2 Corinthians, 6:15-7:1
Jim Pool · Jan 2, 2005
2 Corinthians (2004-05), No. 27
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826231825277

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

I think that when we go over to 2 Corinthians and verse 14, and he says, do not be bound together with unbelievers, for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Bilal? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols?

I think he's addressing the same problem that he was speaking to in 1 Corinthians. So, that just gives us a big picture of the whole church in Corinth and what's going on there. They had become believers, but they still were not able to make the clean break, so to speak, to totally step away from some of these pagan rituals and these pagan activities of the culture. So let's just review just briefly from last week.

What does this idea here mean of being, do not be unequally yoked, or as the NAS says, do not be bound together. The first usage of the word, the idea there is in Deuteronomy chapter 22 and verse 10. You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. We talked about that last week.

They're absolutely incompatible. The strength levels are different. The purpose of them are different. And then Wayne pointed out, if that's happening, you're going to end up just going around in circles. You're not going to get anywhere. So that's, I think, a good picture for us to put a donkey and an ox together to plow. Don't be in a situation yoked up together like that.

Now, the idea of yoked means to be bound together in a relationship. And what relationship are we bound in? The greatest relationship that we can, we are bound together in our position in Christ. We talked about that last week. We also talked that this is a verb. It's present active. It's a command. So right now, the subject is producing the action. Do not be unequally yoked. Right now, at this time, do not be unequally yoked or bound together.

And it's an essence verb, which means to come into a new state of being which did not previously exist. So, do not become in your condition what you are not in your position. Because what are we in our position? We are yoked with Christ, which is the proper idea and the proper picture of being yoked, where we are in our position, we're united, we're joined together, we are identified together, placed into Christ, yoked together with Christ. So do not become unequally yoked. Do not come into your condition what you are not in your position.

So do not be bound together with unbelievers in a binding relationship. That's review there from last week. And just a little couple more points of review for those of you that weren't here last week. This little section actually I added in was new. five questions that were asked to make the point. So there he makes a statement, do not be unequally yoked or do not be bound together with unbelievers. And then he asks these five questions and really drives home the point. He's just hammering the point home here.

What partnership has righteousness with lawlessness or unrighteousness? Unrighteousness is the equal term as lawlessness. What fellowship has light with darkness? What harmony has Christ with Belial? What has a believer in common with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? So he poses those five questions to really drive his point home, is what he does here. So notice the underlying words. Partnership, fellowship, harmony, in common, and agreement. They're all similar words.

And he's using those words because there's no way that there can be any common ground between the two subjects in which he's presenting. There can be no partnership, there can be no fellowship, there can be no harmony, there's nothing in common, and there can be no agreement. And those five things, and his point is, there can be none of those five things between a believer and an unbeliever. We're talking in a spiritual sense here. We made that point last week as well. Spiritually, there can be no common ground between the believer and the unbeliever. Do the believers and unbelievers share in many different things? Absolutely. Sure, is there common ground in sports or homes or, you know, whatever? Sure, absolutely. But we're talking in a spiritual sense here that there's not common ground. There's no compatibility spiritually.

We also talked about the two things that he hit right off the bat in verse 14. Do not be bound together with unbelievers for what partnership has righteousness and lawlessness or what fellowship has light with darkness. We talked about that. The first two things he went to was partnership and fellowship.

So there's nothing that unrighteousness has that righteousness can partner with. That's what we talked about last week. There's nothing that righteousness has that unrighteousness can partner with and then vice versa. There's no common ground. There's no compatibility between the two there. And the same thing comes in the spiritual sense there. What fellowship has, has light with darkness. The light pushes out the darkness. It's not like they work together, in a sense. Thus, there can be no spiritual fellowship between a believer and an unbeliever, so why yoke up together?

That's kind of the idea of what we're getting at here. Just because believers are not to be in binding relationships with unbelievers does not mean that believers are to be isolated from unbelievers. We talked about that we are to be in the world, but not of the world, and we are to be salt and light to this world.

I have a sister, she's two years younger than I am, and she married an unbeliever. We kind of talked through some of these things. And God just didn't open her eyes to let her be able to see what we were talking about, about being unequally yoked, coming into a binding relationship together. And they got married last May. And so she's in this position of which God says, listen, don't enter into this binding relationship with an unbeliever. We pray for her. Hopefully God will open his eyes, her husband's eyes, to see his need for God. where he is right now, he doesn't think that God is interested in him. So that's kind of his stumbling block.

So this will be new. We'll get into this new things here. Verse 15. This is the third of his comparing and contrasting. What harmony has Christ with Belial? That's where we're at here. It's interesting that Christ and Belial, or actually is another word for Satan, these are the rulers of righteousness and unrighteousness, and light and darkness. So he talks about righteousness and unrighteousness, and then light and darkness, and then he talks about the rulers of those two spheres, those two ideas. That's kind of the next step that he took.

Belial is actually the liar, and it's only used in the New Testament, the only place that it's used in the New Testament. But it's used extensively, in the Old Testament. I found that to be very interesting. So Homer Kent says this, it's probably referring to the Old Testament expression as sons of Belial, meaning worthless persons. But in the literature contemporary with the New Testament, the spelling Beliar was used as a name for the devil, and this is most certainly Paul's usage here. So there is the Old Testament usage, and it's Strong's number 1100, if you're interested in looking it up. I put a couple of references there.

But I think it was 27 times that this word was used in the Old Testament, but this is its only usage in the New Testament. So essentially, Paul would go back to a term from the Old Testament that they would be very familiar with to make his point here. And again, as we come up in the next couple of verses, he quotes a big chunk of Old Testament Scripture to reiterate his point here.

So as we continue to compare and contrast, Christ is the source of righteousness, Christ is the source of light, Christ is the source of himself, as he's talking about Christ, Christ is the source of believers, and Christ is the source of his temple.

So we see the five things that we're being compared and contrasted here. Christ is the source of all those. Righteousness, light, himself, believers, and his temple. But when we see the other, Satan, who Christ is being compared to, he rules unrighteousness, darkness, unbelievers, and idols. So there's just a simple comparing and contrasting between the two.

The NAS uses the word harmony. And the KJV uses the word accord. And the English word symphony comes from the Greek word for concord. where we get our word symphony. So, as we think about that, there's no way, it's unthinkable, that Christ and Satan would be working together in a symphony, or to be working together in one accord, or in concord together.

That is absolutely a ludicrous thought. They're opposed. They're enemies of each other. So that's just example number three. What harmony has Christ with Baal? There's none. They're not working together in any way whatsoever. An example of that would be Matthew 4, 1-11, where Jesus was tempted by Satan. If we were going to see them work together, that would have been a place where they might have compromised a little bit and found some common ground, but we know that they didn't. They didn't work together at all. There was no common ground between them there whatsoever. Okay.

Let's go to the fourth comparison and contrast still in verse 15. The believer and the unbeliever. What has a believer in common with an unbeliever? And the KJV seems to be a bit of a better translation here. says what part has a believer with an unbeliever and it's implying a common entity that each person shares. What part does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? Is there any common part that the believer has in common with the unbeliever? So I think we see a better translation there with the KJV.

So I just went down, just very simply, listed a couple characteristics that are true of the believer, and there are many, many, many, many more. So in Christ, the believer is in Christ and is in union with God. The believer has Christ as their federal head and representative, we know that, is separated from the sin nature due to their death with Christ on the cross, has a new nature, the very life of Christ, and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Some simple, basic characteristics that are true of the believer.

There's more. I know we could come up with tons and tons more things that are true of the believer. The unbeliever is an atom. They're not in Christ. They're still an atom. They're separated from God instead of being in union with God. They have the first atom as their federal head and representative. It has only one nature, being the sin nature, and has only one option in life, and that is to sin.

So, is there any is there any common ground between the believer and the unbeliever when we talk about it in a spiritual sense? No. I don't think so. I don't think so. Not at all. Again, this is point four in the list of five of making this point here. So, there's no common standing before God with the believer or the unbeliever.

And then this will be the final comparison. What agreement has the temple of God with idols? Let's see, we're on down to verse 16. What agreement has the temple of God with idols? The word agreement here means to place down with. That's the idea of agreement. It means to place down with. So, to place down idols in the Jewish temple was absolutely forbidden. So here we take the temple of God and to place down idols in the Jewish temple is absolutely forbidden. So there can be no agreement there.

History also tells us that when Pilate brought banners with the deified Caesar's likeness into Jerusalem that the Jews regarded this as blasphemy because Jerusalem was the holy city and so now Pilate is bringing in these deified, these these banners, which symbolize idolatry, into the Holy City, and the Jews were up in arms about it. They considered it to be blasphemy, because you cannot bring in or place down with these banners of the deity of Caesar into the Holy City of Jerusalem. It just was a horrible, horrifying thought for them to think this way. Here's where it really gets interesting.

The end of the verse says, For what agreement has a temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. Not really the end, the middle there, before he gets into the Old Testament section. Quote, For we are the temple of the living God. So, believers, we know this, believers are God's temple here on earth and are not to be placed down with idols.

Okay? So, here are the Idle temples, the idle houses in Corinth, and what was happening is that the believers were going into them, and having meals, and partaking of the culture, and partaking of the rituals, and it was a big problem. Paul was saying, no, you are the temple of the living God, do not go into and place yourself down into this foreign temple of the pagan gods. Do not do that.

Just some scriptures that drive home the point here that we are the temple of the living God. Let's look at 1 Peter 2 and verse 5. Someone would read that out, if you would, just when you find it. 1 Peter 2 and verse 5. Great. We are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. Do not go and place yourself down into this idle house, or this idle temple, like what they were doing in Corinth. Ephesians chapter 2, and verse 22. Ephesians 2, 22. Anybody can just read out when you find it.

Habitation for God through the Spirit. A dwelling place of God in the Spirit. So we are... God indwells us. And so don't place down into this idol temple the dwelling place of God. And then 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19 and 20. Anybody can just read out. Okay. Great, again, driving home the same point there. Great, thank you.

Okay, so the Christians are not to enter into the pagan temples for meals or anything else. Why? Because they're yoked together with Christ. And it was inappropriate for them to be going into the pagan temples like this, thus making themselves unequally yoked.

We asked the question last week, when we talk about the passage of being unequally yoked, what's the first thing that comes to our mind? marriage. That's the first thing that comes to our mind, and oftentimes we just stop there. We don't take it any further.

But that wasn't necessarily what, in the time of the culture, what this verse was driving at. I think it was driving at a far broader scope than just marriage. Did it include marriage? Absolutely. But I think it was a far broader scope than just marriage.

So here's the question. What does it mean for us today to be unequally gay? Let's put some shoe leather on what we're talking about. I'm not going to stand up here and pretend that I got all the answers. I think this is something that, you know, it's a practical question that I think needs to be asked. We know marriage is one that's black and white. But what are, in our culture, there are pagan temples out there today.

We lived in Thailand for a year. There's much more there than there are here on every corner. You can see them, and so it's kind of much more on your face. There are idols in them and things like that. But we don't have as many of those here today as they did back then in Corinth, or as they do in Thailand today. But what are our cultural, in a sense, pagan temples that we could potentially be unequally yoked with?

MTV. MTV? Okay. Yeah. That's great. Or just TV, you know? How about that? There you go. Yeah, let's try Jack. Love you. You hear the phrase now, Sin City, maybe that's a good city that fits that title, Sin City. Sure, sure. So what do you think? I think it would be unwise. For a believer to enter into a business with an unbeliever? Sure. Yeah. Why so? I mean, we know it would be unwise. Why? Practically. That's right. Sure. That's right. Yeah.

One might have... business practices, the unbeliever might have business practices that might not fit the life of Christ and the believer. And that person would be hard-pressed to get around those sometimes, if the unbeliever wanted to stay in that, in his vein, in his track of certain business practices, sure. I think that all these thoughts are good. Let's go back to verse 12 for a minute.

You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections. The idea there of being yoked is a binding relationship like marriage or in a business practice, one where you are legally bound together, where you sign, where you are partners in a business or whatever. That's a legal binding thing, which is certainly true. But also that idea there of affections really struck me. I think you were kind of driving at that, Jack.

It's very easy and we can subtly be drawn into the world and our affections be wrong, and then we become unequally yoked. And, boy, that's room for me and for all of us to examine, you know, be open before the Lord. Say, Lord, show me where my affections are wrong. Show me where my affections might be unequally yoked.

Because we know that God wants to be our only affection. We all know that. He wants us to be occupied simply with Him. and with nothing else. Occupation with Christ. It's hard to be occupied with Christ when our affections are shared between Him and something else. God certainly desires for us to enjoy life, but He wants us to be our only affection.

Do I enjoy sitting down and watching sports? I love sports. Yesterday I enjoyed a bunch of bowl games. There's some good ones and some are blowouts and I turn them off by half time. Hopefully some good ones coming up. Does that mean that my affections are shared between sports and God?

Well, that's something I've got to be before the Lord with, but it's not wrong to be occupied with Christ in our life and to enjoy things that He has put there for us to enjoy. So, I'm not saying that we have to... I don't think anyway, I'm just... this is my... that I have to sit and read my Bible.

24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If I'm not doing that, then my affections are shared. I don't think that's really what God intended. I enjoy working in the yard. I enjoy landscaping. It's much different here than it is in Virginia. I don't have it figured out yet. I planted some herbs and they died. I had a great herb garden in Virginia. But just because I'm out in the yard for 2-3 hours working, does that mean my affections are shared? I need to be able to further look at that, but I don't think so. But we need to... I think this is a crucial, crucial spot for us. Bob?

You know, these affections take home a wide variety of forms. Sure. We don't need to review all of them. But let's just think about your sister a little bit. You know, one thing that my late wife and I, and now Margaret and I, have repeatedly told our children is dating is not an evangelistic experience.

Exactly. That's right. And this whole issue of affections, because when you start hanging out with somebody, you can develop affections for them, right? And that's kind of a misdirected behavior for the body of Christ, right? Sure. So, just like your sister in terms of a prayer need there, I've not heard you mention that before. Right. It's a prayer need, isn't it? Absolutely. She and her husband, and for the family as a whole.

That's right. But my youngest now is dating a girl who's a Jehovah's Witness. And although he claims he's witnessing to her and sharing the Lord with her, there's a clear barrier there for any movement of information. You know, how many times have I told him, get away from this situation?

Right. That's right. I mean, that's an example. Sure. He's clearly developed affections for this young lady. That's right. To be honest with you, I kind of like her. But that's not the issue. Right. The issue is unequally to begin with, in terms of the constraint of one's affections. Because ultimately, where we hang out and what we do really plays into our affections, and Adam can show up, right? Sure. I mean, you know, when you said the believer is not yoked to the unbeliever, we are in the Adam nature, for sure. That's right, in that sense. That's the way this passage is directing, because before God, all our sin is forgiven, and our Adam nature has been crucified. But nevertheless, Adam shows up.

And so I think, you know, I would just request that from this class, is there a prayer need for Clark to wake up here. That's right. And or get this young lady transformed. Sure, yeah. But I would prefer we go about it the other way. Right. Than this way, at least initially. Right. But get safe and then be fine. That's right. But nevertheless, I mean, affections, right? Yeah, yeah.

And that's where dating is not an evangelistic experience, because affections sometimes precede oneness. Sure, sure, yeah. Because the fleshly affections then can begin to taint and mislead and influence one's thoughts on biblical principles. And the affections can eventually override that. I pray that happens, because if not, the potential is there for him to end up like my sister, who ends up in marriage with someone who isn't a believer. And hope, by God's grace, it doesn't come to that. You know, she doesn't have much interest in God right now either. So that doesn't help. It helps none whatsoever.

Sure. Absolutely. No. Absolutely not. Sure. That's right. That's right. That's right. And that's why this statement here, I think, was real appropriate. Just because believers don't have to be in binding relationships with unbelievers, does not mean that believers are to be isolated from unbelievers. That's right. So, a practical question for this class, and myself included, is how many relationships are we involved in where we have proximity with unbelievers? I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand or give an answer, but that's a real, honest, practical question. I've shared about that before. That's right. Paul speaks specifically to that. He says, stay together. Because the one is sanctified through the believing partner in marriage. That's right.

I told you before that the hardest place to work and to maintain proximity with unbelievers is in a church. and I worked at a church for five years, and it was tough. Fortunately, we had an outreach going on to unbelievers where I was able to maintain that proximity with unbelievers. But how am I dealing with that now that I'm working more out in the secular world? Yeah, Bob? last 24 years.

He's unsafe. We hit the court together every week at least to get it done. And I'm concerned a little bit because occasionally I'm a whiner. Three or four roll outs or these lucky bounces out of the corner. But anyway, that's an example of just getting together with a guy. We love the racquetball court. No. That's a healthy relationship where hopefully Christ is being seen through you, through the Racquetball Court. And yeah, sports seems to bring the breath out of all of us. Sometimes in a competitive nature.

But yeah, that's not an unhealthy binding relationship. That's good. Hopefully all of us have some kind of relationships like that. where we're able to be a light in this dark world. Okay, we could discuss that a lot more, but let's move on. But I do think it's important for us to think about it, it really is.

Okay, the middle of verse 16, down through verse 17, he goes to the Old Testament, again, to really reiterate and to make his point. So let me just start in the middle of verse 16. Just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord. And do not touch what is unclean and I will welcome you. So, I laid it out here. I won't take the time to read it because we only have about 5 or 10 minutes left. but it's interesting how he does this.

16b comes from Leviticus, God's dwelling among believers in the Old Testament and in believers in the New Testament. We're not trying to mix up the dispensations here, not trying to say that at all, because many of these passages are dealing with God's work with Israel, that's yet future, we understand that, we're going to acknowledge and allow that to stand. 17a, from Isaiah, chapter 52, verse 11. 17b comes from Ezekiel, chapter 20, verse 34. And 18 comes from a combination of 2 Samuel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah. So you can look those up and read those on your own.

But I want to just point this out, is that God dwells among believers in the Old Testament, but He dwells in believers in the New Testament. There's a real significant difference there between the dispensations. So as I was thinking it through, Paul made a statement in verse 14. Do not be bound together with unbelievers.

Then he put those five questions. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Then he goes to the Old Testament and brings out these Old Testament passages. What a package, if you kind of see what he's doing. He put some New Testament truths in there. He's bringing in some Old Testament truths, not trying to mix up the dispensations and putting them back on the wall, nothing like that, but just reminding them of things that he had told them in the Old Testament, all for the point of driving his point home with them. I thought it was just a neat way to see how Paul worked this whole section here.

And then, look at chapter 7, verse 1. Therefore, based on what has already been said, notice that he uses the word us. Paul is being gracious and he's not speaking down to them. And we saw that graciousness of him coming out in verse 13 when he said, now in a like exchange I speak as to children, not open wide to us also.

So in chapter 7 verse 1, therefore having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves. He doesn't say, you guys need to get your act together because you're involved in all these wrong things. He says, let us He includes himself in this. Let us cleanse ourselves. So he's not speaking down to them. Let us cleanse is a verb and it's active subjunctive and it simply means to make a clean break. So he's saying, guys, you know what? You're involved in some things that are inappropriate. You are involved in some things that you should not be involved in. So let us make a clean break.

And he's encouraging them to do just that, based on what he said, how he's clearly made the point of the incompatibility, there's no common ground, based on the Old Testament scriptures, make a clean break. And then it's interesting that he says, ourselves, let us cleanse ourselves, so something that they were to do to themselves. So let's ask the question, what causes a believer to need to cleanse himself?

It's the flesh, it's the sin nature. When someone is walking in the flesh, when someone is walking in the sin nature, when they're walking in the old man, they're going to be involved in things that are inappropriate. Their affections are going to be split, they're going to be mingling with the world, and so there's going to need to be that kind of cleansing.

So, how does How does someone do this? It's simply through appropriation of the cross. Forgiveness is included there, just acknowledging, agreeing with God, and acknowledging wrong, and appropriation of the cross, where we are free from the old man, and we've been united with Christ and the new man, by faithfully walking the Spirit. So, it's not something that they could do in and of their own effort and power, but they could only do this through God's enabling power.

I think we really have to keep that in mind. So we would take just this verse out of context, like probably many churches do, and say, therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh, perfecting the holiness and the fear of God. We only took that verse, and that's all that we said, without any power behind it, without the enabling power of God, it could become very legalistic, it could become very manipulative by someone who would take that verse out of context, and that's not what we want to do. Interesting verse, and this is probably one of my favorite verses, over in Titus. Let's look at this verse, Titus in chapter 2. Titus in chapter 2, and let's look at verse 11 and then verse 12.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in this present age. What has appeared? The grace of God has appeared. There is the power. God's grace in our lives is the power.

God's grace in our lives is the source, and it has come, and it has it has infected us. We have been united, identified, joined together with Christ, and because of that, it is the one that is instructing us to deny ungodliness, and there is the conduct. So we have the positional truth, and then we have the conditional truth, or we have the conduct coming out of it. The grace of God is instructing us to deny ungodliness, worldly desires, Live sensibly, righteously, and godly in this present age.

I think that's exactly what Paul is wanting to communicate to these folks in Corinth. Based on God's power, live sensibly. Cleanse yourselves, is what he's saying here. Cleanse yourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. So, as Christ cleaned out the temple, Of those wrongfully using it, remember that when Christ went in there with the whips and He cleansed the temple, He cleaned out the temple. Believers are to get rid of anything that would defile them outwardly of the flesh or inwardly in the spirit. We see a physical example that Christ did it. He went in and He cleaned out the temple. Our bodies are the temple of the living God. And so Paul is saying, clean it out. Cleanse yourself.

Don't let there be anything that would defile the temple of God there. in our own power, in our own strength? Absolutely not. You try, you're going to bomb out. But based on God's grace and His unaliening power, look to Him and it can happen. He'll do it in and through us as He lives His life in and through us. Okay. Perfected holiness in the fear of God. So perfecting is a verb, it's present active, it's a continuous action with the subject doing the action. I think we've got time to look at these verses real quick.

1 Thessalonians. Again, I think this is important for us because we want to understand what does he mean by perfecting holiness yet in its proper context. Obviously, it's nothing we can do in and of ourselves. 1 Thessalonians 3, verses 11-13. Awesome verses here.

Now may our God, the Father himself, and Jesus our Lord, direct our way to you. And may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another and for all people, just as we also do for you, so that he may establish your hearts without blame and holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. So who is doing the establishing? Verse 13, so that he may establish your hearts without blame and holiness before our God. God is the one who is doing that work in our lives as we're walking by faith and dependency upon Him. Now go to Philippians 3, verse 12. Philippians 3, verse 12. Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on, so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of, by Christ. That's speaking more there to some action. Paul is saying, I'm pressing on because I have not already become perfect, but I'm pressing on towards the prize.

And a couple other verses that have really helped me to understand some of this God's enabling power is clearly there. Yet, what is man's part? To believe, walk by faith and dependency upon God. Paul says, I labor and I strive, but what? according to His power, which works within me mightily. I think Vern covered that verse there. So there's that idea there of laboring and of striving, yet not in our own strength or not in our own abilities or effort, but in God's strength and in His enabling power.

So what we see is that believers are perfect in holiness in their position, but not always in their condition. I certainly would be the first to agree with that. I'm holy before the Lord, but in my condition, sometimes I do things that just aren't quite holy before God. So, he's saying here, cleanse yourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness. So, cleanse yourselves, perfecting holiness. Now, that has to be something that God is doing in and through us. We have a part in it, sure. We're walking by faith. We're trusting the Lord, 100%. But, something that we need to keep that in mind.

Then the final phrase here, in the fear of the Lord, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord, it's a reverential fear, not a fear of someone coming down on us with an iron hand. I think we covered this idea here very extensively back in chapter 5 and verse 11 where it says, Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God. You all remember that verse when we talked about that? So, same idea here of of the fear of the Lord.

Affections can be shared between the world and Christ. Christ says, nah, there's no common ground. He doesn't want that. He wants us to be holy before him with our affections undivided and unsplit. So I think it's obviously appropriate for the church in Corinth and I think it's very appropriate for us as well.

So let's pray. Father, thank you for this morning and thank you for your word and your Holy Spirit. who leads us and guides us into all truth, and also your Holy Spirit brings things to our remembrance. So, our hope as a group here this morning is that you would do just that. That you would bring these things that we've looked into and seen from your scriptures this morning, bring these to our remembrance today, and tomorrow, and Tuesday, and remind us of them, and lead us into the truth of them. so that our lives are more like you as you are conforming us into the image of yourself. So thank you, Lord. In your name we pray. Amen.