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Good morning friends who are on the “Walking With Jesus” journey with us.
We began this daily journey together, of reading 1 chapter of God’s Word, back on May 1. We started reading in the New Testament book of Acts, and we have been tracing the journey of the Bible, chronologically after Jesus ascended back to heaven in Acts 1.
Our purpose has been to trace the movement of the Gospel, and followers of Jesus, as the Bible describes it, in the first century. So, we’ve thus far read Acts 1-19; the books of James; Galatians; 1st & 2nd Thessalonians; 1st Corinthians; and the first 5 chapters of 2nd Corinthians.
Then we diverted our reading to the Old Testament and we read the story of Moses and the Exodus, and the transition of leadership to Joshua, and their entry into the Promised Land. We did that because so much of the New Testament is built on an understanding of what God did in that Exodus journey.
So today, let’s rejoin the New Testament journey in 2nd Corinthians chapter 6.
You’ll recall this is the second letter we have, written by the Apostle Paul, to the Christians in this large, bustling, port city of Corinth in Greece. Corinth has a remarkable history. You might want to Google it! It may be one of the oldest cities in the world, and in 440bc, when Nehemiah was helping rebuild the wall around little Jerusalem, Corinth may have had nearly 100,000 people! Through history, Corinth has been conquered by many different armies and destroyed at least 5 times by earthquakes. In our day, the modern city of Corinth is about 3 miles north of the ancient ruins of the city Paul visited in the first century.
Economically, Corinth has always been prosperous, educationally vibrant, and religiously very eclectic, with many different religions competing for the hearts of the people of Corinth. It was an ethnically very diverse city with residents and travelers from all over the world, thus languages, cultures, and religions often clashed in Corinth. It was into that city Paul came bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ around 50ad, as we find in Acts 18.
Paul found some people responded to his message about Jesus Christ, but also a great deal of criticism and opposition from skeptics and other religions. Paul stayed there 18 months (Acts 18:11) and in that time a group of people did trust in Jesus and together, they began a Jesus following church in Corinth. Paul continued his travels and from Ephesus wrote his two letters back to the Christians in Corinth. They were struggling without Paul’s leadership and false teachers were confusing them in their newfound faith in Jesus Christ.
Notice Paul’s opening line in 2 Corinthians 6:1 “As God’s fellow workers, we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain…” Do you remember how Moses struggled? Despite God’s repeated miracles, the people floundered in their lack of faith in God. They grumbled way too often, they built a golden calf idol, they refused to believe Caleb and Joshua’s report and turned away from the Promised Land, when first given the opportunity! That’s what Paul is struggling with here.
The Corinthian Christians have received the grace of God, by trusting in Jesus for their salvation, but they are floundering in their faith. In some cases they were also going back to worship in the Corinthian temples with idols and false gods with their friends. In other cases they were dishonest in their business dealings or immoral in their relationships. They were living in ways that made a mockery of the grace, the kindness, of God who had given them salvation from their sins as they trusted in Jesus. What might this look like today, for you and me, to ‘receive God’s grace in vain’?
Paul goes into quite a litany of detail as he writes about the physical, emotional and even spiritual challenges he has faced in bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to cities like Corinth, throughout that portion of the Roman empire, in the first century. It nearly cost him his life several times! Those places today are Greece, Macedonia, Turkey, Lebanon and even today they remain very resistant to the Gospel.
We see Paul urging the Corinthians to open their hearts in vs. 11-13, as Paul and his companions had opened their hearts to love these people, who were so resistant to Jesus. Missionaries in those places today, are making the same appeal, and finding the very same difficult opposition.
Finally, in vs. 14-18 Paul makes a strong appeal “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 (in Jesus) have in common with an unbeliever?…” Is Paul urging the people to severe all relationships, all business dealings, with ANYONE who is not a Christian?
NO! On the contrary, Jesus invites us to build relationships with those who don’t yet know Jesus, and draw them to Him. Jesus invites us to live like ‘salt and light’ in our broken world, remember his words in Matthew 5:13-16? We, God’s people, are the people who know God’s truth, who have the Holy Spirit of God living within us. We are the people, through whom God can bring His help to our dysfunctional world. NO, Paul is not suggesting that we isolate ourselves from everyone other than fellow Christians.
What then is Paul talking here about with “yoked” relationships? What are those both then and now?
Marriage is the first and most important example. Spiritual disagreement in a marriage will affect almost every aspect of a family and will bring discord, disagreement and eventually conflict in a family. Marriages and families are built on values. Those values are built on a spiritual foundation. Disagreement on what’s right or wrong, the importance of morality, the authority of the Bible, the 10 Commandments, wanting to honor God or not… disagreement there will breed discord in the family. That’s why it’s so important people getting married are on the same page spiritually, my friends.
Business partnerships also need a spiritual union. If one partner wants the business to function always with honesty, integrity, and wants the business practices to be God honoring, and the other partner does not share those values, there will likely be discord, conflict between them, and that business will suffer.
By the way, the term “Belial” in vs. 15 is another term for Satan.
Do you notice in vs. 16 Paul writes “As God has said: ‘I will live with them…and I will be their God and they will be my people.” Now having just read Exodus, we understand that, right? Remember the cloud of God’s Presence over the “Tent of Meeting”, in the center of the tent city of 2 million runaway slaves? God wanted to be with His people, accessible, available, protecting, guiding, leading, blessing them. The Holy Spirit living in us Christians, is exactly the same thing, only personalized!
So in vs 17 & 18 of 2 Corinthians 6, Paul is not urging isolation living for the Corinthian Christians. He is urging what Peter later wrote with even greater clarity. Listen to 1 Peter 2:9-12 and again remember back to Exodus… “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God…I urge you, as aliens and strangers in this world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that though they may accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God…”
You and I, my friends, followers of Jesus Christ, are the hope of our nation, and the world, as we bring the hope and help of Jesus with us, every day, everywhere we go, into every relationship, every business dealing, every conversation. So…Shine the light of Jesus today my friends…bring hope where-ever you are this day.
Click to read today’s chapter: 2 Corinthians 6. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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