Paul's Plea for Purity

As we come to the end of chapter 6 and beginning of chapter 7 of 2 Corinthians Paul shifts from focusing on his personal ministry of reconciliation to calling the Corinthians to live pure lives in light of their reception of this reconciliation. He turns to the church in this next paragraph and calls them to lives of holiness based on the promises of God.

Paul calls the church to pure partnerships as a result of the promises of God, which in turn lead us living lives of purity in the fear of God.

In this section Paul opens up by describing right partnerships within the church. He wants them to recognize the importance of right relationships while warning them of the danger of being in unrighteous partnerships.

I. Partnerships (11-15)

He begins by reminding them of his pastoral relationship with them. He wants them to understand because of his ministry of the gospel to them God has established them together and he now had a pastoral responsibility to care for them, call them to repentance, and continue to provide Christ-centered preaching for the continued transformation from one degree of glory to another!

Notice how he explains his partnership,

a. Paul’s Partnership

11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open.

Paul calls them by name here in the middle of this letter. Making this a personal plea. Seeking to get their attention by passionately pleading with them. To hear him and receive his reproof.

It would be like Josh preaching away and about halfway through the sermon, saying Pray’s Mill listen to me. This is important, I want you to understand my heart, my affection, and love for you. Do you think that would grab our attention. Do you think we would lean up a little more in our pew? Here as Paul has just reminded them of the integrity in his ministry of reconciliation, called them to be reconciled to God, he then writes, we have spoken freely to you, Corinthians. We have not held anything back ,what has been delivered to us we have delivered to you, that that is of utmost importance. We have not wavered to please men, but have labored in prayer and preaching to put sound doctrine on your plate.

When you consider what we know Paul spoke/wrote to the Corinthians what are the consistent themes/doctrines he taught them?

2 Corinthians 1:13 ESV

For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand and I hope you will fully understand—

2 Corinthians 4:2 ESV

But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.

Paul consistently opened up to them God’s word expounding to them God’s truth about who he was and what he had done, through Christ.

What else did Paul address with the Corinthians? Sin! He did this out of a love for them and a desire to see the church purified and God glorified.

Here he addresses his affection for them. He writes,

We have not hidden anything from you, our heart is wide open. We have share with you everything you need, we have not held anything back that you need to to come to faith and live according to the gospel of Jesus.

The reason Paul preaches the gospel, teaches sound doctrine, disciplines sin, and fights against false teachers is out of his affection for Christ and his church.

As Paul has been commending and defending his ministry he reminds the Corinthians of what they have heard him speak and teach, and the way he has conducted himself in his ministry labors. He has been an open book in a sense there is nothing about his preaching, teaching, and discipling that needs to be masked or hidden.

This should be a goal of every minister of reconciliation, those who pastor, who deacon, who are partners in the gospel. We should all say we are an open book before you. You know our heart, our life, and our conduct. This is how healthy, covenantal partnerships are formed. This does not mean that we need to share every detail of our life with every person, there are some things that it is ok and right to keep to a small group for the good of individuals and the good of the body. But generally we should be a people who desire to speak openly with one another especially when it comes to spiritual things.

12 You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections.

Paul says look brothers, we love you openly and freely. We have a deep abiding affection for you. You can see that in the way we care for you. We have in essence poured our love out for you. We are not restricting or holding back our love and concern for you.

What are some ways Paul had shown his affections to the Corinthians?

Gospel preaching

Fellowship

Prayer

Correction

Instruction in the Truth

But, you are restricted in your own affections. You are holding back your love for us. As you have heard these false accusers, these slanderers who have tried to discredit us. You have restrained our relationships by withholding your brotherly love from us! These brothers and sisters at Corinth are restraining their love for Paul by rejecting him and receiving false reports regarding his character and ministry.

How should Paul handle this?

In verse 13 Paul writes,

13 In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also.

Paul says, don’t shut us out of your hearts, widen your hears speak the truth in love to us, as we have spoken freely to you as our partners in the gospel. Don’t let the “super apostles” stop you from showing love and commitment to us. We have ministered to yo for your good, we are asking that you minister to, serve us, show us the same affection we have shown you.

John MacArthur writes, “A number of them had squeezed the apostle out of their lives and closed their hearts to him. They had believed lies about Paul and turned away from him to follow false teachers. As a result they had left their affection for him.

Now is Paul writing to the children’s ministry at Corinth? Is Paul writing to the student ministry? No he is writing to grown ups who are acting like immature, spoiled, disobedient children who have rejected his teaching, been drawn away by false teachers and self-centered desires.

Here we see one of the primary issues with the Corinthians displaying itself, their immaturity. In their own wisdom they are rejecting Paul and his pastoral care for them.

Here is the question for us to consider, how will we respond to loving discipline, correction, and counsel?

He is also writing to them as a father disciplining, correcting and counseling his children out of love and concern for them. He has a fatherly affection, his heart is wide open, and he wants them to flourish in God’s church through Christ!

How does Paul’s admonition to the Corinthians apply to us today at Pray’s Mill?

Before we receive any negative reports regarding our shepherds we need to consider how they have spoken to, loved, and lived before us.

We should pour out our affections on our shepherds, deacons, and one another as Christ has poured out his love on us. Even recognizing the flaws in our leaders we should love them freely.

We should defend one another, not defame one another. We should let one another into our hearts in order to help one another. We should be willing to speak truth in love to one another and labor alongside one another.

As Paul lays out his partnership with the Corinthians he then addresses the importance of,

b. Purity in Partnerships

14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

ἑτεροζυγέω heterozugeō; = draft animals that need different kinds of yokes, because they are of different species [e.g., an ox and a donkey]: unevenly yoked, be mismated, yoking associated with instruction.

Paul pulls this truth from this illustration from the Old Testament,

Deuteronomy 22:10 ESV

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

Now, if most of us had to hitch up a couple oxen to go plow a field we would probably struggle. Not many of us had had the pleasure of plowing with oxen or mules. But everyone of us would recognized an issue is someone brought you an ox and a donkey and said hook these two up and go plow that corn field. You would look at them like they were crazy. They are not the same species, the same size, and the don’t walk with the same stride. So there is not any way you are going to plow a straight line or plant a straight row.

In other words, don’t be tied to unbelievers especially, if you are going to be receiving spiritual instruction or influence. There is now way you are going to stay on the straight and narrow path if you are yoked to unbelievers. Again here Paul is specifically addressing the teaching the Corinthians are receiving from these false teachers.

Scott Hafemann explains, he “describes the absolute incompatibility between those who believe (and hence support Paul’s ministry) and those who are calling Paul’s apostleship into question. Paul’s point is stark. In the final analysis, the believers in Corinth must recognize his opponents as “unbelievers” and separate from them.” Hafemann, S. J. (2000).

Believers must avoid being yoked to unbelievers when we are receiving errant instruction, when we are providing instruction, or working together as witnesses.

What is the primary partnership he is addressing here and what are some secondary relationships this principle should be applied to.

Church partnerships.

Marriage partnerships.

Business partnerships.

Does this mean we are not to work around unbelievers? No, we are to be in the world but not of the world.

What it does mean is that we are not to partner in business that is unrighteous, ungodly, and unethical. It means that we are not to engage in godless conversation and activities that unbelievers my engage in. If our partnership causes us to sin, or deform from the image of Christ instead of being formed into the image of Christ we probably need to dissolve the partnership.

Notice this line of questioning Paul lays out to drive home his point.

For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?

μετοχή metochē; from 3348; sharing:—partnership.

Thomas, R. L. (1998). New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek dictionaries : updated edition. Anaheim: Foundation Publications, Inc.

Paul here is pointing out the sharp contrast between what is righteous and what is wicked. What is good and what is in violation of God’s law and character. The two cannot be joined or shared.

The Corinthians are rejecting the goodness of Paul’s gospel message and ministry and aligning with, and partnering with those who were slandering Paul and preaching a false gospel.

He then moves from a question of partnership to fellowship.

Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

κοινωνία koinōnia; fellowship:—contribution, fellowship, participation, sharing.

Thomas, R. L. (1998). New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek dictionaries : updated edition. Anaheim: Foundation Publications, Inc.

Those who are of the light have no reason, right, or ability to be in close participation, relationship, or sharing of anything with those who are in darkness.

Paul is not saying we avoid those who are in darkness at all cost, but there are certain things we don’t do with those who are not in the light. There are place we don’t go with those who are in darkness. He writes to the Ephesians,

Ephesians 5:5–8 ESV

For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light

As children of God we are in the light, and our responsibility is to let our light shine as bright as possible we are not to let our light be dimmed as it is mixed with darkness.

Charles Hodge explains “nothing can be more incongruous than light and darkness, whether in the literal or the figurative meaning of the terms. The attempt, therefore, of Christians to remain Christians and retain their inner state as such, and yet to enter voluntarily into intimate fellowship with the world, is as impossible as to combine light and darkness, holiness and sin, happiness and misery.”

Packer, J. I. (1995). Introduction. In A. McGrath (Ed.), 2 Corinthians (2 Co 6:14). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

In verse 15 Paul throws down the extreme contrast asking,

15 What accord has Christ with Belial?

Paul says there is no way Christ can be combined with the Evil One. There is no way Christ the Holy One can be in harmony with the Wicked One. We are in Christ therefore we separated from the one whose head he crushed. We have now business bringing things that belong to Satan into his sanctuary.

Those who are justified in Christ are positionally sanctified (set apart) from the bondage of Belial. Therefore we are too continually be set apart from the rule and reign of darkness and the demonic.

Next Paul gets to his main point in his line of questioning,

Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?

Now I want to give you one more quote form Charle Hodge, because I believe explains Paul’s point well. Then I want us to discuss this question and say how do we live according to this truth.

2 Corinthians: Crossway Classic Commentaries The Apostle’s Faithfulness and Love (Verses 1–18)

Believers and unbelievers may indeed have many things in common—a common country, common kindred, common worldly callings, common natural affections; but the interior life is entirely different—not only incongruous, but essentially opposed to each other. To the one, Christ is God, the object of supreme reverence and love; to the other, he is a mere man. To the one, the great object of life is to promote the glory of Christ and to secure his favor; to the other, these are objects of indifference. Elements so discordant can never be united into a harmonious whole.

How do we walk according to this truth as not to live as monks and nuns, but to maintain purity in our relationships within the body and the world?

Let’s consider Paul’s last question.

16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols?

In the time of the Exodus, God had promised too dwell with his people in their temple made with hands. This temple/sanctuary was the location where God alone was to be worshipped.

Exodus 25:8 ESV

And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.

Ezekiel 37:26–27 ESV

I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

God people were to avoid idol worship, they were not to mix the worship of God with the worship of Idols.

We see God’s righteous wrath in Exodus 32 when God’s people created an idol and worshipped it in the name of God.

Exodus 32:8–10 ESV

They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ” And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”

Paul had already written to the Corinthians reminding them that they were the temple of God.

1 Corinthians 3:16–17 ESV

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

The Corinthians were familiar with the church as the temple of God.

Now has Paul already addressed idols with the Corinthians? What did teach them?

Did Paul anywhere affirm that is ok to engage idols?

He agrees idols are nothing, they are false Gods, but he also says if we know meat has been sacrificed to idols for the sake of the weaker brother, avoid it!

Here he is saying there is no reason, no situation, no circumstance where these idols, false god’s of the world should be brought into the assembly of God’s people. When God is to be worshiped, he alone is to be honored, praised, and exalted and it is to be done in a way he has prescribed.

Therefore, the Corinthians or the true temple of God today is not to engage in worship practices of unbelievers, heathens, or idolaters.

Now, when you consider Paul’s line of questioning what are some ways we see the church today crossing the line in agreement with idols?

II. Promises

a. Divine Assembly

For we are the temple of the living God;

As God’s called out assembly the Corinthians were the temple of God. They were his church, his body and so are we. Therefore, we must consider what it means to mix the temple of God with idols. We must be alert and on watch that we don’t let false God’s come into the assembly of God’s people and dim the majesty of the glory of God as we worship.

as God said,

b. Divine Dwelling

“I will make my dwelling among them

and walk among them,

and I will be their God,

and they shall be my people.

17 Therefore go out from their midst,

and be separate from them,

says the Lord,

c. Divine Adoption

and touch no unclean thing;

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.”

III. Purity

a. Purity in light of Divine Promises

7 Since we have these promises,

beloved,

let us cleanse ourselves

from every defilement of body

and spirit,

b. Purity in the fear of God

bringing holiness to completion

in the fear of God.

c. Purity in relationships

2 Make room in your hearts for us.

We have wronged no one,

we have corrupted no one,

we have taken advantage of no one.

3 I do not say this to condemn you,

for I said before that you are in our hearts,

to die together

and to live together[1]

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (2 Co 6:11–7:3). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.