciences. Again, he's
not beating people up with big sticks. He's lifting their eyes
to look at higher things. He's reasoning with them at the
level of their soul and their spiritual well-being. And he
says, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. So he's talking about our relationships
as believers with the world and with society and the systems
of this world that are around about us. And he uses a nice
farming allusion here. A farming illusion which nevertheless
fits our fast and furious 21st century pressurised lives. The idea is of a yoke that binds
animals together. For example, when they're ploughing.
This of course would be familiar to some people in Corinth perhaps. I mean Corinth was a mighty city
so probably there were not too many farmers amongst the inhabitants. But we're told in the Book of
Kings that Elisha was a farmer. And when Elijah, his predecessor
as the prophet of the Lord, when Elijah commissioned Elisha, he
did so by throwing his cloak over him. But he threw his cloak
over him while Elisha was passing by ploughing with twelve yoke
of oxen before him. He was in the twelfth yoke so
I'm guessing that means that there were twelve ploughs all
in a line or else there were an awful lot of oxen bound together
in one in one yoke, but be that as it may. The picture is, and
it's drawn from Moses in Deuteronomy 22, that there wasn't to be a
ploughing with an ox and an ass together. That wasn't to happen. And that seems to be where Paul
is drawing his analogy from. The Jews were told by Moses,
part of their law, not to plough a field with an ox and an ass
linked together in the same yoke. Now you might think, well, why
not? Why wouldn't you? Why shouldn't
you do that? If that was the resource that
you had available, wouldn't you just get on with the job? But
the point is that there was a spiritual picture here and that's what
Paul is drawing to the attention. These animals were not alike
and consequently they would pull differently and they wouldn't
plough in a straight line and maybe they would be contentious
one with the other. Whatever the practicalities of
trying to do that might be, the spiritual lesson is that there
has to be a separation between the Lord's people and the people
of the world. And that there has to be care
taken, there has to be an awareness and a sensitivity about the degree
and the extent with which we unite and connect and associate
with unbelievers because there are dangers inherent in becoming
too closely intertwined. And I'm sure that We've all heard the applications
that have been made over the years with respect to this particular
verse. Some people tell us it has to
do with marriage and other people say no, no it's to do with church
membership. or I've heard it referred to
business partnerships, that we shouldn't go into business with
an unbeliever, or trade unionism, or social clubs and social gatherings,
or entertainment. And I'm guessing that actually
just about any sphere of social activity and interaction has
likely been questioned and to some degree condemned by someone
at one time or another. And I don't disagree that we
need to be circumspect in all areas of life. And perhaps especially,
it is regarding who we marry, insofar as at least... It is an area that if we were
to get into that long-term relationship with someone who does not share
our faith and spiritual desires, then it will surely bring troubles
and traps and temptations and ultimately tears. But equally,
the apostle's reference to idolatry might be suggestive about the
fact that in Corinth there were temptations to engage with religious
activities and idolatrous worship. Sometimes, it appears from history,
sometimes that a person's work and employment was conditioned
upon the local gods in that community. Sometimes you weren't able to
do business unless you first made a payment to the temple. Or even buy food, you couldn't
enter into the village, the shambles, the village where trading was
done until you had put your coin in the temple tree and basically
bought a right by a payment to a god, an idol, to even buy your
daily food. So there were complexities, there
were problems where life was linked to an intensely religious
community with religious practices. which could make everyday life
hard and even dangerous for the people that were there. If problems
started to arise in a community or there was a time of drought
or famine or danger, they would look for scapegoats and they
would look to the Christians who had separated themselves
and who were to a degree independent and they would get the blame.
So there were all these sorts of things impinging. I'm sure
the Apostle is not advocating that we stop all interaction
with the world in which we live, because some is clearly essential
and obviously some can be helpful. And as long as the Lord keeps
us in this world, then there is a role as salt in the earth
for our testimony. And who knows, he may use us
as a platform to help and to assist both in natural good and
in spiritual good. There is a little phrase that
is sometimes used with respect to things that we should be doing
and things that we shouldn't be doing. Is it legal? Is it
honest? Is it decent? And I think, really,
that if we can say yes to those kind of principles, then there
is a legitimacy in every aspect of social interaction with the
men and women around about us, our neighbours and our families
and our friends. So I think all of our relationships
are really in view in this matter. Not to prevent or ban them, except
where they're clearly wrong and sinful and injurious to our souls
and the souls of others, but for us to think wisely about
them, realising that there are risks and dangers in becoming
overly entangled with those who are opposed to the values that
we profess. Because basically, oxes and asses
pull differently. And the great principle here
that the apostle is employing to encourage and motivate our
thinking is a genuinely glorious concept. He says, consider this
as you live in the world. Consider this, he says, you are
the temple of the living God. Now just pause for a moment and
think about that. Because he's telling that to
the Corinthians in their first century troubled environment. And he's telling it to you and
to me. He is saying that you and I,
we are the temple of the living God. And all these powerful contrasts
that he draws and he quotes from are to be seen in the light of
the fact that we are the temple of the living God. So that what
fellowship righteousness has with unrighteousness is to be
seen in the context that God is living inside us. What communion
are we to have with light and darkness? What harmony is there? What agreement? What concord
between Christ and Belial? Belial is sometimes referred
to as like the devil or Satan, but it means lawless. What part
or inheritance has the believer that has his eye on pure things
and heavenly things and holy things and that of the infidel? who's careless and heedless about
his soul and is going to hell. What agreement is there between
the temple of God and idolatry? So these are important issues,
powerful concepts and arguments. but it's to be seen in this statement
of wonderful weight and worth and significance that you are
the temple of the living God. So let me just think about that
in a couple of ways briefly, and then we'll draw it to a close. Let us think about it, first
of all, personally. If we are the temple of the living
God, what does that mean personally to us? Well, it means Right? And I don't, I'm not going to
begin to understand this and explain it to you. But it means
that God dwells in us. God dwells in us. It means that
he walks in us. He is our God and we are his
people. And we are so closely united
to him that not only are we in him, He is in us. Hardly know where to begin to
talk about that. We know that the new man and
the old man resides in this body of flesh. But so too does God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, living in
us, walking with us. And we would have to say, owning
us, owning us, body, soul and spirit, having redeemed us, body,
soul and spirit, so that we really are His body. Even this earthly
tabernacle, even this earthen vessel, even this fleshy, fallen
body is honoured and graced and beautified with and by the real
presence of the triune God. And if we want to move on and
think about it, not just personally, but collectively, we see that
we are all then part of the body of Christ. We are all his temple
fitted gloriously together as his dwelling place. And here
we could spiritualise Solomon's temple and note the precision
of the materials and the beauty of the architecture and the clean
design and the beauty and all the qualities that made it so
awesome. And Christ is building his temple
and he is making it awesome. It's holy, it's beautiful, it's
grand. It's dignified and it is fit
for God to dwell in. The Lord himself dwelling in
the midst of his people. There's so much here really,
we're only scratching the surface, but we'll conclude with this
because this is how the apostle concludes. He says, look at the
promises and the assurances that come from the Lord Almighty. And it's a lovely phrase there,
the Lord Almighty. So it just reminds us that he's
in control of all of these challenges and problems and confrontations
that might arise from a believer's desire to honour the Lord in
some of the ways in which we have to separate ourselves from
this world. That separation made for the
sake of God and for the testimony of Christ, if it is required
for conscience sake, and thereby jeopardises in some way our well-being,
our reputation, our opportunities, our careers, our friendships. What the apostle is telling us
here is that God himself says, the Lord Almighty says, we shall
never be losers for honouring our God. He says, I will receive
you. If everybody else throws you
out, When your act of conscience carries a cost and your principles
expose you to isolation or rejection or loneliness, I will receive
you. And he says, I will be a father
unto you. I will treat you with all fatherly
love, with protection, with provision, with inheritance. Yes, God is
our father by creation. And yes, God is gloriously our
father by adoption. But this is a much more intimate
and personal relationship that is being spoken about here. This
is the Lord saying to us, I'll take care of you. I'll love you
and I'll be good to you and I will pity you as a father would pity
his child. I will sympathise with you. I
will support you with every need supplied in whether it's sickness
or poverty or rejection or grief or whatever it is that we find
to be onerous in this earthly pilgrimage. and you will be my
sons and you will be my daughters. You will be my princesses and
you will be my princes. You will be a holy nation, justified,
sanctified, glorified kings and priests. It's not just theology, it's
not just doctrine. It's warm, it's personal comfort. We will be upheld gently. We will be cared for and nurtured
as loving parents care for their own children. You'll be my sons
and my daughters. And such glorious truths as these
are just lying on the pages of scripture and nestling in the
folds of our Bibles, just waiting to be discovered like so many
diamonds and emeralds. These are the blessings that
the Lord's people possess. And if we are called to honour
the Lord in any particular episode or incident or situation in our
life and it lies upon our conscience to honour him. We will not be
exposed and we will not be hurt for that but the Lord has promised
that he will be a father unto us and that we will be his sons
and his daughters. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us and encourage us with them. Amen.