2 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER
6:11-7:1, “Open Wide Your Heart To Us”
By
1.
INTRO
1.1.
In our last study, we looked at Paul again defending himself to the
Corinthians for his apostleship, his calling to preach the gospel to the
Gentiles, and for his own personal integrity for the decisions he made for his
life. We saw that Paul began to do what
he told them that he did not need to do and in fact didn’t do, “commend
himself,” but he did so only by describing to the Corinthians how that his
ministry has great credibility because of how he endured in it despite the
tremendous difficulties and trials which he constantly faced in it
1.1.1. We saw that those who are
‘false apostles’ and ‘false teachers’ get out when the going gets tough and
when it means real sacrifice for them, for they are doing ministry only for
personal and material gain. However, the
apostle Paul’s credibility really is most clearly seen by his enduring in his
ministry and pouring out his life for others in spite of the difficulties and
sufferings he experienced as well as receiving no earthly reward for his work
1.1.2. We saw that through his
description of his endurance in ministry despite all of the hardships and
suffering that he experienced, Paul’s portrait of himself matches the portrait
of God’s ‘ideal’ and ‘suffering’ servant prophesied by Isaiah, the Lord Jesus
Christ who poured out his life unto death for us.
1.1.3. We will see how that Paul is
a tremendous example for us Christians to follow of being one who was always
willing to enrich, edify, and build up others in their faith regardless of the
difficulties which doing that entailed as well as the lack of earthly rewards
to be gained.
1.1.3.1.Paul encouraged us to be
like him so that when we leave this life to go and be with Jesus and gave
account of our life after being saved that the Lord would say to us, “Well done
thou good and faithful servant!”
1.2.
In our study today, we are going to look at the apostle Paul now
finishing his current defense of himself and his apostleship by being so direct
with the Corinthians that he tells them how much that he truly loved them and
by encouraging them to open up their hearts to him in return
1.2.1. After telling the
Corinthians to open wide their hearts to him as their apostle and brother in
the faith, he gives them some exhortations that had been uppermost on his
heart, exhortations which we as Christ’s church of all eras need to take to
heart:
1.2.1.1.Paul tells us to not be
bound together with unbelievers, and then gives five arguments why we should do
this
1.2.1.2.Paul tells us to come out
from the world in its rebellion and sin and to be separate
1.2.1.3.Paul tells us that we need
to continually cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit and be
perfecting righteousness in our lives
2.
VS 6:11-13 - “11 Our
mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart is opened wide.12 You
are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections.13 Now
in a like exchange—I speak as to children—open wide to us also.” - Paul tells the Corinthians of his love for
them and that it was them who had restrained their love for him, not he who had
restrained his love for them
2.1.
In the previous two studies, we saw that Paul had been given the
ministry of reconciliation and that he was appealing to the Corinthians as
Christ’s ambassador for them to be reconciled to God. We saw that central to their being reconciled
to God was their accepting Paul again as their apostle, something that the
‘super-apostles’ (who we know were Judaisers) who had been entertained by them
and come in amongst them, had caused them to question. In this study today, we will see that Paul is
now completing his previous defense to the Corinthians concerning his
apostleship by asking them to open their hearts to him in love.
2.2.
In this chapter we see the fatherly love that Paul had for the
Corinthians, for in his mind they were his children and loved as children by him.
2.3.
We also see in this chapter that the relationship between an apostle
and those whom he ministered to and served was carried out via a deeply
individual and personal relationship that had been built and
established. They both shared their
innermost beings with each other and deeply loved each other, plus their
relationships were established upon a personal trust of each other. The love of Paul for the Corinthians, as well
as their love for him, was reciprocal.
2.4.
The Corinthians had become an interesting group because they had come
to hold many ambiguous feelings toward Paul:
2.4.1. On the one hand they were
crying out for his love for them, yet on the other hand they were distrusting
and accusing him, and questioning his integrity.
2.4.2. They wanted his attention,
yet when he attempted to give them his attention they were pushing him away.
2.4.3. They accused Paul really of
not loving them as he should, as evidenced by the way that he had changed his
travel plans to visit them, yet in reality they were the ones who were holding
back their love for him, not visa versa.
2.5.
Paul tells the Corinthians in these verses that he and those with
him had opened their mouths and spoken freely to them. He had not held back anything from them that
could help them, and even though they may not have liked some of the things
that he had told them, none-the-less all that he had said to them he had said
in love believing that what he said was what they needed to hear.
2.6.
Yet again, we see Paul expressing raw emotions to the Corinthians. Here he tells them that the heart of he
and those with him was ‘opened wide’ to the Corinthians. Paul is being as direct as he can to the
Corinthians by telling them that he had opened his heart to them in love as
widely as he was able to do. His love
for them was not constrained to any degree, and he was willing to do anything
that would build them up in their faith.
2.7.
In these verses, Paul uses the word translated ‘restrained’ as an
antonym for ‘opened wide,’ which is what Paul told the Corinthians that he
had done with his heart toward them.
Paul tells them that he had in no way ‘restrained’ the Corinthians,
however they had become ‘restrained’ in their love for him. Though the Corinthians were indirectly
accusing the apostle Paul of not loving them, as evidenced by the decisions
that he had made concerning coming to visit them, in reality it was they who
were not loving him as they should. The
Corinthians were withholding their love from Paul. Some in the church had allowed a root of
bitterness to take a hold on them, and thus they had pulled away from Paul.
2.7.1. We Christians must beware to
not let a root of bitterness develop in our hearts towards another brother or
sister as this can cause irreparable damage to a precious relationship in
Christ. If you have ought against your
brother Christ said to go to him and talk with him about it, and I believe that
if we Christians would just do that we would have much fewer relationships with
brothers and sisters that get damaged.
2.8.
Paul implies to the Corinthians in this verse that his love for them
was fatherly, and he asks them as his children in the faith to respond
reciprocally to his having opened wide his heart to them by opening their
hearts wide to him. Paul asks the
Corinthians not to hold back their love for him in any degree.
3.
VS 6:14-16 - “14 Do
not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness
and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?15 Or what harmony
has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?16
Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of
the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among
them; And I will be their God, and they
shall be My people.” - Paul exhorts the Corinthians
to not be bound together with unbelievers
3.1.
This exhortation comes upon us a bit unexpectedly being in the midst of
Paul trying to mend his relationship with the Corinthians and reassuring them
of his love for them, while at the same time asking them to reciprocally love
him in the same measure in return.
However, when we consider the context of Paul’s dealings with the
Corinthians it becomes apparent that the purpose of Paul’s defense of himself
and re-establishing his relationship with the Corinthians was so that he could
begin to correct the things in their lives where they had wandered astray from
following the Lord as they should:
3.1.1. We have already discussed at
length that perhaps about a year before Paul wrote this letter, he had returned
quickly to Corinth just after writing the letter of 1 Corinthians, and that he
had done so because he had heard some very disturbing news that we surmise from
this letter involved there being some in the church in Corinth who were
committing fornication (any sex outside of marriage). It is believed that those who were committing
fornication were doing so as part of the pagan worship and fertility rites of
the Greek culture. They were most likely
committing fornication with temple prostitutes, though there was a man whom
Paul addressed in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 who was committing fornication with
his father’s wife. Then, after leaving
the Corinthians after that very difficult visit to them, Paul had soon
afterward written what we have called “the severe letter” in which we believe
that he basically “read them the riot act” concerning how they had to as a
fellowship discipline those who were living in such a manner, committing
fornication.
3.1.1.1.So, with this background as
the context of Paul’s dealings with the Corinthians, we can see why Paul would
now be exhorting the Corinthians strongly not to be bound together with
unbelievers.
3.1.1.2.Paul was concerned that
those in all of the churches would come out and be separate from the evil
practices of the peoples of the nations around them.
3.2.
As we have seen over and over again, every New Testament doctrine has
an Old Testament picture for it, and in the Old Testament there were two
sections where this doctrine of not being unequally yoked with unbelievers is
pictured:
3.2.1. Lev. 19:19, “19 ‘You are
to keep My statutes. You shall not breed together two kinds of your cattle; you
shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor wear a garment upon you of
two kinds of material mixed together.”
3.2.2. Deut. 22:10, “10 “You
shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.”
3.3.
I want to be clear here that Paul’s usage of this word ‘unbeliever’
is any person who does not know Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. It is the person who does not have “saving
faith” in Christ, which is the guarantee of salvation. It does not really matter what type of life
of sin a person is involved in that makes this differentiation. Anyone who does not know Christ personally
has vastly differently goals and perspective in life than a child of God, and
it is this aspect which can be a danger to the believer if he is not careful of
his involvement with an unbeliever.
3.4.
So, the next question to be answered by us is, “What does it mean to
be “bound together” with unbelievers?”
Paul is not specific in these verses in defining what type of
involvement “being bound” with unbelievers consists of.
3.4.1. I would say though that any
type of relationship that a Christian has with an unbeliever that requires
mutual commitment between them and working together in intimate quarters over a
very long period of time is one which can be dangerous and very damaging to
the believer’s faith, and thus it qualifies as being “bound together.”
3.4.1.1.Marriage and business
partnership have always been considered by the church as specifically falling
under this exhortation.
3.4.2. Knowing the context of
Paul’s dealings with the church in Corinth leads to the next application of
this exhortation, namely, that of not being mutually involved in corporate
worship or practice with a non-believer.
3.4.2.1.There is no common ground in
worship amongst pagans and Christians since there is only one God and only one
way to God, through Jesus Christ.
Therefore, any involvement in pagan worship must be shunned by a
Christian.
3.4.2.2.I think that the “Ecumenical
Movement” is an area where we as Christians should not be “bound
together.” In that movement, there are
many that believe not only in a different means of salvation but also a
different God and scriptures altogether.
3.4.2.3.After the bombings in our
country on 9/11/2001, some pastors of churches around our country invited
Muslim clerics to share their pulpit on Sunday morning to show that Christians
don’t hate Muslims. One of the clerics
told the people that they worship the same God as the church and that in fact
that they love Jesus even more than the people do. What a travesty! This is totally the wrong thing for the
church to do. If the beliefs of another
religion are to be taught to the people in the church, then the pastors need to
explain them to the people, not turn over the pulpit to the other religions’
leaders. We can never be bound together
in worship with those who believe in a different god or a different way of
salvation.
3.5.
In these verses, Paul uses five arguments, each of which is
expressed as a rhetorical question, for showing why we Christians must not be
bound together with unbelievers:
3.5.1. What partnership have
righteousness and lawlessness?
3.5.1.1.We believers in Christ are
trying to perfect righteousness (Matt. 5:48; Phil. 3:12; Col. 4:12; James 1:4;
1 Peter 5:10; 2 Cor. 7:1) and be holy just as our Lord is holy (as Jesus said
we were to do). Though we are not saved
on the basis of our own works or righteousness (Rom. 11:6; Titus 3:5),
none-the-less the Lord has made it completely clear that we are to try to do
only those things that are right and good and please the Lord (Eph. 5:8-9).
3.5.1.2.Non-believers usually have
no such commitment to doing good as we Christians have. Many do not even agree with us as to what
differentiates right and wrong since they are either hedonistic in their
lifestyle or believe in “moral relativism” when it comes to right and
wrong. Thus, we Christians can be
deceived and allow the bad company we keep to corrupt our good morals if we are
bound together with unbelievers,
3.5.1.2.1.In 1 Cor. 15:33.Paul wrote about being
careful about the people we keep company with, “33 Do not be deceived:
“Bad company corrupts good morals.””
3.5.2. What fellowship has light
with darkness?
3.5.2.1.We believers in Christ have
come to know and love the truth, for it is the truth that has set us free (John
8:32). Our goal is to live our life in
the light of God and of the truth, and thus we are to delight in every right
and truthful way and despise every evil way.
3.5.2.2.However, unbelievers do not
normally like to go near the light. They
prefer the darkness because in the light their sins are exposed. In John 3:19-21, Jesus told His
disciples that the reason that people did not come to Him was because they
hated the light and loved the darkness, “19 “And this is the judgment,
that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than
the light; for their deeds were evil.20 “For everyone who does evil hates the
light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.21 “But
he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested
as having been wrought in God.””
3.5.3. What harmony has Christ with
Belial?
3.5.3.1.There has been much
speculation concerning the meaning of this word translated ‘Belial’ used
by Paul in these verses, and Vines Expository Dictionary has the
following entry for it, “There
are two views as to the primary meaning of this word. The ordinary one is that
it signifies worthlessness (from beléÆ-yaÔal, “no profit”) or wickedness, and that the secondary
meaning is destruction. Another view is that the primary meaning is the abode
of the dead (either from beléÆ-yaÔal, no coming up, or from the root baµlaÔ, swallow up), hence, hopeless ruin, and the secondary
meaning, extreme wickedness. In the Old Testament, the word, in the sense of
“worthlessness” or “wickedness,” is mostly used with another noun, for example,
“daughter of Belial” (1 Samuel 1:16); “man” (1 Samuel 25:25; 2 Samuel 16:7; 20:
1; Proverbs 16:27); “heart” (Deuteronomy 15:9, margin); “witness” (Proverbs
19:28); “person” (Proverbs 6: 12; R.V. “worthless person”); “children” or
“sons” (Deuteronomy 13: 13 KJV; R.V. “base”; also in Judges 19:22; 20:13; 1
Samuel 2:12; 10:27; 25:17; 2 Samuel 23:6; 1 Kings 21:10, 13; 2 Chronicles
13:7); “men” (1 Samuel 30:22). The general meaning is thus “sinners of deepest
dye.” In the sense of “destruction” the
word is found five times: 2 Samuel 22:5; Psalms 18:4 R.V. “[floods of]
ungodliness” (some render it “perdition”), in parallelism with “death” and “Sheol”;
Psalms 41:8, “an evil disease”; Nahum 1:11 R.V. “[that counseled] wickedness”
(some render it “hopeless ruin”); 1:15 R.V. “the wicked one” (or “the
destroyer”). This meaning is borne out by the New Testament use of the word as
a name of Satan (2 Corinthians 6:15).”
3.5.3.2.So, Paul’s argument then is
that Christ does not have anything in common with “worthlessness,” or
“destruction,” or “the abode of the dead,” depending upon what exactly Paul was
referring to using the word ‘Belial.’
3.5.3.2.1.Christ stands alone against
all the worthless pagan idols and worship in the world, and He gives life and
after this life brings His people to dwell with Him in heaven.
3.5.4. What has a believer in
common with an unbeliever?
3.5.4.1.At the center of the
believer’s life is Christ, and a believer lives his life for the Lord and His
will for his life.
3.5.4.1.1.Secondly, the believer is
attempting to live his life in the will of God, and thus avoiding sin and
sinful practices.
3.5.4.1.2.Furthermore, the longer each
of us walks with the Lord the more our lives begin to revolve around the Lord
and His people, and thus the less we have in common with unbelievers.
3.5.4.2.At the center of the
unbeliever’s life is first and foremost, himself, for just as the Christian is
Christ-centered in his life, the unbeliever is basically selfish and
self-centered. This fact not only causes
unbelievers to have conflict with believers, but also for unbelievers to have
many conflicts with each other.
3.5.4.2.1.Secondly, the unbeliever is
living his life primarily for the satisfaction of the lusts of his or her
flesh. People in this world tend to
desire to do what is gratifying and makes them feel good.
3.5.5. What agreement has the
3.5.5.1.It is unthinkable to imagine
dragging an idol into the
3.5.5.1.1.In fact, the ‘abomination of
desolations” which will signal the final fury of God’s wrath against the
nations during the 7 Year Tribulation of the book of Revelation will occur when
the anti-Christ sets himself up in the temple to be worshipped (2 Thess.
2:3-4).
3.5.5.2.Paul continues his argument
by pointing out that the Christian is the temple of the living God, implying
therefore that if we bind ourselves together with unbelievers that it is as if
we had brought an idol into the
3.5.5.2.1.All of us as Christians are
truly temples of God, for it is within our hearts that the Lord dwells, and
thus we must be careful about what we allow into our lives because we can
defile our temple by bringing into our lives those things that are unholy,
profane, and sinful.
4.
VS 6:17-18 - “17 “Therefore,
come out from their midst and be separate,”
says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you. 18 “And I will be a father to you, And you
shall be sons and daughters to Me,” Says the Lord Almighty.” - Quoting from Isaiah, Paul tells the
Corinthians to come out from amongst this world that is in rebellion against
the Lord
4.1.
In verse 17, Paul is quoting from Isaiah 52:11 where the Lord
admonished His people whom He foretold would be captives in Babylon that when
they were allowed to leave captivity and Babylon to go back to the homeland and
rebuild their temple, city, and city wall, that they were not to take any part
of the pagan Babylonian culture with them as they left, “11 Depart,
depart, go out from there, Touch nothing unclean; Go out of the midst of her, purify
yourselves, You who carry the vessels of the Lord.”
4.1.1. It was imperative that the
captive Judeans not take any of the culture of the Babylonians with them. It was the Lord’s goal in sending Judea into captivity
in
4.2.
Spurgeon once preached the following regarding how that we Christians need to be
sanctified unto God and live lives separated from this world in its rebellion
against God, “Those who are
sanctified in this sense have ceased to be unequally yoked together with
unbelievers; they have ceased to run with the multitude to do evil; they are
not conformed to this present evil world; they are strangers and pilgrims upon
the earth. The more assuredly this is true of them the better. There are some,
in these apostate days, who think that the church cannot do better than to come
down to the world to learn her ways, follow her maxims, and acquire her
“culture.” In fact, the notion is that the world is to be conquered by our
conforming to it. This is as contrary to Scripture as the light is to the
darkness. The more distinct the line between him that feareth God and him that
feareth him not, the better all round. It will be a black day when the sun
itself is turned into darkness. When the salt has lost its savor, and no longer
opposes putrefaction, the world will rot with a vengeance. That text is still
true, “Ye are of God, little children, and the whole world lieth in the wicked
one.” The seed of the woman knows no terms with the serpent brood but continual
war. Our Lord saith that in this matter he came not to send peace on the earth,
but a sword. “Because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you.” If the church seeks to cultivate the
friendship of the world, she has this message from the Holy Ghost by the pen of
the apostle James: “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the
friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a
friend of the world is the enemy of God.” He charges all who would please the
world with the black and filthy crime of spiritual adultery.”
4.3.
In the latter part of verse 17, Paul gives the encouragement of Ezekiel
to the Corinthians if they would separate themselves from the world in its
sin. Ezekiel encouraged the captives
in Babylon whom he lived contemporaneously with that if they would return to
the Lord when He opened the door for them to leave Babylon, that the Lord would
receive them (Ezek. 20:34,41).
4.4.
In verse 18, Paul gives the encouragement of Jeremiah to the
Corinthians if they would separate themselves from the world in its sin. In Jer. 3:19, Jeremiah encouraged
God’s people that they were sons and daughters of the Lord, “19 “Then
I said, ‘How I would set you among My sons, And give you a pleasant land, The
most beautiful inheritance of the nations!’
And I said, ‘You shall call Me, My Father, And not turn away from
following Me.’”
5.
VS 7:1 - “1 Therefore,
having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of
flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” - Paul exhorts the Corinthians to cleanse
themselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit
5.1.
Paul tells the Corinthians that in light of the fact that God will
receive and bless the people who are willing to come out from this world in its
rebellion and sin against God, that they ought to cleanse themselves ‘from all
defilement of flesh and spirit’ and work on ‘perfecting holiness in the fear of
God.’
5.2.
Paul tells the Corinthians that ‘having these promises’ they
ought to cleanse themselves and perfect holiness. We Christians have received such
incredible promises from God in His word that as a result of receiving them and
all of the blessings and privileges they bring we must and we will commit
ourselves to being holy and perfecting holiness as we remove anything that
is displeasing to the Lord from our lives.
5.2.1. In 1John 3:3 the
apostle John tells us under inspiration of the Holy Spirit that everyone who
has the hope, or confident expectation, of eternal life, as we Christians do,
will purify himself just as He is pure, “3 And every man that hath this
hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure.”
5.3.
As God’s people we are all called to ‘cleanse ourselves from ALL
defilement of flesh and spirit’ in our lives, when we realize that any sin is being
committed by us. It is a fact that all
of us as Christians sin occasionally and will sin occasionally, however it
is one thing to have sinned in past-tense, and another thing to presently have
“unconfessed” and “unrepented of” sin in our life. This is the thing that we need to be careful
of. We need to be sure that when we
realize that as a child of God that we have side-stepped hitting the mark of
holiness and doing the things that the Lord has specifically laid out for us as
Christians to do, that we don’t just keep on doing those sinful things, nor
that being aware of the sin that has come to dwell in us, that we try to just
go in our relationship with the Lord as if everything is fine between God and
us. We must confess our sins to the Lord
when we are aware of them, and as we are confessing have a change of mind and
heart about our sin and in repentance vow that with the Lord’s strength we will
not do that sinful act again.
5.3.1. The apostle John wrote in 1
John 1:9 about how we are to handle the fact that we have unconfessed and
unrepented of sin in our lives, “9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
5.3.1.1.Note that the word ‘confess’
means to ‘agree with God’ and thus includes repentance. We must confess and repent of our sins in
order to be cleansed from them.
5.3.2. Notice that Paul does not
say that it is the Lord’s job to cleanse us, rather he lays it down as our
responsibility. We Christians must
be actively involved in working with the Holy Spirit in cleansing our lives
from all defilement of flesh and spirit.
5.4.
Notice that in using the word ‘us’ the apostle Paul places himself
in the same category as every other saint in needing and being required to
cleanse ourselves from all defilement.
As sanctified a life as the apostle Paul lived, he like all other
saints, was constantly needing to confess and repent of sins in his life as the
Holy Spirit brought him to conscious awareness of them.
5.4.1. In fact, the longer a person
walks with God the more light he receives, the more sensitive to the slightest
of transgressions and rebellion he becomes, and thus the more he realizes that
he regularly needs God’s cleansing of his sins, as he confesses and repents of
them.
5.5.
Notice that Paul does not say that we are to go around and make sure
everyone else’s life gets cleansed from all defilement. Our tendency is to be looking at others and
to be critically aware of others faults, yet blind or numb to our own. However, Paul’s exhortation here is to do our
own housekeeping, to keep our eye attending to our own life and it’s
purification.
5.6.
Spurgeon once preached about how that we Christians must be vigilant to purge “every”
sinful way out of our life, “Nor
must we stop short of universality in our purgations and ablutions: “Let
us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness.” Your eye must not spare, your
heart must not pity, one pet sin. Most men would fain be holy if it were not
for some one sin that they vainly flatter themselves to be innoxious and
harmless.” From all filthiness let us cleanse ourselves.” O Christian, you may
very well doubt your right to that name unless all sin is obnoxious to you! You
have no right to say, “I will give up pride and vanity,” if you excuse yourself
for being covetous. If covetousness be the leak in your vessel, it will sink it
quite as surely as pride. If neither pride nor covetousness should be there,
yet if you have an unforgiving temper, and cannot to heartily reconciled to
those who offend you, you shall just as soon prove yourself to be reprobate that
way than any other. It must be an interesting sight to the father of a Jewish
family purging out the leaven before the Passover. He lights a candle, you
know, and goes to the cupboard under the stairs, or wherever the bread may be
kept, and takes care that every bit is put away. He then has every cupboard
unlocked, and rummages with a brush in his hand, himself personally, and with a
candle, too, to see lest there should be even a crumb of leaven, for he cannot
keep the Passover if there is a crumb of leaven in the house. Such should be
our earnest searching after all filthiness, to get it all out. Search as best
we may, I am, afraid something will still be left. There will be some beloved
idol hidden away somewhere in the recesses of the mind. The heart will cling to
its idols in such a style that we cannot find them all out at one
investigation; the mere need to search again and again; they must be searched
after, and we must each one be prepared to say,-
“The dearest idol I have known,
Whate’er that idol be,
Help me to tear it from thy throne,
And worship only thee.””
5.7.
“Defilements of the flesh” refers to all of the external sins
that a person might commit, and being committed externally they would be sins
which could be seen and observed by a bystander present.
5.8.
“Defilements of the spirit” are the sins of the mind and heart
which would not necessarily be observable in behavior by others. These would include sins of pride, lust,
hatred, jealousy and envy, mixed motives of the heart, etc.
5.8.1. These sins are really at the
root of other sins that we may commit, and we must be careful to also confess
and repent them just in the same way that if we want to get rid of the spiders
in our house we must not only kill each one of them, we must also kill all of
the spider nests.
5.9.
The Lord once dwelt in a tabernacle, however He left it because of the unchecked
sin in His people. He once dwelt in
Solomon’s temple, however He left it because of the unchecked sin in His
people, and off to Babylonian captivity they soon went. He once dwelt in Herod’s temple,
however He left it because of the unchecked sin in His people when they were
finally even so blind that they rejected their own Messiah. We Christians are God’s temple, for the
Lord Himself dwells in our life. We must
clean out our temple so that it can be pure and holy and fit for a pure and
holy God to live in!
5.10.
We must “continually” strive to remove all defilement of flesh and
spirit from our life. The scriptures do not teach
that we Christians can in this life be perfect (see 1 John 1:10), however we
must daily strive to clean out the mess that accumulates in our life. No matter how clean your house may be
after a good spring cleaning, you cannot long have it clean unless you learn to
regularly work to keep it clean!
5.11.
In this sinful world that is in rebellion against the Lord, winning and
being materially successfully are the only things that are considered truly
valuable. In other words, concerning
winning and success the end justifies the means in the world’s eyes. However, for us who fear the Lord in true
reverence there is something that is much more important than outward or
material success. How we conduct
ourselves is more important than winning or getting ahead. How we play the game is more important than
that we win. If we get ahead materially
yet we have compromised our character in the process, we Christians must
realize that we have actually lost ground in heaven’s site and for eternity.
5.11.1. We Christians need to be
committed to not compromising our morals and being worldly in any of our
pursuits and business in life, and if we are winners and successful, then
that’s great, but if we do not prosper in the world’s eyes while not
compromising, so be it, we have pleased the One who really matters to us!
6.
CONCLUSION:
6.1.
Do you need today to cleanse yourself from some defilement of flesh or
spirit?
6.1.1. The Psalmist said in Ps.
139:23-24, “23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; 24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.”
6.1.2. Ask the Lord to show you if
there is any “unconfessed” or “unrepented of” sin in your life?
6.1.3. In Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah
recalls his calling to the office of a prophet.
He had a vision of the Lord high and exalted up, and having the Lord in
close proximity to him he was suddenly aware of specific sin in his life. He had surely realized generally that he had
sin in his life, however just as happens to us as Christians, when the Lord
came to him He brought conviction of specific sin in Isaiah life, and Isaiah in
response said, “Woe is me for I am a man of sinful lips and I live among a
people of sinful lips.” The specific
area of sin revealed to Isaiah involved the words that came out of his mouth. Notice then that the angel took the coal from
the altar and touched where, his lips, and pronounced that his sins were
forgiven. This was the specific area of
conviction of sin pointed out by the Lord and thus it was the very area that
the Lord touched in proclaiming Isaiah’s forgiveness. As we come before the Lord, He will reveal
specific sins for which He wants us to confess and repent of.
6.2.
Are there areas of your life where you are compromising your faith or
morals?
6.3.
Are you perhaps sometimes trying to be like the world so that you might
not offend people, or maybe even so that you might win them to Christ, when in
reality you ought to be living a life so separated unto God and different that
those around you couldn’t help but notice you as being different?
6.4.
Does the language that you use during your normal work day give God
glory, or if you were to see Christ standing next to you sometimes do you think
that you would be ashamed of some of the words that come out of your mouth?
6.5.
Is it truly your goal to be holy, and perfect holiness, as your Father
in heaven is holy?
6.6.
As you confess and repent of any sins in your life, trust that by His
promise in 1 John 1:9 that He has forgiven you and cleansed you from all
unrighteousness…