6:11 ¶ O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is
enlarged. 12 Ye are not straitened in
us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. 13 Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as
unto my children,) be ye also
enlarged. 14 Be ye not unequally yoked
together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with
unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or
what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16 And what agreement hath the temple of God
with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will
dwell in them, and walk in them;
and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye
separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall
be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
Paul expresses his heartfelt love for the Corinthian church.
Although we today confine bowels to a very clinical reference to our
intestines, bowels in the Bible refer to that pit of the stomach feeling of
love and compassion that people have, yearning for someone out of love and
affection.
Genesis 43:30 And Joseph made haste; for his bowels did yearn upon his brother: and
he sought where to weep; and he
entered into his chamber, and
wept there.
Straitened, as in straitjacket, is narrowed or confined.
Job 36:16 Even so would he have removed thee out of the
strait into a broad place, where there is no
straitness; and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness.
Matthew 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find
it.
Paul is now going to warn them about too great an association with
unbelievers. He already gave warning in his first letter about the feasts associated
with pagan temples and pagan worship. This is not to say that they must not
have any affiliation with unbelievers because, as he said in his first letter;
1Corinthians 5:9 ¶ I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company
with fornicators: 10 Yet not altogether
with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or
with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.11 But now I have written unto you not to keep
company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or
an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no
not to eat.
But in intimate associations such as the church, marriage, and one
might even go so far as to say in business there is a great danger in walking
together with the unsaved. You don’t throw your clean shirt into the mud and
expect the mud to get clean. The shirt gets soiled. There is a danger of
adopting the values of the world when one spends a great deal of time in the
most personal situations rubbing elbows with worldly people.
But, Paul’s warning, in context is focused mostly on the
association that some Corinthian Christians had with the non-Christian in their
pagan festivities, feasts, which he argued against in his first letter. So,
let’s not take this too far. You will probably have to work with non-Christians
and there may be many non-Christians in your extended family. So, just be
careful how you limit yourself in your influence on people by avoiding them.
Keep the context foremost in your mind and the principle as a guide for your
life.
The Spirit of God dwells within each believer. We are the temple
of the living God. Three times in the first letter Paul makes this reference.
1Corinthians 3:16 ¶ Know ye not that ye are the temple of God,
and that the Spirit of God
dwelleth in you? 17 If any man defile
the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
1Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the
temple of the Holy Ghost which is
in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
Also, in the letter to the Ephesians;
Ephesians 2:19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and
foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
20 And are built upon the foundation of
the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21 In whom all the building fitly framed
together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22 In whom ye also are builded together for an
habitation of God through the Spirit.
The Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of Christ also, lives in
each believer.
Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the
Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not
the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Which is what Jesus promised.
John 14:17 Even
the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not,
neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in
you…23 Jesus answered and said unto him,
If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we
will come unto him, and make our
abode with him.
What are the Old Testament cross-references for verse 16 so we can
see how Paul, guided by the Holy Spirit, used them?
Exodus 29:45 And I will dwell among the children of
Israel, and will be their God.
Leviticus 26:12 And I will walk among you, and will be your
God, and ye shall be my people.
Jeremiah 31:1 ¶ At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be
the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
Ezekiel 37:27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I
will be their God, and they shall be my people.
And verses 17 & 18?
Isaiah 52:11 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence,
touch no unclean thing; go ye
out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
Hosea 1:10 Yet the number of the children of Israel
shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it
shall come to pass, that in the
place where it was said unto them, Ye are
not my people, there it shall
be said unto them, Ye are the
sons of the living God.
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