So, I'm going to share the verse and then share my thoughts. I don't feel like I'm on solid ground with this verse so consider this just opinion and not divine revelation of anything like that lest you take this seriously. Let's just consider this passage and see where it all comes down.
First though, the verse...
2 Corinthians 6:17 (NIV)
17 “Therefore come out from them
and be separate,
says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
and I will receive you.”c
c Isaiah 52:11; Ezek. 20:34, 41
[1] The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984
Okay, the first thing that grabs me is that this is a command to separate from unbelievers. Truly. Go back and read from V14. It's the section on "don't be yoked with an unbeliever." As I read this passage I feel a deep sense of confusion. On the one hand, we've been commanded to live 'in the world' but not to be 'of the world.' I've always interpreted this to mean NOT to separate from the world no matter how much I'd like to start a Christian commune. Second, the core message of Jesus Christ was to love sinners. I just don't see how we can love sinners if we don't hang out with any of them. One of my deepest frustrations with my current situation is that I've managed to isolate myself from most all unbelievers (except for the children). How does that show Christ's love to the world?
So to read this passage telling me to 'have no fellowship' just flies up my nose.
Even so, this IS God's word so I know there has to be more to it. That's when I noticed all the little super-script letters [a-d]. Every one of these points back to the Old Testament and most of them to the Books of the Law. So in this context, this is a quote and in fact, in V16, it says "As God has said..." So the Apostle Paul is quoting GOD but he is quoting GOD from before the fulfillment of The Law. So now, I'm really confused because it seems that Paul is advocating a return to the Law with respect to purity.
Now the problem I have with that is that "pre-fulfillment of the law (PFOTL)" purity was a great big deal. God walked in the camp so we couldn't have poo laying around that He might step in. God's people couldn't defile themselves by eating anything forbidden or by touching anything unclean or by looking upon anything despicable. To do those things would absolutely separate them from God. To get back into God's graces (so to speak) required a sacrifice. But that was all PFOTL. Christ was the final sacrifice which in my mind meant that all those prohibitions against food and all the pointless trying to live according to the LAW were no longer the issue that they were. The LAW condemns but GRACE sets free.
Then it occurred to me that Paul may have just been being particular in the manner in which he handled God's word (from the Old Testament). Maybe, he just wanted to draw the peoples attention to the promises in V18 but didn't feel it was legitimate to just rip out that part of scripture which illustrated his point. If we read down to 7:1 this would seem to be the case.
Paul's point seems to be that we should willingly and intentionally, out of deep love and reverent awe for God, be as pure and holy as we can possibly be. That our choices should always be oriented around the concept that since God is holy, we should strive to be holy. Now, make no mistake, we will absolutely fail at this task. But it is the trying that matters, the failing has been taken care of.
So now, I have to wonder about why Paul wrote this. What must have been going on in the church at Corinth for him to say these things. Clearly, there is a lot of opportunity here for me to study and to discover the answer to these matters which perplex me.
What do you think?
Shalom,
Carl
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1 comment:
Well, I just posted a long, somewhat convoluted reply, which was subsequently zapped - somehow - when I tried to post it. UGH!
Now, I don't think I can recreate all that "brilliance" ;>) with another reply.
Since I don't believe in accidents, maybe God simply didn't want my previous reply to be here.
But let me try to summarize ... maybe that was God's message in the techno-loss of my reply ... and to say it with more brevity.
So, one thought I will repeat. I was taken emotionally by your post to thinking of Jesus' exhortation to the woman of ill-repute when HE said, "Go and sin no more." What our Lord was saying to this woman (and to me) was, "Go! Be Holy, like Me!" Now we know that this woman was still a sinner and would re-enter a sinful world; and Jesus certainly knew that. So, do we think that Jesus expected her/me to be without sin for the rest of her/my life?
Of course; no way! All He expected from her was for her to do all she could to become like the Son of Man and the Son of God ... to aspire to holiness and to become as much like God as she/we could in a world that's very much unlike God.
That's like Paul's admonition to be IN the world but not OF the world. It's like God's charge through John in 1st John 2: 15-16 to avoid, as much as we can, loving the world. It's like Paul's exhortation to [in Rom. 12: 1] become "living sacrifices," which BTW is a reference to the New Covenant being very different from the Old Covenant.
Well, that's about all I can remember from that elaborate - and probably too long - reply post. And it will have to do; because I was pretty drained of intellect by this exercise when my previous post was zapped.
Enough! ... <'BB><
PS: You can bet I'm going to copy this post before I try to post it again! ;>)
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