About

What hampered the Corinthians’ open, loving response, which Paul called for in verse 13? Answer: rival suitors vied for their affections and allegiance. The Corinthians were compromising with the world, so Paul appealed to them to separate themselves to God, the way a faithful wife is separated to her husband. Today what hampers our open, loving response to Biblical truth, to Christ, to other believers?Answer: rival suitors vying for our affections and allegiances. Like the Corinthians we need to separate ourselves to God the way a faithful wife is separated to her husband.I. The nature of the Believer 14-16     A. It is nature that determines association. Because a pig has a pig’s nature, it associated with other pigs in the mud hole. Because a sheep has a sheep’s nature, it munches grass with the flock in the pasture. According to 2 Peter 1:3-4 The Christian possesses a divine nature and therefore he should want to associate himself only with that which pleases the Lord.    B. Do not be bound together with unbelievers          1. Literally be not diversely yoked, KJV Unequally yoked          2. The concept of the unequal yoke comes from Deuteronomy 22:10. “thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together” The ox was a clean animal to the Jews, but the ass was not and it would be wrong to yoke them together. Furthermore, they have twoopposite natures and would not even work well together. It would be cruel to bindthem to each other. In the same way, it is wrong for believers to be yoked togetherwith unbelieversII. In posing antitheses that reflect the wide chasm between the kingdom of Christ and thekingdom of Satan Paul supported his admonition to separate by asking five rhetoricalquestions to which the expected the response, nothing.    A. What partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness       1. Metoxa – partnership, fellowship – Synonym of koinania, but with a more restrictivesense.       2. Paul did not speak here of righteous and wicked people, but of righteousness andwickedness as abstract principles. He did this to make the answer to his question asobvious as possible. In abstraction, righteousness and wickedness have nothing incommon.   B. What fellowship does light have with darkness     1. Fellowship, koinania, frequently describes believers spiritual union with Christ andthe consequent union that believers share with one another in Christ.     2. It is clear from this expression that Paul had in mind religious and spiritualconnections between believers and unbelievers, not natural or social connections.     3. The New testament frequently speaks of believers in association with the light ofChrist. By contrast, unbelievers remain in the darkness of sin. Here Paul arguesfrom an analogy in nature that just as light and darkness are opposites, so Christiansand non-Christians are spiritual opposites.   D. What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever     1. Part, in common – a part of the whole     2. Up to this point Paul had spoken abstractly and metaphorically, but here he spokeopenly about a believer and an unbeliever, saying that they have no part with oneanother. Again, the context makes it plain that Paul had in mind the religious andspiritual incompatibility of believers and unbelievers, not normal social contacts.