The Stand 2 Corinthians 6:11-7:4

Taking a verse from God’s Word, out of context, can prove to be dangerous and lead us out of God’s will instead of into God’s will for our lives. I can give you an example of what I am talking about from our Scripture for this morning. In 2 Corinthians 6:17 we read, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.” This verse, originally found in Isaiah 52:11, lifted from the pages of God’s Word, from the context of the whole counsel of God’s Word, has led many people throughout the history of the church to literally separate from society and form their own little Christian community with the intention of having next to no contact with the larger society around them. In Jesus’ day there was a Jewish group known as the Essenes, who lived at Qumran, and separated themselves from the rest of Jewish society and worship at the temple because they believed every aspect of Jewish life was tainted with sin and they were seeking to live a devoted, pure life. A more contemporary illustration of isolating from society are the Amish people. They refuse to use modern technology, they refuse to dress in modern-day clothes, and they have separated themselves from society to avoid the unnecessary temptations of the world. There have been many other groups who have used this verse to justify their abandonment of society and their isolation into a Christian community, but we have to ask, “Is this really what God intends for you and me? Are we to abandon society and build a life which only involves other Christians?” We’ll get to that question a little later, but first let’s read our Scripture for this morning from 2 Corinthians 6:11-7:4. 

11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. 12 We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. 13 As a fair exchange-- I speak as to my children-- open wide your hearts also. 14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 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." 17 Therefore, "Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." 18 And, "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."  2 Corinthians 7:1 Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. 2 Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have exploited no one. 3 I do not say this to condemn you; I have said before that you have such a place in our hearts that we would live or die with you. 4 I have spoken to you with great frankness; I take great pride in you. I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds. (2 Corinthians 6:11-7:4 NIV)

Since we have been talking about taking Scripture out of context, let’s set the context for our Scripture for this morning. If you will remember, in the verses we’ve covered in all of 2 Corinthians 6 leading up our Scripture for this morning, Paul was making a case for the integrity of his ministry because there were those in Corinth who were false teachers and were working to discredit Paul’s ministry. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 6:3, wrote,

3 We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. (2 Corinthians 6:3 NIV)

He went on to talk about how he used sincere love in his dealings with the people of Corinth. His speech was truthful and not manipulative. He was willing to suffer so that he might continue to share the hope of Jesus with them. His motives were pure, his patience was enduring, and his kindness was inexhaustible. The people of Corinth knew that what Paul was stating about his commitment to not only tell them about the love of Jesus, but to show them the love of Jesus was true, and yet they still had the false teachers whispering in their ears. So, in verses 11-13, Paul writes,

11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. 12 We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. 13 As a fair exchange-- I speak as to my children-- open wide your hearts also. (2 Corinthians 6:11-13 NIV)

Relationships are tricky aren’t they? Few in number are the relationships we enjoy in which we can speak openly, truthfully, and with no reservation. We all know that in some of our relationships what we say can and most likely will be used against us at some point in the future. What we do, or fail to do, can be misinterpreted by those who wish to do so. We all have experienced this at some point, or at many points in our life, haven’t we? This was certainly Paul’s experience with some of the people in the church at Corinth. And yet, Paul just kept loving them, he kept opening his heart wide to them, and speaking to them honestly. This is not the path that most of us choose when we open our hearts wide to someone and they give us the cold shoulder or when we willingly make ourselves vulnerable to another and have them twist our words and use them against us. For many people an experience like this causes them to lock up their heart, close their mouth, and refuse to go beyond anything other than surface relationships with anyone. I want to urge you this morning to refuse to choose that path. In the end, those who choose to lock up their hearts and look out for themselves will be the ones who pay the greatest price. C.S. Lewis wrote,

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will continually be wrung, and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your own selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken, it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The only place outside heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is hell. (C.S. Lewis) 

In theory, there should be no safer place to share your heart and speak openly and honestly than the church, in the Body of Christ. The reason I said, “in theory” is because I’ve been intimately involved in the life of the church for the past almost 40 years and I’ve seen folks hurt, alienated, and disillusioned. In response to their having been hurt they have shut down or simply walked away. I’ve also seen people who have been disappointed, shut out, and talked about by people, other followers of Jesus, but instead of shutting down or walking away they refused to let the behavior of others stop them from sharing with others, reaching out and loving others in the way they have been loved by Jesus. Those folks are my heroes. Let’s get back to Corinth. In verses 12-13, Paul urges the brothers and sisters in Corinth to open wide their hearts to him in the same way he has opened his heart to all of them. Read those verses with me once again. 

12 We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. 13 As a fair exchange-- I speak as to my children-- open wide your hearts also. (2 Corinthians 6:12-13 NIV)

It would be easy for us to read these verses and conclude that Paul’s feelings have been hurt, that he is feeling sorry for himself and expecting some love from the folks in Corinth, but that’s not the case. Scott Hafemann makes a great point when he writes,

He is not addressing the Corinthians as someone whose feelings have been hurt, but as their apostle, their father in the faith. At stake is the gospel. For this reason, he does not defend himself out of a personal need to bolster his self-esteem or to be liked by others, but because of his recognition that his ministry is the means through which God is making his appeal to the world. (Hafemann, Scott. 2 Corinthians. pg. 272)

If the false teachers win out and turn the people of Corinth against Paul, then whatever Paul has said, everything he has taught them about the gospel, will be called into question. If they don’t trust the messenger, then can they really trust the message? It is not Paul’s reputation in Corinth or how the people of Corinth feel about him that is of such great importance, but it is the message of the gospel. In verse 13, Paul appealed to the people of Corinth as their spiritual father in the faith. Back in Paul’s first letter to the church, he was urging the brothers and sisters in Corinth to turn away from the false teaching that was being spread throughout the church and return to following in the steps of Jesus, whose way is so unlike the ways of the world. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 4:14-15.

14 I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children. 15 Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. (1 Corinthians 4:14-15 NIV)

When Paul recognized that a church was getting off track and falling back into the ways of the world, he would make this appeal. The church in Galatia was as big of a mess as the church in Corinth. Paul wrote to them and said,

19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, 20 how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you! (Galatians 4:19-20 NIV)

I can remember times while Connie and I were raising our three kids that I made this same appeal when what they wanted was different than what Connie and I thought was best for them. I can remember saying, “I’m going to try to say ‘yes’ whenever you ask me if you can do something, but when I have to say ‘no’ I want you to remember that as your dad I’m going to do my best to always try and look out for what is best for you, even when you don’t understand why I won’t say ‘yes.’ I hope, because you know I love you, that you will trust me when I have to say ‘no.’”Paul is doing the same thing with the people of Corinth. He is their father in the faith. He was the one the Lord used to help bring them to faith in Jesus.  He has not only told them of his love for them, but he has shown them his love time and time again. Let’s move on. In 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 we read,

14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 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." 17 Therefore, "Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." 18 And, "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." (2 Corinthians 6:14-18 NIV)

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.” This phrase has been used by preachers, teachers, and the followers of Jesus to draw up a doctrine of separation for those who are followers of Jesus. I want us to focus on the context of what Paul has written in just a moment, but before we get to that I want to talk about being “unequally yoked.” This phrase is used most often to talk about marriage. Don’t marry someone who is not a follower of Jesus. I would say don’t marry someone who doesn’t love Jesus more than he or she loves you. There are lots of folks running around who claim to be followers of Jesus, but they are actually Christians in name only. I would urge those of you who are single, if you hope to be married some day, to pray for the Lord to lead someone into your life who demonstrates their love for Jesus in the way they live and speak. At the same time, I am well aware that the situation many of you find yourself in this morning is the same situation faced by many married men and women in Corinth in Paul’s day. So, what do you do if you are married to someone who isn’t a follower of Jesus? Well, we don’t have to guess what you should do because Paul addressed the situation of a follower of Jesus being married to an unbeliever in 1 Corinthians 7. Do you remember what he said? He said, “Stay put. Keep loving them, serving them, letting them see Jesus living through you in the way you treat them.” Then he writes,

16 How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife? 17 Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches. (1 Corinthians 7:16-17 NIV)

There was a man who became a follower of Jesus and was going to leave his wife because she was not a Christian. She was not abusive or unfaithful in any way, but she was not a follower of Jesus. It was Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians that stopped the man in his tracks and helped him begin to see that he needed to begin to pray for his wife and let her experience Jesus’ love through the way he loved her. There are so many other ways that this phrase “Do not be unequally yoked to an unbeliever” has been used to separate us from those who are not followers of Jesus. Paul wrote a letter to the church in Corinth in which he told them, “Do not associate with sexually immoral people.” They took that teaching and misapplied it. In Paul’s next letter he clarified what he meant. Take a look at 1 Corinthians 5:9-11 with me.

9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people-- 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. (1 Corinthians 5:9-11 NIV)

Isn’t that interesting?! Instead of isolating themselves from the people of Corinth who were not followers of Jesus and a mess, Paul was urging them to avoid Christians who were living just like the world. And that takes us back to our Scripture and the context in which Paul wrote it.Paul says not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, but who are the unbelievers? Some say they are non-Christians. Other Bible teachers see them as Gentile pagans in Corinth who were celebrating the idol feasts in Greek temples. Neither of these fits the context of our Scripture. Remember those false teachers?  In this section of God’s Word, unbelievers are not opposing the church from the outside, but the unbelievers are false teachers who are threatening the life of the church from within. Satan doesn’t want to oppose the church as much as he wants to join it. Just look around the world at our brothers and sisters who are living in countries where there is great persecution. What is happening in the church in those countries? The church is growing, new followers of Jesus are being added daily, and the body of Christ is thriving under the heat of persecution. When Satan joins the church and begins to make changes from within, the church grows weaker. How does Satan weaken the church? Well, he convinces us not to make too much of the Word of God. He convinces us that we need to update our theology to make it more attractive to the world around us. He convinces us that what we read in the Bible was for those people in that time, but it doesn’t pertain to us today. We stop talking about sin, repentance, and holiness and spend all of our time talking about felt needs and how to make the church experience more fun and attractive.  There has always been a need for the people of God to stand up to the enemies’ schemes of weakening the church by lessening her commitment to the Word of God. Martin Luther stood up to the Catholic Church in Germany when he nailed his “95 Theses” to the church doors in Wittenberg. Luther’s stand was that it is the Word of God alone, and not the teaching of the Church, that reigns supreme. That stand costs Luther dearly. Four hundred and fifty years later, in 1933, in Germany, the followers of Jesus were called upon once again to take their stand. This time, not against the church, but against a corrupt government that had brought about the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. A German preacher named Martin Niemoller had earlier voted for the Nazi Party in hopes that a strong and powerful leader might unify the German nation and restore it to greatness following its crushing defeat in the First World War. Niemoller began to notice how Hitler was infiltrating the church with his racist ideology against the Jewish people and he knew he had to take his stand. As Niemoller stood before the German people to preach on the occasion of the 450th anniversary of Luther’s birth he said, 

There is absolutely no sense in talking of Luther and celebrating his memory in the Protestant church if we do not stop at Luther’s image and look at Him to whom Luther pointed—to a Jew, a rabbi of Nazareth. (Martin Niemoller)

Niemoller’s words fell on deaf ears. The next evening, 20,000 German Christians led by bishops and church officials gathered at the Berlin Sports Palace and after singing, “Now Thank We All Our God,” voted to adopt and implement the infamous Aryan paragraph which called for all German institutions to conform to Nazi ideology. All Christian Jews would be dismissed from all churches effectively immediately. Niemoller would be suspended from the ministry. The Bible would be reexamined for all of its non-German elements by the “Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Church Life.” A proud heroic Jesus would replace the suffering servant Jesus found in the Bible. The 27 regional Protestant churches in Germany would become one single “Protestant Reich Church.” As pastor Hossenfelder’s speech went on, it was interrupted again and again by applause. Not one of the bishops or church leaders stood up to disagree with a single thing spoken. Not all of the pastors caved to Hitler’s pressure. Men like Martin Niemoller, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Karl Barth, and Hans Asmussen called on their brothers and sisters to take a stand. During a gathering in 1934, at Barmen, these men put together the Barmen Declaration. There are six declarations within the Barmen Declaration. They state that Jesus is the sole authority of the Church, not the Fuhrer; that the Word of God is the source of revelation, not Nazi ideology; and that the message and order of the Church should not be influenced by Nazi politics.  German Christians had the freedom to disobey Nazi dictates when they conflicted with scriptural mandates.  The Confessing Church had no place for Nazi Aryan ideals, the German Christians who had caved to Hitler's ideology worshiped a different God. The next year Barth was deported to Switzerland when he courageously refused to swear an oath of loyalty to Hitler. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was arrested and later executed at Flossenburg. Martin Niemoller spent seven years in prison in Sachsenhausen and Dachau. All three men would gladly make the same sacrifice again and again if that was the cost required to hold true to the teachings of God’s Word. Those who twist, water down, play games with, or dismiss God’s Word are still with us today. Their influence is growing in the Church, but we must never give in to their pleadings, we must never be deceived with their smooth sounding arguments about how we can increase the Church’s effectiveness if we will only leave "that" out or emphasize “this” instead of “that.” Before we have to close our time together I want us to read the last three verses of our Scripture for this morning. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 7:2-4.

2 Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have exploited no one. 3 I do not say this to condemn you; I have said before that you have such a place in our hearts that we would live or die with you. 4 I have spoken to you with great frankness; I take great pride in you. I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds. (2 Corinthians 7:2-4 NIV)

Paul ends his thought in the same way he began, by urging the people of Corinth to open their hearts to him. They have disappointed him again and again. They have allowed false teachers to capture their hearts. They have been a poor witness in Corinth time and time again. Yet, Paul says, “You have such a place in our hearts that we would live or die with you…I take great pride in you.” How can he write these things about those knuckleheads in Corinth? That’s a great question and along with it comes an easy answer– Paul loved them with all of his heart, he was called by the Lord to share the truth of God’s love with them, and he had great hope that God was not done with them yet. He who began a great work in Corinth was going to be faithful to complete it. Isn’t this true of all of us? I won’t speak for you, but I will confess that far too often I am a knucklehead. I disappoint God on a regular basis. I disappoint myself. I’m not who I desire to be. I often fail to do the things I know I should. Yet, the Lord has never given up on me. He keeps loving me and that inspires me to keep going. How about you? If you are not a follower of Jesus I want to urge you to open wide your heart to Him this very morning. He will love you with an everlasting love my friend. Mike HaysApril 30, 2023