2 Corinthians 6:11-18

2 Corinthians 6:11-18  We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you.  We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us.  As a fair exchange — I speak as to my children — open wide your hearts also.  Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?  Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?  What harmony is there between Christ and Belial?  What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?  What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?  For we are the temple of the living God.  As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”  “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.  Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”  “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” 

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers; do not pull together with them to accomplish evil or to worship other Gods than the Almighty.  Paul is talking to people whose culture was immersed in worshipping pagan Gods.  Therefore, he encouraged the Corinthians to cut all ties with their former life of paganism.  He reminded them that they are now the temple of the living God, members of the household of God, representatives of the eternal, only true and living God.  Consequently, what fellowship is there between false gods and the only true God?  What does righteousness have to do with wickedness?  Light with darkness?  Our fellowship, our yoking together, should be with believers and not with the unredeemed.  We should always open our hearts wide to believers.  We should participate in their lives the best we can.  We should love them and care for them for we are fellow members in the family of God.  

Does this mean that we should not participate in the world or love the people of the world?  No, we should love everyone; we should care about all people whether they are sinful or not.  Christ loved the world; He gave his life for the world.  Therefore, we also should love the people of the world.  However, we should not be working (yoked) together with them to further darkness such as worshipping other gods.  If a compatriot wants you to do something wrong, even if it is a little wrong, you should not participate, for you are not to be yoked together with people to accomplish evil.  We are the temples of the living God; we represent him in everything we do.  As Christians we should be upright and honest in all of our activities.  We should be above reproach.  Whenever someone tells us to take a shortcut in life, pay less taxes than we owe, unite with someone who is not a Christian, sell something for more than it is worth, live a sexually impure life and so on, we know as sons or daughters of the MOST HIGH that trouble is on the horizon.  As the saying goes, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure this out.  

God desires our lives to reflect him; He wants us to walk this world as his children, set apart unto him.  Therefore, he wants us to come out of our old lifestyles, not to reflect the OLD MAN or the OLD WOMAN, but to reflect HIS LIFE that is within us.  He tells us to come out from them and be separate, separate from that which would pull us back into the ways of the world.  Yes, we Christians are in the world, but we are not of the world.   WE should never be OF THE WORLD.  People should be able to detect us as Christians; we should exude the sweet fragrance of Jesus and his light should shine forth from our lives.  People should know by our speech and activities, and especially by our love that we are children of God, people who bring the message of the grace and hope of the "Good News" to those who are caught in sin and darkness.