Christs life & ministry is separated from the world - Part 1
2 Cor: 6:11-14 · Bob Eckel · Jul 23, 2017
2 Corinthians (2017), No. 28
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261721532867

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So we're beginning a series now, I think four parts or three, at least three. Christ's life and ministry is separated from the world. Wow. So I guess we could just title this topic sanctification, as the new nature empowered by the Spirit lives through us. So let's go ahead and read. We're going to read exactly the verses before us, but we're going to go back and pick up some earlier verses in a few minutes. So Randy, read 11 through 14 for us, would you please? Sure.

Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians. Our heart is open wide. You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections. Now in a little exchange, I speak as two children, open wide to us also. Do not be bound together with unbelievers, for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Okay, great.

Now I suspect that Roger has only assigned four verses this week because of verse 14. So we will be spending a majority of our time on verse 14. Nevertheless, there's a lot of else here for us to gather and to provide some insight and interpretation to. So, first verse, O Corinthians, now that left out of some translations. It was in many of the ones that I looked at, so I left it in here. This is the New King James Version, which I typically use. So, O Corinthians, exclamation point, we have spoken openly to you, our heart is wide open.

So, in this verse, why does Paul so vivaciously, exclamation point, address the Corinthian church? He's trying to hold back a certain degree of exasperation and it's not totally successful. Alright, so you think he's a little frustrated here maybe and he's trying to get their attention.

Other thoughts here? Randy covered some of this last week and I think the week before. What preceded this? Well, hardship, right? So let's read 2 Corinthians 3-10 because I think it puts into perspective what we're reading here today or studying here today. giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed, but in all things commending ourselves as the ministers of God in much patience in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings, by pureness by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, and by the love unfeigned, and by the word of truth, and by the power of God, and by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet well known, and dying and behold we live, as chastened and not killed, as sorrowful yet always by rejoicing as poor, yet making many rich as having anything, and yet possessing all things. So get the message that things weren't so simple here.

And that he's reminding them of what he's just been through and now we're moving forward. Also I think he's really saying, and I'm really open and straightforward with you. I tell it like it is. I'm not holding anything back. I love you. I care for you. I tell it like it is. And I assume that's part of the message he's bringing. He cares for them. He doesn't hold things back. But as you get farther it's going to change a little bit.

Any other thoughts here in terms of what was covered previously? I need to go back and look at this intensely in terms of what preceded it, but kind of the hardships and kind of this contrast between things of the world and things for the believer to grow through. Alright, in what ways have we spoken to them? And my question is, who's we? Paul writing this letter? Well, he did. Go ahead, Randy. You go first. Somebody said Randy. I didn't say I didn't have anything. OK, I'm sorry. You often do. So that's just good. No, it's good. I mean, I'm just going to raise the possibility.

Is this Timothy who delivered the first letter to the Corinthians? Is this Titus who's really mentioned in 2 Corinthians 7.13? Who's we? Roger? I was just going to say, we've seen this, you know, throughout a good part of the Corinthians. He'll use we a lot.

And it seems like he's talking about the people that were accompanying him as he traveled. I mean, that's not a great thought in that, but just it's the people that accompanied him. He sometimes will mention them, sometimes will not. But he doesn't say just me doing this.

It's the other believers that are with me. Well, think about this class. I mean, when you teach, Roger, when Randy teaches or when I'm up here, it's we, right? And we're kind of all hopefully on the same page with the same message going forward. I think that's what Paul's reflecting here.

We don't really need to define who we is. It could be Timothy, it could be Titus, it could be many others who are part of his group as he traveled and spread the word of God. In what ways we spoken to them? Why are their hearts wide open? Meaning Paul or we? Why are their hearts wide open?

I think they had a lot of stuff to share with him, even if it was negative. And he may have been a little bit trying to catch up with it, and a lot to take on, and he's still trying to absorb it without giving offense. Okay, and I think you hit the nail on the head there, Tom. An atmosphere of benevolence, right? I mean, I think that reflects their hearts being wide open. Their understanding in terms of the things the Corinthian church is going through. They're sympathetic to it, but they're there to lift it up.

And notice this, of interest, this is in the passive tense. Thus the source is from where? How are your hearts opened up as believers? By the truth of the word of God, is it not? And I sense that the passive voice is that I'm working to open up my heart. My heart's been opened by the Lord. And we'll come back to that in a verse to follow here too. Any thoughts about that? You agree? It's the Lord who opens doors to our understanding of the truth that he presents.

The other thing I would add is that from the past tense perspective, Paul has been working with them. This is his second missionary journey that he's interacted with. He can say factually it's indicative and it's past tense. you could attest to this. Your testimony would attest to our openness in the past. In a sense, it is a bit experiential, isn't it?

It's how the Word of God applies to our experience that opens up our heart even further to what's before us. The self-effort isn't what we're talking about here. We're talking about the Lord really giving us that wisdom through our experience and the truth of the Word of God.

Second Corinthians 6.12, you are not restricted by us But you are restricted by your own affection. It's kind of an interesting verse, and I'll show you why. Let's look into this a little bit.

Restricted means cramped or compressed. I mean, what do you think of when somebody said you're restricted? Do you think of being cramped or compressed? I would think of it differently. What might some of you think restricted means? I can't say what you want to say. You can't say what you want to say, you kind of have to hold back.

Okay, so in a sense that's kind of cramped or compressed a little bit, but yeah, okay, what else? Have you rules that are restricted? Rules or laws or legalism? Yeah, restrictions are kind of things you shouldn't be doing. I have a driver's license that is restricted to daytime driving only. I mean, so I'm restricted. So restriction, I think it's a legal kind of term that may be applicable, Randy? Oh no, I'm nodding along with you.

So we turn to 2 Corinthians 4. Actually, there are very few places in the New Testament where this verb is also used. But we are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. I don't know about you all, but if I read that verse, I could think that this term restricted could apply to about three things in this verse. But the term it applies to is being crushed. Interesting. How about being hard pressed when you think you're kind of constricted or restricted there? Or how about being perplexed?

I mean, in a sense, there could be an atmosphere restriction, but it's being crushed. So this this is a very kind of pejorative term that has, I think, tremendous meaning in terms of where they sense of what Paul senses that the body is at this point in time. He sees the way out, the Corinthians may not, he's about to reveal that to them.

Is there any restriction in God's truth? What's God's truth in terms of providing restriction to us as believers? If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Say that again, Tom? If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.

So if some of the Corinthians might have a grudge against him, they might have to fess up to the Lord at some private moment. Okay. Maybe in context of very specific application. Other thoughts here? Is God's truth restricted? Do we live by the Old Testament law?

I kind of maybe took a little spiritual liberty here to go to John 8.36 and I love this verse and I'm going to ask the class. Therefore, if the Son makes you free, this is Christ himself, if I make you free, he says, you shall be free indeed. And the question to the class is, free from what? Is that a restriction to being made free? How does Christ make us free? Margaret?

It's from the power of sin. How about the power and the penalty of sin both? He gives us the freedom to live a life without sin because he's seen us as having no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. So again, I'm going beyond the text a little bit here, but I think the idea of God's Word being restricted, no, that's not where the restriction comes from. restriction has other meanings. So what does it mean to be restricted by your own affections? Well, they're limiting themselves by whatever their affections are to being open to understanding their place and position in Christ.

Don't we all enter into that space? Periodically? Frequently? Sometimes in phases. The interesting thing about affections here is that it usually means a deep seated tender mercy. That's what affections really are. They are good things in the Lord. But the term can be translated bowels. And it's so here in some verses, including the interlinear Greek.

And when you think of the gut and the bowels, you kind of think, maybe this isn't the best interpretation. And some commentators feel that this reflects distress brought by some who are with them and are misleading them and not in fellowship and communion. So kind of this idea that they're being, that's what some commentators think. I'm not sure if this is exactly true here, but I'm just going to mention what many commentators seem to think. They're getting wrong teaching. And so they're being restricted by this false impression that they've been given truth, which is really not true. I kind of think maybe that their affections are misplaced.

And 1 Peter 3.8 kind of relates to this interpretation. Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another, love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous. And in a sense, the church is falling short of this because of the false teachings they're getting.

But whatever, what's the source of our own affections anyway? The flesh. I mean how about your emotions and things that happen the way we respond in the flesh. I mean our own affections can be very very restricting in terms of the truth of the word of God.

Roger, Randy, all of you in here who study the Word of God and you go to commentators and sometimes you just wonder. I think it's the lack of understanding I'm crucified with Christ and nevertheless I live. It really relates to what energizes the Christian experience. And it's where all new creations in Christ Jesus that are spirit led to the Word of Truth to have that apply to our lives.

And I think when you look at that a lot of commentators, there's a lack of that truth of the understanding. It's not only that our sins have been forgiven and we're looked at as part of the body of Christ, but in fact what enables us to live the Christian life? Is it buffing up the flesh? No, it's really not. We need to look at our lives as a life free. And it's free from the power of the penalty of sin. And that's a whole different creation.

So I'm going to interpret this a little bit differently than the commentators do. But it could be that wrong teaching is kind of separating them from good doctrine, etc., and they're being misled. That's possible too. And with that wrong teaching, they could be restricted in terms of their understanding and belief in the Lord God. Yes, Tom? I don't want to minimize the fact that you've probably heard the phrase, maybe less used these days than in the past, but, sinning like a Corinthian.

Well, that means that that's a very worldly place that they live in. And there's it isn't just us. It's putting the pressure being put on. It's the people around you trying to influence you. And so there's a little bit of extra in this that we have to discuss. And that's probably one of the five. OK. Randy, Gary, you got a comment, too? Sure. Oh, Gary, go first. Yeah, I went over to a friend's house.

Let's read with Tom to Xerox off a copy of what's the church in Connecticut that does the defecation truce in Connecticut. I don't know where you get the town in Connecticut. It's what Middleton. So anyway, they have this thing that says Declaration of Independence. And it's really good scriptural that we are dependent upon the Lord, and that it's our source of, really, our freedom.

And I didn't take it over for him to evaluate. I took it over to get a copy that Tom had got from Mark Doyle. And so he said, you want to look at it, it's fine. And I shared with this friend in the past, and he said he's a believer. But he read through this and he said, this is fatalism. And down at the bottom, I said, OK. I mean, I'm not going to argue with him.

I mean, we are dependent on the Lord in a way that gives us some freedom in our lives, in our Christian lives. And as a non-believer or as a young believer that doesn't understand what it is to have identification with Christ, that could be interpreted as fatalistic. And I think that's, I'm not saying that the Corinthians were fatalistic, but they were not growing in a positive way.

You know, to come to the understanding that we just alluded to a few minutes ago, I think you've got to come to the end of yourself. You've got to see that yourself has no merit before God. When you come to the end of yourself, you start realizing what the Christian life is all about.

And it's another life lived through us. I remember this room many, many years ago in a class that we were teaching, that one member of the class said that we all have choices to make. And our choice could be to live the Christian life or not to live the Christian life. And I argued with that, saying, no, the Christian life is not a choice. It's a life. And so by faith, we respond to God's truth in terms of how we walk day in and day out. And that truth is in a new nature, lifted up by Him. not getting the flesh buffed so that we can please God.

Randy, you had a thought? This is going to feel like disjointed compared to what we just went with talking about what Gary was saying. 11 and 12 and their relationship, Paul has been completely unrestrained if we were going to say it that way in 11 and 12. Some translations for 12 say you are not restrained by us and some say in us. And the funny thing is that where you see bias in 12 for Paul and his cohorts and positions right in your own affections there. Both of those have the same Greek in or by can be translated both ways depending on context. But I think it's it's worth noting that he's he's said hey we were wide open with you. We didn't hide anything from you. And you're not restrained by us. You're not restricted by us. We've been wide open, why are you not wide open?

Because of your bowels, your inner being. The Greeks thought, they didn't understand how the heart and the mind worked. The bowels, your inner person. They felt it in their guts, right? The gut's not a good place to have art. They misunderstood biology, but it's one of those things where your own emotional garbage I was going to bring that up, but I decided not to, but you have.

Well, it's worth noting because sometimes we get confusion when we see affections and you say vows. Why do we have vows? That's a weird thing to say there because we think of it medically. But that was the context. Well, there are two bowels, they'll be anatomic for a second, the small bowels meant to absorb, the large bowels meant to not absorb and get rid of, right? And the way one commentator wrote this, this is the lower bowel that we're speaking about here, not the higher. All right, heck, enough science and medicine here, let's keep moving. All right, verse 13, now in return for the same, We'll come back to that in a second.

I speak as to children, you also be open. It's kind of imperative. So, now in return for the same, refers to a reward given in compensation. Now in return for the same meaning, see Paul, I have open hearts, I'm benevolent, I really am open to really sharing with you the truth of the word of God, and you also need to be open because I am. And are they paying Paul back here? In a sense, yes.

It suggests that there's a compensation for what I... But I'm going to argue that affection can be given but not taken. Do you agree with that? Affection can be given but not taken. Some means of expressionary response is called for somewhere. I would say don't be totally frozen in response.

Paul is desirous of them having the same type of opening of their hearts, enlarging of their hearts as he has towards them. Yes, Gary. This little side note, it says, because the Corinthians' refusal to reciprocate love was making the miserable Paul pleased to them to open their hearts to him. So, I mean, their hearts weren't open to receive what Paul wanted to give to them. So it wasn't a reciprocal type thing.

And what do you think opens people's hearts? What opens our own hearts? The Holy Spirit. Alright. And we can be resistant to that, can't we? How do we change that behavior? Trusting the Lord. You have to believe what the Lord has said and what he's teaching.

And that's what Paul and his team have been doing. They've been sharing all of this with the Corinthians. And I'm sure they're a little frustrated that they're not getting the message. I mean, they're not reciprocating the love that the team is showing the Corinthians.

I have the privilege right now of listening to Jay Vernon teach Revelation on my way to work in the morning. These are discs that Marvin's downloaded for me. And it's amazing the seven churches how different they are in terms of the commendation and the condemnation. Very few are just commendation only and there are a couple that are condemnation only.

This is the whole idea of the body of Christ is really all of us who believe that yet in the Corinthian church, at least from Paul's message here, they're not getting it. We can pray for people's hearts to be open, but yet it's hard to understand why some of us at times or many of us all the time reject that and are not open to understanding. The flesh in the old nature is strong and always impairs our ability to respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

I think it begins, and this is simply biblical truth, it begins with our citizenship and understanding where we're placed. If we think of Berkeley experiences, this is our business address, not our home. Putting that in perspective, the Corinthian church, at least from what we're reading here, was not on board with that. Alright, let's keep going here. Why is Paul writing as to children, or techno? And by the way, is this like a father to a son or daughter? And by the way, in my precepts children, the interlinear version. So in a sense, it is like a father addressing his daughter or son.

Don't you think he thinks of the Corinthians? I mean, he's been teaching them and he knows that they are babes in Christ. I mean, they're just babes. What does John, remember John, the first epistle of John describes three types of people in the church.

And Technon is the first. These are little children. These are elementary age kids in the scripture. Then there's young men. And then there's the elders, if you will, the more experienced, mature believers. And so in a sense, we're talking now at the elementary school level. And he is addressing them as small children. So I think my granddaughter or granddaughter Emily's seventh birthday today. I mean, she's still a small child. And having been with her two weeks in Italy, she is still a small child.

This is good. All right. So how does this all happen? Well, you also need to be open and enlarged. Again, notice again here that the tense is passive. So Paul can preach and teach and encourage all he wants as we do in this body, but yet we all got to respond. But our hearts being open is not an act of will and mind, it's an act of the Spirit enabling us to understand and believe the Word of God.

I keep thinking of something that's equivalent today as in so interested in TV that you even study the commercials. And it gets to be the point where you either have to say enough is enough and set it aside or just give up and not really try to go ahead with the Lord.

Well you mean you don't want to go places in a Toyota? Sure is a lot of fun in a Toyota isn't it? Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness, and what communion has light with darkness? Right. Before you start, you know, I just I'm sure you're going to get there.

We just kind of just have been going through. It's sort of like, well, wait a minute. Maybe this is the issue. You know, I know. I'm sorry. It's just good. Would you like to teach the rest of the lesson here? No, no, no, no. It's good. I wondered why I divided it. I kept racking my brain. Well, I did. And some people divide it from 10 to... I know, I divide it differently. But this kind of sets the stage for next week and since you've got to be bored with me next week again, this theme will continue next week. No, that's good. Okay, so this verse is interesting. I'll just use that as an adjective right now.

So, yoke. What's a yoke? I thought we'd go to Merriam-Webster or some other source of definitive information. So a yoke is a wooden cross piece that is fastened over the next of two animals and attached to the plow or cart that they are to pull. So if you will, this is a close working relationship between the beasts. All right. So if they're not on board with the same agenda, we got a problem here. It would be difficult to have a yoke on a cow and a pig as an example. Well, I wasn't thinking of that. That's another point. It wouldn't work. An elephant and a goat and a thoroughbred.

I think everybody's on the right track here. This is good. I'm glad to see the class lightening up in terms of. All right. And this is a metaphor, is it not? I mean, so what's a metaphor? A symbol pointing to something else. OK. Can you give us an example from Bullwinkle? Right. Well, I want you to know what you'd be thinking about this Shakespeare. Yeah. That's awesome. Right. So let's turn to Julius Caesar. OK.

The metaphor of being unequally yoked together with unbelievers. What does this mean? Let's talk about this. Do not be precedent imperative. By the way, you might not think too much about hanging out with other unbelievers or associating yourself with them. The question here, Macaulay really drills down into the Old Testament here. I listened to his teaching on this section and I thought this was worth bringing forward to you today.

So the principle he says is in Leviticus 19.19 about certain things don't mix. And here is that verse. You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your livestock breed with another kind. If they could, maybe another species within the same genera. You shall not sow your field with mixed seed.

Margaret, think about tobacco and sunflowers in Italy that we just experienced. Margaret had reflected that the chief areas that were sunflowers four years ago are now tobacco. And so the question is that mixing, according to the law of Israel, is that mixing seeds in the same ground?

I don't know. We thought maybe that was a good idea to change crops periodically. I'm going to have to look that up now to see if sunflowers replenish the soil so that then they can grow tobacco. Because there were many more fields of tobacco, but we understand they have grown tobacco here for years. But they must alternate crops. To replenish the soil, because my understanding is tobacco takes a lot out of the soil and they have to replenish it then. Well the idea here though, this is mixed seed. You wouldn't plant tobacco and sunflowers together, right? Yes, Carol?

The line before that, I'm wondering about, you know, labradoodles and stuff like that. And then there's a second verse which kind of I just brought to the fore too. Deuteronomy 22, you shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. I mean, it relates to the elephant and goat or whatever, a pig, a pig and what? A cow and a pig. Alright, let's move on now. So what does being yoked here in context mean?

In context. And verse 14 with the three verses, or actually the 13 verses that preceded it. Teamwork doesn't work without the right fellow team member. Why are their hearts not open? Yeah. Was he talking about the Christians marrying non-Christians or where he's going? That may be more. That's funny. Maybe it relates to what we talked about or you talked about earlier. Maybe.

In fact, they're getting wrong teaching. And so, because they're getting wrong teaching, their hearts can't be opened because they're not being taught the right things. I mean, think of a young believer, or maybe even a relatively mature believer enters college, and he or she now is being exposed to evolutionary teaching.

And I must admit, from a scientific perspective, you can make a strong case for the theory of evolution. But they hear it so much, and time and time again they start believing that actually scripture is incorrect, that we were creating his image, and we were evolved from some lower speciation. I mean, no kidding, the world believes that as fact. And as a scientist, I believe it's a theory. I mean, and by the way, creation remains a theory, but we believe God because we believe in every other principle that he's put forth.

But this kind of idea, if they're getting misleading teaching, they're actually being yoked to wrong doctrine. And that's why their hearts may be increasingly closed. Thoughts about that? Okay, now, so I say, I just said this, and somebody, I think Roger, somebody, is it this closely connected to verse 13? And it is, I think, their hearts being closed, or not open.

I think we've got a good example of that, because on the trip back after myself and Our buddy from Bear Creek Library. Chris? You mean on Friday night? We had Bible study on Friday night. I brought him over. He wanted to go. He brought his own woman out of the New Testament. I don't want to turn this into a he said she said thing, but his background was Unitarian all the way from early childhood. He's married to a Unitarian wife who lives in Teterboro. There's circumstances I don't want to get into, but the reason is that he's on good telephone terms with her long distance and goes back to her every so often just to touch bases with her, but she has a circumstance over there that prevents her from coming here or him to go back to Teterboro to be her husband.

It's involved. And the whole point is you're looking at a diversion that's dominating that person. And they find it hard to drink in the word when they've got another influence that's a bigger matter to them than that. Well, I think it's a Bible... by the way, it's called a Bible study, but it's really a fellowship around the Word of God. I'm not teaching.

It's just having people who come to our home every two to three weeks and just share the Word and talk about it. Anyway, I think we're trying to bring him along, but hopefully gently. Yes, and I know he had a lot of things to discuss with me, and I tried to keep it low-key because I was driving. But first of all, and then the other thing was, I could tell that he might have some things that the Holy Spirit would have a private talk with him that would do much more good than me trying to comment on top.

Well it's not a prayer request for the class, I mean we pray for Suen and pray for Cheryl in relationship to Suen, pray for Tom and pray for our group that Chris who's really I think clearly short of getting saved and he has some truth but partial truth is also sometimes more damaging than no truth. So Chris is his name and again Tom has described him well in terms of the situation there. All right, let's go ahead then.

Ephesians 5.11, this is exemplary. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. So in a sense, we're trying to expose them, but hopefully gently and graciously.

All right, so why? Why, what, where, when? Bob, it might be good to go back. And I think McCauley made this point, too, that the key part at the very top of the verse is not the bound together part. So we aren't saying this verse isn't saying we're to be on the page. Do unequally. It's that same kind of idea.

It's not to say we have no interaction with the world. No unbelievers. And you're getting there. We're going to go there. I'll let you just go. So the idea of being yoked. We're being yoked here this morning. The spirit is here leading us in truth we hope. We pray. I think he is. We sense. But why should we be not yoked inappropriately? So the two exhalations are given in the verse. So what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? Pretty good explanation, huh? What's righteousness? If you tell an unbeliever or even a young believer that you're righteous, what verse would you give?

And I have one that just goes off like a doorbell, off and on and off and on. These things I have spoken to you, you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. There are so many verses that fit here, but 2 Corinthians 5.21 is the one that I always have ringing in my mind. He, meaning God, hath made Him, Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So this righteousness is our positional truth and hopefully our conditional truth as we live by faith.

2 Corinthians 5.21. Let's do it again. He hath made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So, again, what is the definition of righteousness? Is it God's attributes? All of this is positive? Absolutely. We have it all. We don't feel that we have it all, but we have it all. And it's in Him. It's in Him, right? And He is in us. So, it's just a matter of us absorbing this.

So I hate to be so definitive in quoting that verse, but that verse, and there are many others that would give us that righteousness position, but boy, that's one that really, really sinks. Remember, he wrote that to the Corinthian church. He's already told them that.

Alright, so, and lawlessness, I thought the unbeliever was under law. The law of sin and death is the same as lawlessness. So, is God's law not holy? It is, but you're just kind of blanked out on that. Well, but is not the unbeliever really kind of under some law system that he or she cannot respond to? But that's lawlessness because it falls short. So lawlessness is anything that's not really of the Lord Jesus Christ and perfectly stems from righteousness and holiness.

So we have no fellowship here. What's fellowship? Do we have fellowship in this class? Hopefully we do. Do we have fellowship at Holly Hills? I have fellowship sometimes with the mainline church. The point is that fellowship is that relationship we have in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 5, 6, and 7. Let no one deceive you with empty words. Because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not be partakers with them. Seems to fit. Now we're going to get into this in more detail and Rogers introduced that topic and the second reason is what communion has light with darkness. In a sense it's kind of the same thing as the first explanation but again light and darkness, we're all lights. And remember as Hal said we may be the only bible people ever read or see. Darkness is the absence of righteousness.

2 Corinthians 6.16, we're going to come to this next week, and what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For the temple of the living God, as God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. We're coming to that. We'll look at that in more detail next week.

1 Thessalonians 5.5, and you're all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.

And the neat thing about scripture, we can pull things to support everything, and as a non-believer, as a college student, a young adult, you'd think this is all garbage, because you can pick any verse in the Bible to support any position you want to take, and that's probably true, if you don't interpret the word of God correctly. And then as we get into it, we get saved, and God opens up our minds and souls and ability to understand his word, we see everything fits together, doesn't it? What seemed to be contradictory no longer is contradictory. But you're not of age and you don't know what a Lego box can do, and so you think this is just a garbage mess. And this is a perfect example of that, where we now view scripture as light, whereas previously it was darkness, because we were so unable to do everything we thought God was demanding of us to do. Alright, now here, this is the point of discussion. Does this mean no association with unbelievers? Okay, so what are we going to define as being unequally yoked? Maybe we should go to the next statement first.

This verse is often used for marriage and I've used it in my own children. I had two of the four children dating unsaved ultimate spouses. Macaulay said something very interesting. He said, and this is true of my son Clark and our daughter Elizabeth, dating unsaved guys and gals. Macaulay said this, and it made me pause. He said, if they get converted to marry your son or your daughter, He said, I have concerns about that. Now he's not saying they're not saved. He's just saying if they want your daughter or your son enough to get converted to marry them, then he has a caution around that salvation. Now I'm not saying they're not saved. but it's kind of, you know, having had experience with two of the five children, saying, hmm, how interesting. So anyway, I'm going to leave it there.

But is this an appropriate application of this verse in context? The marriage thing? Indeed it is. It's almost like taking a page out of a joke book in high technical circles called the Journal of Irreproducible Results. And you keep trying to do it, and you keep trying to do it, and you keep falling short. I'll publish some of this paper. There really was one during my time in biochemistry and we had a laugh out of it each time it came out once a month.

I'm asking the class, in context right here under the circumstances in which Paul is addressing the Corinthian church, is this the immediate and appropriate interpretation of this verse? I think we use it and it's true. We all believe it's true. I don't want any of my kids to marry an unbeliever. Because think about that relationship. And by the way, if in fact they do, well, let me go here first.

Deuteronomy 7.3, you shall not make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son or take their daughter for your son. And even so, what about someone who's married to an unbeliever? And 1 Corinthians 7 deals with that. If you're married to an unbeliever, they're sanctified, meaning they're set apart unto you because of that.

I got saved because my wife got saved. I saw her Her life changed. Sharon, my first wife. The job of a woman or a man who is saved and their spouse is unsaved is to continue to pray and uplift and ultimately the Lord works through that circumstance, not to get divorced.

But the idea here back in 2 Corinthians 6 verse 14 is this directly related to what Paul is addressing here. You think it is? No, I don't think it is. No, it clearly is not related to what Paul, he's not talking about marriage here, but marriage is an application of what he's speaking about.

So what about this relationship to non-believers? By the way, and I want to have you speak, not me, I mean some of our best friends are non-believers. Do we have fellowship with them? Absolutely not. But they're still friends. So what about business associations? What about marriage?

All you do is spend time with non-believers. In your casual time, then that's going to affect the way you think. And I think that's unhealthy. You need to be around believers to have a fellowship. I'm around my one friend that I was talking about earlier. If I'm around him all day long, I have serious problems. So you're being influenced by being with him?

OK, you know, I think we all have to look at our own circumstances. But Margaret, I don't feel that we're brought down by these relationships. So I think it's OK to be associated with them. And again, hopefully they're going to be interested from our perspective of where we're coming from, where they're not.

Sometimes the problem is less. It's not only an outcome of influence, but also a lack of growth and sharpening as well. There needs to be intimacy and growth together as a body. That's not just a growth in intimacy, but a growth in collective knowledge and maturity and understanding what's true. So that we can bring along the next generation. So it isn't just that they might bring us down, although that is a possibility. It is that they may also not be growing up.

What kind of applications of you do you consider here in terms of not being yoked with unbelievers? It's a business situation, an appropriate one. I think some marriage. Clearly, we would all agree is an important one. Anything else? What else to like but business and marriage?

If you feel like your circle of friends is suddenly coming up short on one side and growing on the other, and it's not in favor of the Lord's teaching, then that may be a warning signal that you pay close attention to. Margaret and I look at our worldly friendships as one of ministry.

We're there to hopefully reflect the glory of God in our lives. And that's not something that we try to do. I've said this so often to my children, maybe to this class, so forgive me, but it's not what you do, it's who you are. And once you know who you are, then what you do reflects who you are. It's who we are in Christ Jesus. When our life is led by faith, then what comes out of that life is a representation of who we are in Christ Jesus.

That's the way we feel with our non-Christian friends. It's not like we're hanging out with them at the bar every weekend. Once a month we go to dinner with one of my colleagues from work and his wife. we occasionally travel with them and things like that, but you know we're not being drawn astray. I understand what you're saying, but we feel that the Lord has provided us with friendships that ultimately are not being unequally yoked. We're there to share a message when it's potentially possible to do so. It's not an apology, it's simply, but I think we all would rather be in fellowship with our brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Well, the second buzzer has gone off. Any other closing thoughts about this morning? Everybody kind of okay with where we're at here on these verses? All right. Roger, close us in prayer for you, please. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for our time today. We thank you for the blessings we have, Lord. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.