“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.” (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)
“Depart, depart, GO OUT FROM THERE; TOUCH NO UNCLEAN THING; go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the LORD.” (Isaiah 52:11) This speaks of the Israelites who are returning from exile in Egypt. (When Jerusalem fell, many of the people were carried away to Babylon, but some of the people FLED TO EGYPT, thinking they would be safe there.) Paul quotes this passage from Isaiah in reference to the Corinthian church. He is taking familiar wording and giving it meaning in a fresh context. Just as the Israelites in exile were to PUT OFF ANY IDOLATRY THEY MAY HAVE PICKED UP WHILE LIVING IN EGYPT, so the Corinthian believers are TO LAY ASIDE the IDOLATRY AND SEXUAL IMMORALITY that they were steeped in by virtue of LIVING IN CORINTH. They must be separate from the sin of the world.
First Corinthians addresses several issues of sexuality. There was a large following of the cult of Aphrodite among the Gentiles in Corinth—her temple was atop the Acrocorinthus, and her worship involved temple prostitution. In fact, the city had SO MANY PROSTITUTES that well-known Greeks, including Plato, openly referred to prostitutes as “Corinthians.”
BE SEPARATE FROM THEM, SAYS THE LORD…
Your Personal Pastor -Bill Stockham