11 O Corinthians! We have spoken openly to you, our heart is wide open.
12 You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.
13 Now in return for the same (I speak as to children), you also be open.
14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?
16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
17 Therefore “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.”
18 “I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
restricted (v.12) = kept in a tight place, press upon, cramp, restrain
affections (v.12) = the capacity to feel deep emotions, the seat of feelings
open (v.13) = enlarge, broaden, (of the growth of tenderness and love)
Our mouth stands open to you [we speak freely to you, we keep nothing back]. O Corinthians, our hear is broadened and enlarged [widened in its sympathy towards you]. You are not compressed nor narrowed down in us [you have ample space in our heart; we hold you within a great love], but you are compressed and narrowed down in your affections [you have tightened up in your affection for me]. Now, as a return in kind for my affections toward you, as to children I am speaking to you, you also be enlarged [make a large place in your heart for me]. — Wuest, page 425.
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“Let’s balance this thing out,” [Paul] says. I have a large place in my heart for you, especially under these circumstances. My heart is enlarged toward you; now let yours be enlarged toward me.
This was an appropriate exhortation, for the love between Paul and the Corinthians believers had not been mutual. In 2 Corinthians 12:15 he had to write: “I will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly I love you the less I be loved.” — Stam, page 155.
Belial (v.15) – Satan, lit. “the one who is utterly worthless because vile”
The quote in verse 16 is from Ezekiel 37:26-27: Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
The quote in verse 17 is probably a loose quotation from Isaiah 52:11: Depart! Depart! Go out from there, touch no unclean thing; Go out from the midst of her, be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord. With perhaps a line tagged on from Ezekiel 20:34: I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out.
The quote in verse 18 is another collection of citations: “I will be a Father. . . .” from 2 Samuel 7:14; “Sons and daughters” from Isaiah 43:6; “Saith the Lord Almighty” from the Greek of 2 Samuel 7:8
Note carefully: Verse 16 does not say “What agreement hath the temple of God with the temple of Satan?” It says, “What agreement hath the temple of God with idols?” You can’t consistently have a pagan idol in the temple of god. How can God share His temple—”which temple ye are”—with an idol?
If God could not endure the presence of idols in the land He gave to Israel, how can we expect Him to tolerate the presence of idols in the believer’s heart and mind? — Stam, page 157.
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Separation, Summary: (1) Separation in Scripture is twofold: (a) from whatever is contrary to the mind of God; and (b) unto God Himself. The underlying principle is that in a moral universe it is impossible for God fully to bless and use His children who are in compromise or complicity with evil. (2) Separation from evil implies (1) separation in desire, motive, and act, from the world, in the ethically bad sense of this present world system; and (b) separation from false teachers, who are described as being “vessels … to dishonor” (2 Timothy 2:20-21). (3) Separation is not from contact with evil in the world or the church, but from complicity with and conformity to it (verses 14-18; cp. John 17:15; Galatians 6:1). and (4) the reward of separation is the full manifestation of the divine fatherhood (verses 17-18); unhindered communion and worship (Hebrews 13:13-15), and fruitful service (2 Timothy 2:21), as world conformity involves the loss of these, though not of salvation. Here, as in all else, Christ is the model. He was “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” (Hebrews 7:26), and yet He was in such contact with them for their salvation that the Pharisees, who illustrate the mechanical and ascetic conception of separation, judged Him as having lost His Nazirite character (Luke 7:39). —Scofield, page 1257.
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