This exposition of 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday evening, July 22, 2018.
Intro:
These are difficult times. It seems like I’m saying that every week. It is true the culture is becoming increasingly secular. Biblical standards are being questioned and outright ignored.
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Long-held convictions are being jettisoned and we, the church, are fast becoming strangers in our own world. But, that should not come as a surprise. The church has always been at odds with the culture. The city of God and the city of man have always been at war. Thus our Lord commanded us to be in the world but not of the world. The problem is that we have for too long associated our culture with the church or the church with the culture. For many the gospel was equated with winning the culture war. We’ve been fighting to “win back” the culture when our real concern ought to have been making sure we remain the church no matter what happens within the culture. I’m not saying that the culture doesn’t matter and I’m not calling on us to give up on culture but I am suggesting that the more important thing is that we be the church. That we recognize that we are first and foremost citizens of the Kingdom of God and that our primary allegiance belongs to King Jesus. That we recognize the chief end of man, the thing we are made for, is the glory of God. Our lives are to reflect His glory. We are to be driven and motivated by a desire to make Him known and that His will be accomplished on the earth. That we recognize that we are a royal priesthood, a holy nation.
When we understand this is our aim and goal as the church of the Lord Jesus then we understand that the greatest threat to the church is that which comes from within. It is not the godless pagan or the secular culture, it is the church not living out the truth of the gospel. It is the church failing to be the church. The apostle Paul was under attack from within the church. He had spent a year and a half establishing the church at Corinth. He left behind a living, vibrant body. Now there are those, in that church, who are attacking his integrity, his calling and his message. Paul has written them a sorrowful letter and made a painful visit to no avail. The church has compromised with the spirit of the age and in 2 Corinthians Paul calls them to holiness, to separation from the world. That is the focus of our text this evening found in 2 Corinthians chapter 6.
Text: 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1
We all want to be “liked.” William James, a pioneer in the field of psychology, once said, “The deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated.” There is a basic need to be loved. Have you ever loved someone and they did not love you in return? There’s nothing worse than hugging someone who doesn’t hug you back! So, I get it that we want to be liked. I understand the desire on the part of the church that wants to “fit in” and be accepted but at what cost? Abandoning the gospel is too high a price to pay. To deny our fundamental call to live for the glory of God above all else is spiritual suicide.
Joseph Bayly wrote, “The evangelical church is sick, so sick people are crowding into join us. We are a big flock, big enough to permit…practicing homosexuals to pursue their lifestyle, big enough to tolerate almost anything pagans do. We are no longer narrow; it’s a wide road of popular acceptance for us.” I’m afraid he’s right. And it is over again such “wideness” the apostle Paul declares, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?”
This is not simply a command against marrying unbelievers or entering into business relationships with non-Christians, though both actions are clearly unbiblical, it is specifically a prohibition of being yoked together with those in the church who oppose the truth. This is a word about unbelievers within the church.
That is made clear by Paul’s long argument that proceeds this text as well as what follows. These critics are acting as unbelievers because they are disregarding the gospel. Thus those Corinthians believers who persist in siding with Paul’s opponents are in effect renouncing their own salvation. After all the gospel came to them through Paul’s preaching. Now they are setting that very gospel aside.
Paul was concerned about this enemy within, the unbelieving within the church. This is not a call for theological hair-splitting or demanding lock step agreement on identifying the ten toes of the beast in Revelation but it is a call to separate the believing from the unbelieving. It is a call to holiness.
As we work through the text we will discover that…
Thesis: In 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 the apostle Paul calls us to a passionate pursuit of holiness.
There are three reasons for such a call.
- Holiness is demanded by the very nature of what it means to be Christian. (6:14-16)
- Holiness is commanded in the Scriptures. (6:17)
- Holiness is the demand of the Christ life. (6:18-7:1)
Conclusion:
Separation, holiness has always been the call of God on His people.
Go back to Abraham - “come out”
Israel was a separate people - dietary laws, etc - different
The early church -
It has always been a struggle. What were you to do as a first century stone mason commanded to built a temple to the glory of a pagan god? What were you to do as a soldier who was require to declare, “Caesar is Lord?” A man reportedly came to Tertullian, an early church father (late 2nd century) with just such a problem. The man excused his compromise by saying, “After all, I must live.” Tertullian simply replied, “Must you?”
Holiness is not easy.
It is exceedingly costly.
But there is no denying it is the will of God for His people.
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