Don’t be Pulled

Introduction - It matters who you’re partnered with.

ILLUST - Lenny at Advanced Collision. I was partnered with Lenny for an incentive program when we went to flat-rate compensation. My paycheck depended on my production AND Lenny’s. Problem was - Lenny was colorblind - and that’s a problem when you paint cars.

For Paul, the Corinthians had chosen to reject their relationship with him and to partner with other teachers who had made their way into the church - some of whom were false teachers.

The false teachers’ strategy was calculated: to gain influence, they first needed to undermine Paul’s authority, since he was the one who articulated truth and established the standard as God’s apostle3. Paul was denounced as an upstart and self-seeker lacking apostolic authority, and mocked for his unimpressive personal appearance in contrast to his bold written words.

Instead of being pulled away from Paul (and Christ) by partnering with false teachers, Paul is urging the Corinthians to separate themselves and pursue holiness.

As we explore Paul’s argument here we will be faced with a question: What relationships and influences have the potential to pull you from your walk with Jesus?

If I could summarize Paul’s entire argument from this passage it would be to stitch together three phrases from the passage:

“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. . . For we are the temple of the living God. . . [so] let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”

Don’t Partner with what pulls you from Christ.

2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1 “14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

How many of us here grew up with the understanding that this mainly pertained to marriage - or as I often heard it taught during my dating years - don’t date an unbeliever?

I agree it can pertain to that, but that is not the context nor is it the limit of what Paul is saying.

The word itself, ἑτεροζυγοῦντες, is only used here in the NT and once in the LXX in Lev 19:19

Leviticus 19:19 ESV

19 “You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material.

This may be where the idea that it pertains to marriage comes from.

The concept is also found:

Deuteronomy 22:10 ESV

10 You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

Has to do with Influence and direction.

Pairing and ox and donkey - the ox will have much more influence due to its sheer size and power.

The donkey will then be led in the wrong direction. The field will not be plowed.

When a believer is unequally partnered with someone who is not following Jesus, and that unbeliever has more influence, the believer is steered off course and away from following Christ.

ILLUST - me walking with the boys and veering them into a pole.

Paul then gives five rhetorical questions to highlight the importance of the prohibition:

For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?

Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

15 What accord has Christ with Belial?

Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?

16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols?

The obvious answer is that the two things described do not mix -

Food & Drink

Pickle juice and hot chocolate

Mayonnaise and orange juice

Sardines and cotton candy

Mustard and strawberry milkshake

Everyday Absurdities

Flip flops and a tuxedo

A bicycle horn on a Harley Davidson

Sunscreen and a snowsuit

Reading glasses on a goldfish

Completely Mismatched Functions

A screen door on a submarine

A chocolate teapot

A solar-powered flashlight (for use at night)

An inflatable dartboard

Animals

A cat as a lifeguard

A sloth as a race horse jockey

A goldfish as a guard dog

*Who are you allowing to have influence in your life that has the potential to veer you off course from following Jesus?

maybe it’s a romantic relationship

Maybe it’s friends you spend time with

maybe it’s not physical people. - They are called influencers for a reason!

16b For we are the temple of the living God;

(what agreement has the temple of God with idols?) - none!

Paul has already written to the Corinthians that individually they are the temple of God as the Spirit dwells in them

1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV

16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

Here, Paul is saying that the church should not put up with false teaching or anything in their midst that would lead people away from Christ because they are the temple of the LIVING GOD

The word for “temple” is the word for the most holy place - the place of God’s presence

Again, Paul is not talking about the building but the people. Together, their individual lives create the space where God’s presence is revealed, realized, and expressed.

Links together six OT quotations

These text support the commands in 6:14 and 7:1

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.

Lev 26:11-12 and Ezek 37:27

Shows that the Corinthians (the church) experience the blessings of the New Covenant as the fulfilment of the Old Covenant and the promises originally given to Israel

17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing;

“Therefore” - this is the logical implication of being the New Covenant people of God.

Three commands and three promises:

Three commands from Isaiah 52:11:

“go out” and “be separate,” and “touch no unclean thing”

“midst” = from the middle - don’t get lost in the crowd

“be separate” - Be separate in who you are, not necessarily where you are”

Psalm 1:1 ESV

1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

Sometimes it is leaving a specific place so not to be caught up with the world. Sometimes it is coming away from the part of the world you invite into your life (phone - window into the world)

Just as Israel was called to be separate from the peoples around them, so to we are called to be separate from the world around us.

I grew up with the understanding that this meant “stay away from unbelievers - They’ll make you dirty, but we are not called to be away from the world, we are called to be apart from it.

Perhaps being separate in character means you need to separate in space, but Paul is not advocating isolationism or a monastic lifestyle but neither is he advocating syncretism.

1 Corinthians 5:9–11 ESV

9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.

Jesus was separate from the world while still in the world.

We should be separate in who we are, not necessarily from where we are.

We cannot fall into the trap of either separatism or syncretism.

Satan doesn’t care which side of the log you fall from, he just wants you off the log - ineffective.

Three promises from Ezek 20:34, 2 Sam 7:14, and Isa 43:6

then I will welcome you, 18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”

God blesses those who separate themselves from sin and unto the Lord. Abraham separated himself from Ur of the Chaldees and God blessed him. When Abraham compromised and went to Egypt, God had to chasten him (Gen. 11:31–12:20). As long as Israel was separated from the sinful nations in Canaan, God blessed them; but when they began to mingle with the heathen, God had to discipline them. Both Ezra and Nehemiah had to teach the people again the meaning of separation (Ezra 9–10; Neh. 9:2; 10:28; 13:1–9, 23–31).

Wiersbe, Warren W. 1996. The Bible Exposition Commentary. Vol. 1. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

both negative and positive side to this

negative - be separate

positive - Show God

*What do you need to separate yourself from to make yourself a clean space for the presence of God to be revealed and expressed?

1 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.”

Pursue Holiness

Cleanse from EVERY defilement - every defilement

of body and spirit - all of us

holiness to completion - complete all of it.

Too often we become spiritually apathetic, content to settle into “average Christianity” (whatever that is).

But that is not the thrust of Paul’s conclusion and application of Paul’s argument throughout the previous several verses.

It is not: Since we have these promises, chill and hand around until heaven. We are called to pursue holiness.

God has only one intended destiny for mankind—holiness. His only goal is to produce saints. God is not some eternal blessing-machine for people to use, and he did not come to save us out of pity—he came to save us because he created us to be holy.

— Oswald Chambers

Two types of holiness:

Positional holiness - (set apart) - this is God’s work through Jesus and not something we could accomplish on our own.

Progressive holiness - sanctification - this is our work with the Holy Spirit to live out our “set-apart-edness.”

ILLUST - “The Measure of a Man” - is the qualities of an elder but the measure and pursuit of every man.

There is no pill or shot for holiness. There is no AI to do it for you. You won’t stumble into it or accidentally become holy.

 This is an excerpt from the NIV Lifehacks Bible: Practical Tools for Successful Spiritual Habits

Don’t Resist the Holy Spirit

“We must be careful to let the Holy Spirit do this searching. If we try to search our own hearts, we are apt to fall into one or both of two traps. The first is the trap of morbid introspection. Introspection can easily become the tool of Satan, who is called the "accuser" (Revelation 12:10). One of his chief weapons is discouragement. He knows that if he can make us discouraged and dispirited, we will not fight the battle for holiness. The second trap is that of missing the real issues in our lives.” ― Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness

Commit to Obedience

(cue for worship team)

Hebrews 11 - The Hall of Faith of Holy Ones are marked by their obedience.

Pursue Jesus, Not Moralism

Pursuing Jesus will make us more moral, but holiness is not simply being more moral in our actions.

*What needs to change in your life this week for you to become more holy? *What does it look like to pursue holiness this week?

Conclusion

“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. . . For we are the temple of the living God. . . [so] let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”

What relationships and influences have the potential to pull you from your walk with Jesus?

Who has influenced you?

How will you pursue holiness this week?