6:14 Do not be
unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has
righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with
darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has
a believer with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement has the temple
of God with idols? For you 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.”
17 Therefore
“Come out from among
them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will
receive you.”
18 “I will be a
Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the
Lord Almighty.”
I get a lot of questions about this passage. In fact recently
I was asked to preach a sermon on it. The irony is that the passage, again
picked like a flower from a garden is applied to who a person marries, which
you can clearly see if you've been following along in our study through 2
Corinthians has nothing to do with the context. The next question naturally is
"What is Paul talking about?" It's almost like this section was
dropped from the sky and doesn't fit, or does it?
Try this on and see if it fits:
"Evil company corrupts good habits." Paul said that
in his last letter to Corinth (1 Corinthians 15:33). It turns out not everyone
in the church in Corinth was actually in a life changing relationship with
Jesus. If you walk with people who crave revenge and bitterness over grace and
forgiveness what will happen to you? Won't their thoughts, words, and attitudes
start creeping into your headspace? Consider these words of wisdom:
"Every soul is surrounded by an atmosphere of its
own,—an atmosphere, it may be, charged with the life-giving power of faith,
courage, and hope, and sweet with the fragrance of love. Or it may be heavy and
chill with the gloom of discontent and selfishness, or poisonous with the
deadly taint of cherished sin. By the atmosphere surrounding us, every
person with whom we come in contact is consciously or unconsciously
affected.—Christ's Object Lessons, 339
How about this:
Character is power. The silent witness of a true, unselfish,
godly life carries an almost irresistible influence. By revealing in our own
life the character of Christ we co-operate with Him in the work of saving
souls. It is only by revealing in our life His character that we can co-operate
with Him. And the wider the sphere of our influence, the more good we may
do.—Christ's Object Lessons, 340
Guess who wants to have the greatest influence in your life?
Jesus wants to live inside you. He wants you to be His temple. He wants His
thoughts to become your thoughts and grace to flow as freely from you as it
does from Him.
We all are connected to a lesser or greater degree to others.
Make your connection to Jesus the strongest one in your life. Yoke up with Him.
Live in His atmosphere. Let Him reveal Himself through you. You may have to
distance yourself from some people, maybe even some church people...
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