In yesterday's passage we found Paul warning the believers to be careful about the company they keep. The people of Corinth once were pagan idolaters and were ignorant of the living God. Now that they have come to the faith, they are still living in a society filled with idolatry. They have to be on guard about close associations with anyone who might drag them back down into wrong ways of living.
Today Paul continues on with this theme by reminding the people they are the temple of the living God now that His Spirit resides within them. Because they are His people, they must separate themselves from sinful practices. He uses several verses from the Old Testament to make his point, beginning with this, "As God has said: 'I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.'" (2 Corinthians 6:16b) We first find this verse in Leviticus 26:12. In that chapter the Lord is making covenant promises to Israel in return for her obedience in avoiding idolatry. The Lord promises to walk among them and be their God. Paul is telling the Gentile believers of Corinth that they too can claim this promise because they now believe in the one true God. If they remain faithful to Him, He will be faithful to them and will walk among them and be their God.
The second place we find the verse Paul quotes is in Jeremiah 32:38. In that chapter the Lord instructs Jeremiah to buy a field in the territory of Benjamin as a sign that the Lord is going to bring the people back from captivity. He intends to allow Babylon to overthrow them because so many have turned to idolatry, but later He intends to bring them back. He says He will let them live in safety in the land (Jeremiah 32:37) and He promises to walk among them and be their God. Through the prophet Jeremiah the Lord promises there is going to be a day when He will give the people "singleness of heart" to follow Him alone. (Jeremiah 32:39)
The third place we find the verse Paul quotes is in Ezekiel 37:27. In that chapter the Lord foretells of a day in which all twelve tribes of Israel will be united together again in the land and there will be one eternally living king of the line of David ruling over them. Not only will this king rule over Israel; he will rule over all the nations. In those days the Lord says the people of Israel will never again fall into idolatry or drift away from their relationship with Him. (Ezekiel 37:23) He promises He will live forever among them and be their God. How is this all going to come about? How will this be possible? Paul tells the believers at Corinth that the prophecy is already coming true. The Lord no longer resides in a temple but in their hearts. The Lord is living within their inmost being and is with them all the time. The Lord has provided the king of the line of David who lives forever and who will someday rule over a united Israel and over the entire world. God is faithful to His promises. Not one word will ever fail to come to pass, and the proof is that a great deal of His promises have already come to pass in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Since we are new creatures in Christ, we must have nothing to do with the deeds of darkness. "Therefore, 'Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.'" (2 Corinthians 6:17) My NIV references Ezekiel 20:34,41 here. In that chapter the Lord is promising to rid the nation of idolatry for good. Paul finds this reference to be very relevant to the people of Corinth because they are living in a city where statues to false gods are standing on practically every street corner. There are temples devoted to pagan gods throughout the city. The Christians there can scarcely walk a step without being confronted with these images. Paul knows that if they do not remain vigilant at all times, sinful practices may creep back into their lives. He also knows it's possible to live in the world and not be of the world. (John 15:19,John 17:16) Paul would say the same type of things to us in our own day that he says to the people of Corinth in the first century BC, "You will face pressure to fit in with the world instead of standing out as people of God who are willing to swim against the stream. But the Lord calls us to be holy because He is holy. He has sanctified us (set us apart) for His service; therefore though we live in the world we don't have to look like the world. We should look like the Lord our Father, for we are His children."
He concludes today's passage with this quotation, "And, 'I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.'" (2 Corinthians 6:18) My Bible references 2 Samuel 7:14 here. In that chapter the Lord promises that a descendant of David's line will build the temple and that He will treat this king as a father treats a son. We know that this promise began to be fulfilled when David's son Solomon built the temple for the Lord. In a larger sense it is clear that the Lord is making an eternal promise to David, for He tells David that his royal line will never cease and that a king will arise from his line to rule forever. Another one is coming to whom God will be a Father, but in that case God will literally be a Father, because the promise is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the promised king of the line of David. He is the one of whom the patriarch Jacob spoke when he bestowed a blessing upon his son Judah, "The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until He to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be His." (Genesis 49:10)
Jacob prophetically foresaw that Judah would be the royal line of Israel, and he saw this long before Israel was a nation and long before she ever had a king. By inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord, Jacob spoke of a king---a final king---who would come from the line of Judah and who would rule over not only Israel but the whole world. He said, "The scepter and the ruler's staff belongs to Him. Someday He is coming and all the world will obey Him." This prophecy began to be fulfilled when God became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14) in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, of the tribe of Judah, of the line of David, who holds the title to the throne of Israel, and who will someday reign from David's throne over Israel and over the earth.
Many of God's promises have already been fulfilled. Why would we ever doubt He is going to fulfill the rest of them? He is going to fulfill not only His promises of blessing, but also His promises of judgment. Knowing this, what kind of people should we be? (2 Peter 3:11) We should be holy, for our God is holy. We should strive to look like the children of the living God.
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