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 6

As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. 2For he says,

“At an acceptable time I have listened to you,

and on a day of salvation I have helped you.”

See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! 3We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, 7truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; 10as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

11 We have spoken frankly to you Corinthians; our heart is wide open to you. 12There is no restriction in our affections, but only in yours. 13In return—I speak as to children—open wide your hearts also.

 

The Temple of the Living God

14 Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship is there between light and darkness? 15What agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,

“I will live in them and walk among them,

and I will be their God,

and they shall be my people.

17

Therefore come out from them,

and be separate from them, says the Lord,

and touch nothing unclean;

then I will welcome you,

18

and I will be your father,

and you shall be my sons and daughters,

says the Lord Almighty.”


14. Be not yoked As if regaining his authority, he now reproves them more freely, because they associated with unbelievers, as partakers with them in outward idolatry. For he has exhorted them to show themselves docile to him as to a father: he now, in accordance with the rights that belong to him, 608608     “Parlant comme en puissance et authorite de pere;” — “Speaking as with the power and authority of a father.” reproves the fault into which they had fallen. Now we mentioned in the former epistle 609609     See vol. 1, p. 282. what this fault was; for, as they imagined that there was nothing that was unlawful for them in outward things, they defiled themselves with wicked superstitions without any reserve. For in frequenting the banquets of unbelievers, they participated along with them in profane and impure rites, and while they sinned grievously, they nevertheless thought themselves innocent. On this account Paul inveighs here against outward idolatry, and exhorts Christians to stand aloof from it, and have no connection with it. He begins, however, with a general statement, with the view of coming down from that to a particular instance, for to be yoked with unbelievers means nothing less than to

have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,
(Ephesians 5:11,)

and to hold out the hand to them 610610     “Aux infideles;” — “To unbelievers.” in token of agreement.

Many are of opinion that he speaks of marriage, but the context clearly shows that they are mistaken. The word that Paul makes use of means — to be connected together in drawing the same yoke. It is a metaphor taken from oxen or horses, which require to walk at the same pace, and to act together in the same work, when fastened under one yoke. 611611     “Joachim Camerarius, in his Commentary on the New Testament, (Cambridge 1642,) suggests, that ἐτεροζυγοῦντες, may have a reference to a balance, and that Paul — would not have the Corinthians unequally balanced with unbelievers. The verb ζυγοστατειν, as he observes, is employed to denote the adjusting of scales in balance. It seems more natural, however, to understand the word, as Calvin and most other interpreters do, as derived from ἓτερος, (Another,) and ζυγὸς, as meaning a yoke, and as employed by Paul to mean, drawing on the other side of a yoke with another; or, as Beza explains it, “Qui cum sint divers’ conditionis, tamen in eodem opere mutuam operam pr’stant;” — “Those who, while in a different condition from each other, do nevertheless take their corresponding part in the same work.” — Ed. When, therefore, he prohibits us from having partnership with unbelievers in drawing the same yoke, he means simply this, that we should have no fellowship with them in their pollutions. For one sun shines upon us, we eat of the same bread, we breathe the same air, and we cannot altogether refrain from intercourse with them; but Paul speaks of the yoke of impiety, that is, of participation in works, in which Christians cannot lawfully have fellowship. On this principle marriage will also be prohibited, inasmuch as it is a snare, by which both men and women are entangled into an agreement with impiety; but what I mean is simply this, that Paul’s doctrine is of too general a nature to be restricted to marriage exclusively, for he is discoursing here as to the shunning of idolatry, on which account, also, we are prohibited from contracting marriages with the wicked.

For what fellowship He confirms his exhortation on the ground of its being an absurd, and, as it were, monstrous connecting together of things in themselves much at variance; for these things can no more coalesce than fire and water. In short it comes to this, that unless they would have everything thrown into confusion, they must refrain from the pollutions of the wicked. Hence, too, we infer, that even those that do not in their hearts approve of superstitions are, nevertheless, polluted by dissimulation if they do not openly and ingenuously stand aloof from them.

15. What concord has Christ with Belial? As to the etymology of the word Belial, even the Hebrews themselves are not agreed 612612     Beza, when mentioning the different views which have been taken of the etymology of the term Belial, remarks, that some derive it from בלי יעל beli jahal, (not profitable,) or from בלי מועיל beli mohil, (worthless,) and that the term, viewed as having this derivation, is peculiarly appropriate to Satan, as being diametrically opposed to Christ, the Greatest and Best; while Jerome derives it from בלי beli, (not) and עיל hol, (a yoke,) as though you should say — without a yoke, not subject to the yoke. Beza gives the preference to the former etymology, while he observes that the latter is also most appropriate to Satan as an apostate spirit. — The original term Belial is rendered in various instances in the Septuagint παράνομος, lawless. — There is here a slight variation in reading. The Edit. Princ. and the Textus Receptus have Βελίαλ. The Erasmian, Stephanic, and other early editions have Βελίαρ, which has been restored by Bengelius, Matthias, Griesbach, and Tittmann; and justly, for both external and internal evidence are in its favor; it being found in the majority of the MSS., in many early ecclesiastical writers, and Greek Fathers.” — Bloomfield. — Ed The meaning, however, is not doubtful. 613613     “Et assez notoire;” — “And is sufficiently well known.” For Moses takes a word or thought of Belial 614614     Thus in Deuteronomy 15:9, “Beware that there be not a thouqht in thy wicked heart.” The expression made use of is פך-יחיה דבר עם-לבבך בליעל “Lest there be in thine heart a thing of Belial.” The same expression occurs in Psalm 41:9, where David’s enemies represent him as suffering the punishment of detestable wickedness,דבר בליעל a thing of Belial.” — See Calvin on the Psalms, vol. 2, p. 120. — Ed. to mean a wicked and base thought, 615615     “Vne meschante et abominable parolle ou pensee;” — “A wicked and abominable word or thought.” and in various instances 616616     “Souvent en l’Escriture;” — “Frequently in Scripture.” those who are wicked and abandoned to iniquity, are called men, or sons of Belial. (Deuteronomy 13:13; Judges 19:22; 1 Samuel 2:12.) Hence it is, that Paul has employed the word here to mean the devil, the head of all wicked persons. For from what holds good as to the two heads, he comes down without delay to the members: “As there is an irreconcilable variance between Christ and Satan, so we also must keep aloof from partnership with the wicked.” When, however, Paul says that a Christian has no participation with an unbeliever, he does not mean as to food, clothing, estates, the sun, the air, as I have mentioned above, but as to those things that are peculiar to unbelievers, from which the Lord has separated us.


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