Unequally Yoked - part 2
Let’s all stand if we can.
Read the passage slowly.
2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1. Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you (we) 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.” Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty.” Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
I commented last Sunday about how we are citizens of a time that emphasize tolerance, political correctness, compromise and acceptance. Allow me to expand on what I said; I would further define us (you and I) as a sophisticated people. Now that is a nice sounding word and without much examination we would even think that it is complementary. By being sophisticated I mean a person who has been altered (made different or modified) by education, experience, and life, in our culture, in general, resulting in a world-wise person (a person with worldly experiences) and a person who is not naïve. This is most obvious and easier observed in our young people. For instance checked or unchecked, our children are seeing too much and they know too much. One does not have to look far to see makeup, stockings, and designer clothes and notions on and with children in elementary school. The days of just putting some Vaseline or lotion on the face, pig-tails, bobby socks, PF Fliers, and fruit of the loom tee-shirts are things of the past. Cell phones, digital music, digital video, chat rooms, emails and other internet activity readily available to anyone with a computer and just about everyone got a computer or has access to one.
And that is just one area, my brothers and sisters. I have and I know students who are high school age, 14 to 18 years old, who are living on their own or with their boy friend or girl friend, have their own car, credit card, in debt, have experience various forms of intoxication, take vacations by themselves out of the country or have the house to themselves while their parents take such vacation, can tell you their sexual preference, how to win at gambling, and will tell you their rights no longer saying talk to the hand but talk to my lawyer.
This just in, drug use is up among teenage girls and one of the prestigious private religious high schools in the area has just started drug testing of their students.
Oh yes, we are a sophisticated people! And to all of this sophistication, I have just one question, where is the living God in our sophistication?
For their day, their time and their culture, the people of Corinth were a sophisticated people. They tolerated just about anything. Any and all religions were accepted by them. And compromise was easy if the money was right or the pleasure was good. They gain such a reputation for sexual vice that the phrase ‘act like a Corinthian’ meant to commit sexual immorality. This was the church, the collections of saints, where Paul said these words
1 Corinthians 6:9-11. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
He further instructs them with our passage; “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you (we) 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.” Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty.” Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” Last week I asked you to listen for the affirmation, ‘for we are the temple of the living God’. This week I would like to draw our attention to four words, ‘As God has said’. I remember the EF Hutton commercial which would dramatize a person talking and then he or she would say “Well EF Hutton says,” and everything would stop. The commercial would end with the statement ‘when EF Hutton speaks, people listen!’ This passage says ‘As God has said’ now are you listening?
Why does Paul need to make the statement ‘As God has said’ to some church folk? To establish the authority here, Paul is saying that this is not him speaking out of emotions or opinions but this is from what God Himself has said. Part of the reason for this second Corinthian letter is because Paul’s authority as an apostle was under attack. The question was raised by his enemies as to whether Paul had the authority to preach and teach. In other words his calling was questioned.
Listen to what it does not say ‘God has said to me!’ but he says ‘As God has said: and here is what He said making reference to Old Testament passages. The saints may find this admonition to be hard to accept especially if they are engaged to be married or making plans along those lines with an unbeliever or they are getting started with business and developing partnerships with a person who is not a believer. After all they being Corinthians have never had any problems with different people. But this statement ‘As God has said’ moves this to a higher level and Paul had taught the church from the first Corinthian letter the value of the Old Testament to their current church.
Listen to it: 1 Corinthians 10:1-14. I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
Paul is saying, in a sense, I am not talking just to hear my self talk but God has said these things. There is authority behind what I am writing to you.
What is our reaction when we hear these words ‘As God has said’? With all of our sophistication, do words like these cause us to stop and listen, stop and take note or are they received by us as something you expect to hear while in church but having no application to my practical world?
Are you thinking at this point, “come on pastor, I agree with verse 14 and really I am pass that point, I mean my wife or my husband and I are equally yoked, so I have no issues with ‘do not be unequally yoked’.
And it is true many of us may not have issues with this passage of scripture, I didn’t and I still don’t but I do know some who do. And what is troubling is that you don’t see it until it is up on you.
Earlier I mentioned examples of sophistications within our society and culture. How many can understand and identify with this? Stated differently how many have seen it themselves? Now if you are seeing it, what about those younger than you, some of whom are our children and grandchildren? When this poison is administered even in little doses, are we willing to give the antidote, the antidote being focusing on the contra with a simple statement like ‘yes, but this is what God says’!
Brothers and Sisters I truly thank God for you but if you are not taking advantage of our other ministries like Sunday School, Growth Group and Fellowships, you are truly missing out on some growth opportunities. For it was in Sunday School and even at this last Growth Group where I was reminded that there is a time for prayer and there is a time to stop praying and apply some action to the situation. In the process an easy attack, 36 of Joshua’s men were struck down and Joshua and the elders went into a prayer meeting with the Lord. You know what God’s response was to them. Listen to it: Joshua 7:10-13. The Lord said to Joshua, “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face? Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them; they have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. Therefore the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become devoted for destruction. I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you. Get up! Consecrate the people and say, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow; for thus says the Lord, God of Israel, “There are devoted things in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you.”
We received this in Sunday school and by the way it is an illustration of just what Paul was doing in our passage. And also in Growth Group this past Friday in conversation with one of the sisters, I was reminded again that yes prayer is indeed good but we can use prayer as an excuse for not doing the action that is needed.
Have you answered my question yet? Where is the living God in our sophistication? Because, there is a god in our sophistication but is this god the living God, return with me to verse 16. Do you see the contrast in the statement what agreement has the temple of God with idols? Now this may shock some of you but behind every idol is Satan and he too make the statement, I will dwell in them and walk among them, I will be their god and they shall be my people.
Read from the book by Edward T. Welch called Additions; page 47 and 49 first and then page 12.
Lastly allow me to leave you with this when we read in God’s book about Him speaking, He means business. You will not find any jokes or loose statements associated with God. In the first two books of the bible, we find God speaking. I summarize some of it this way;
Creation came about because of what God said, when He said let there be, it was!
Adam and Eve were called to give an account because of what God said!
Noah builds an Ark, and he and his family were saved from the flood because of what God said!
Abram left country and family going to a land he knew not where and would become a nation he knew not how because of what God said!
When God speaks an angry Laban swallows his pride against his nephew Jacob!
No talking Moses goes before the Pharaoh of Egypt telling him to let God’s people go because of what God said!
When God speaks we need to stop and take notes. When God speaks we need to stop and listen! When God speaks we need to be still and know that it God!
Psalm 33:6-9. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.