TEACHING

Your browser does not support viewing this document. Click here to download the document.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 04, 2022
10:30 AM (kids + communion)
Separation 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1
with Shel Boese
Sometimes in order to grow you have to separate from someone or something—from an unhealthy relationship or a group that keeps you from your next level in life. How can separation be a good and healthy thing? Paul writes the people of Corinth telling them to “be separate”. This Sunday, we explore the power of separation.

EMAIL QUESTIONS HERE
CONNECT WITH US HERE
GIVE HERE

Online Notes:

PRINT ME

OUTLINE: Shillington (Believers Church)

• Big Picture:

2 Corinthians 1:1-9:15: Letter Reconciliation
Right relationship in ministry
1: Solidarity in Affliction and Joy 1:1-2:13
2: The New Ministry in the Light of Christ 2:1-7:4
3: Equity Through a Financial “Gift of Blessing” 8:1-9:15

2 Corinthians 10:1-13:13 Letter of Defence
Response to Betrayal in Ministry
4: Weak Ministry, Strong God 10:1-13:13

• Today
  1. 6:14a A Prohibition
  2. 6:14b-16a Five Rhetorical Questions
  3. Phrases from the Hebrew Bible 6:16b-18
  4. Final Comment and Ethical Demand 7:1
  

THROUGH THE TEXT 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1
Paul is telling them that even these places where common culture and religion overlap, there is a time to put up a boundary for your new life in Christ
2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not become partners with those who do not believe, 16bFor we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, “I will live in them and will walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 

• 2 Corinthians 6:14 “do not be in incompatible relationships”.  “mismatched”.  The more literal translation is “do not be unequally yoked”.
  

Paul apparently believes that the Corinthians are in danger of becoming spiritually linked with the demonic forces resident in the temple. Ben Witherington III, (405)

• There is a place for boundaries—with those places and people who bring us back into centreing ourselves in something other than Jesus’ love.
• Hence, 2 Corinthians 6:14 – 7:1 is not about separating from fellow believers who do not share all of our theological commitments or ministry perspectives. Only God, in the end, can decide which of us is building with wood, hay, and straw (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:10 – 15).
  

2 Corinthians 6:14b for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship does light have with darkness?  15 And what agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share in common with an unbeliever?  16 And what mutual agreement does the temple of God have with idols? 

• Paul uses several terms for partnership: yoke, sharing in common (koinonia), partnership (metoche), concord (symphonesis), agreement.
  
  • The point is a single minded commitment to Jesus.
    
• There is a drumbeat in the questions to drive the point home: there is an ethical incompatibility with the way of love and other ways of being.
  
  • 14 Righteousness: 
    
    • Vs. lawlessness 
      
      • Matthew 24:12 Jesus teaches that lawlessness will increase dramatically at the end, causing the love of many to grow cold.
        
  • 14b Light 
    
    • Vs. Darkness inauthentic, hidden, fake, unknown
      
  • V15 Christ
    
    • Vs. Bliar?
      
  • 15b God’s life in a believer
    
    • Vs. unbeliever?
      
  • 16 God’s Temple
    
    • Vs. idol temple(s)
      

2 Corinthians 6:16b For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, “I will live in them and will walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 
2 Corinthians 6:17 Therefore “come out from their midst, and be separate,” says the Lord, “and touch no unclean thing, and I will welcome you,  18 and I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,” says the All-Powerful Lord.

• 2 Corinthians 6:18 Paul adds “and daughters” modifying the Old Testament 2 Samuel 7:14. He wants to emphasise the templehood of men and women.
  

2 Corinthians 7:1 Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that could defile the body and the spirit, and thus accomplish holiness out of reverence for God.
LANDING THE PLANE
FINAL WORD
Sources: Conflict and Community in Corinth: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians,Ben Witherington; Believers Church Commentary, V. George Shillington; NIV Application Commentary; The Letters of the Corinthians, William Barclay; Second Epistle to the Corinthians: New International Commentary on the New Testament (NICNT), Paul Barnett; Wisdom Commentary, 2 Cor, Antoinette Clark Wire; The Story of God Com., 2 Cor, Judith A. Diehl; 1 and 2 Cor., Craig S. Keener; workingpreacher.org; Feasting on the Word; Others.

Questions for Discussion and Reflection

Welcome back! Invest some extended check-in time!

1. Have you ever had to distance, or end, a relationship for your own health? Can you share a ‘safe-for-home-church’ story related to one?
   
2. How should we who follow Christ (or are Jesus adjacent :-) ) relate to those not following Christ (or claiming Christ, but ignoring the clearer teachings and implications of Jesus)?
   
3. Andy Stanley, in teaching on sex, dating, and marriage, states: “Intimacy requires exclusivity”. What are your thoughts about this in terms of marriage and our relationship with God through Christ? 
   
4. The New Testament seems to present a worldview in which there are actual forces of evil that seek to draw us into diluted and destructive behaviours. What do you think about this? How would you go about identifying those temptations in your life?