Unequally Yoked - part 8
2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then 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.” Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
I would like to continue with the theme that was introduced last week, ‘the world’s view versus God’s view’. It is here where I would like to close out this series over the next two to three weeks or so, the Lord knows. Can you see with me, my brothers and sisters, that some of you are joining with those of us who have adult sons and daughters. Our adult numbers are growing, note the change that is being made to our Sunday school classes, and even our prayer requests are changing; we need to pray for our twenty-something, their needs, their concerns, their protection and their faith in our God. In the past, I would be the first to say amen brothers and sisters, but now, I must stand before you and say, that’s all good but it’s secondary and we must keep first things first. And that is our topic this week and next week ‘First thing’s first!’
I would like to look at three statements from Scripture, two commandments and a corollary commandment to the first of these two commandments. First thing’s first we must be reminded of this and we must discipline ourselves to remember this when we leave this place and we are far away from this place, when we are interacting in this world in which we live. For if we, my brothers and sisters, get this wrong, if we get this out of place, or if we get this in the wrong order, we are not only capable of yoking up unequally, but we also run a big risk of losing the very faith that we proclaim that we have. And yes and amen, the ‘we’ that I am referring to, include our College age and our twenty-something believers and soon to be believers.
Our first two commands are found in the gospel portion of the Bible. Open your Bibles to Matthew 22 and we will start reading at verse 37;
Matthew 22:37-40. Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
In response to a question from a Pharisees lawyer, who asked; Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law, Jesus responded with the Shema of the Old Testament from the book of Deuteronomy chapter 6.
To get a clear understanding of this let’s open our Bible to this Old Testament passage. Deuteronomy chapter 6 (page 162-163 in my Bible)
Note the following;
1. Chapter 5 contains the review of the Ten Commandments
2. Listen to the entire context from verse one to verse nine. (Read this slowly)
3. Notice the words ‘Hear, O Israel!’ that is the Shema
Here Jesus says; “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the first and great commandment. This first commandment, this great commandment, is to love the Lord your God with all that we are and have – heart, soul, mind, strength, possessions, and service. We must handle this command first, “but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.” You shall love the Lord your God, what does that mean? 1John gives us the answer in 5:3
1 John 5:3. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
It means more than having good feelings about our God, for true love involves the will as well as the heart. Where there is love there will be service and obedience, we keep His commandments and in the keeping we find out that what we thought would be burdensome, is not burdensome at all.
First thing’s first, a Jew following this great commandment would show it by his parenting skills, by his conversation, and by his behavior. And because this was in his heart, it was an automatic response and not something he had to think about doing, he just did it. (Read again Deut. 6: 5-9)
I asked last week are we applying the antidote to what the world is feeding our children. Now I ask are we teaching the love of God diligently to our children. What do we talk about, New Hope, when we are in our homes? And if I did not know you well, if I went to your home, or if I saw you at work, school or shopping, or if I engaged in conversation with you, would I know by your behavior, that you are saved. Do I need to wear a big cross around my neck, drive a car with a bumper sticker that says “I’m saved how about you” or would people I meet know that there is something different about you?
Just how serious is this commandment? There was a time in my life that I had issues with this one verse that Jesus speaks in Luke 14:26, it reads like this;
Luke 14:26. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
Now, I know that my love for my Lord my God must be first and must be with all that I have my heart, my soul, my mind, my strength, my possessions, and my service.
I also understand that we can get off track with this command and must be reminded to return to it.
Let this be our reminder New Hope. Listen
Revelation 2:1-7. “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. That sounds like us New Hope. But the Lord does not stop there and here is the warning.
Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” ’
Do you have an ear to hear this New Hope, for if you do, then hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to your heart at this moment.
And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Your neighbor meaning your parents, your sons and daughters, your husband or wife, that person or persons who live close to or in the neighborhood with you, that co-worker, that student, and even a stranger, that friend as well as that enemy. This second commandment says to love them as yourself.
Notice the obvious, I think, to have a second implies a first and that implies order and ranking. Take away the first and you don’t have a second, in fact it becomes your first. Rank them together and now you have a situation as to which one you will serve since no one can serve two masters.
Actually without the first being obeyed, you can even have the second, at least not the way that the Scripture gives it.
1 John 4:7-11. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Notice also how we are to love our neighbor (companion, friend, or simply another) as ‘yourself’, that is, as you love yourself or as if the person were you. Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
This also implies that you are aware of yourself, and Jesus is real in your life and that fact gives you a reason to love yourself. But there is more. I realize my short comings, my disappointments, my ignorance and my weaknesses.
And I am able to love myself pass all of that, so too with my neighbor. That is stated in the husband and wife passage of Ephesians;
Ephesians 5:25. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,
I am part of the Church and Christ loves me!
Ephesians 5:28. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.
Our wives are our special neighbors!
But notice that this love does not require all of you as the love of our Lord and our God requires. I had to learn this brothers and sisters of New Hope. For I was one who put my family on level with God and tried to decide which one to serve. The problems in these situations that are man made is that you turn left when you should turn right, you stop when you should go, and you leave out when you should come in. You miss the mark, you sin, when you attempt and that’s all it turns out to be, just an attempt to rewrite the law, for in the end the law is still the same
‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
There is a corollary commandment that is the third statement from Scripture but that will have to wait until next week.