Well, good morning again.
My name is Jeff.
I am one of the pastors here at Church of the Advent.
And if you're here this morning and it's your first time, I just want to say welcome.
We're so glad that you decided to join us.
We would love to connect with you.
During the announcements, there's going to be a QR code on the screen for you to scan.
It's also in the lobby on your way out.
We'd love for you to scan that, fill out a form, and connect with you.
And one of our pastors will follow up with you.
And we would love to just get coffee and hear your story and hear about what God is doing in your life.
If you would have walked the streets of Corinth in the first century, you would have noticed a number of things about this city.
You would have noticed that it was a very wealthy city.
That it was a center of commerce and trade, of banking and finance.
You would have noticed that it was a center of a lot of travelers and tourism.
Tourists who came to the city for the city's many festivals and athletic games, athletic events.
You would have noticed that it was a city full of vice and crime.
One of the things that Corinth was famous for was its flourishing industry of prostitution.
All of this led one scholar to conclude that Corinth was at once the New York, the Los Angeles, and the Las Vegas of the ancient world combined.
Another thing that you would have noticed about the city of Corinth, in addition to all this, is that it was a very religious city.
There were 26 shrines and temples scattered throughout the city to various gods and goddesses.
The most prominent of which stood atop the city's highest point on a large hill.
And it was the temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty and fertility.
And it's to people in this city that Paul writes this letter.
And in this section, he's writing to people who are living in a city of temples.
And to people living in a city of temples, he tells them, you're to be the one temple.
You're to be the one temple that stands apart all the rest.
We've been in a series in 2 Corinthians called Power and Weakness.
And we've been walking through that letter chapter by chapter.
And if you're just reading 2 Corinthians straight through, if you're reading it straight through all in one go,
when you get to this section in 2 Corinthians 6, it can feel like this abrupt left turn.
In Paul's thought and in the flow of his words.
We're in this section, as we had two weeks ago, where Paul is making this direct appeal to the Corinthian church.
Some people that he's had some conflict with in the past.
And he's seeking to ask them to accept his authority as an apostle.
And for them to receive the authenticity of his ministry.
But he's also asking them to open their hearts to him again in love.
He's seeking to restore his relationship with them.
And right in the middle of the section, he sort of makes this what feels like an abrupt left turn.
He goes right into this really strong exhortation about pursuing holiness.
About pursuing holiness.
And you're like, okay, Paul, like, I thought I knew where this was going.
But I didn't realize that this is where we were headed.
But we're here now.
So, okay.
But I didn't realize that this was where we were going.
And what may feel like an abrupt transition in the flow of this letter actually shows us something really important.
It shows us that Paul's main concern, although he cares about his relationship with the Corinthians,
his main concern isn't about hurt feelings.
His main concern is about seeing the gospel transform the Corinthian church.
And as the gospel transformed the Corinthian church, that it would transform the city in which they live.
Paul calls on people living in a city of temples to be the temple of the living God.
Because that is what they are.
And so we're going to look at two things this morning that Paul reminds us of.
We're going to see that we're called to live the story of the temple.
And we're called to draw sacred boundaries.
We're called to live the story of the temple.
And we're called to draw sacred boundaries.
Let's pray together.
Lord, thank you for your word.
Thank you that all of it is true.
It is given to us in love.
I pray that you would speak to us by your Holy Spirit through your word.
That we may know, love, follow, and worship you.
In Christ's name, amen.
So first, Paul shows us that we're to live the story of the temple.
The central image of the temple comes from verse 16, where Paul says,
for we are the temple of the living God.
And in many ways, the story of the Bible is the story of the temple.
That place where God reveals his glory and manifests his presence with his people.
Genesis 1 and 2 shows us that all of creation is God's temple.
His presence and glory fills the cosmos.
And the Garden of Eden is sort of this microcosm of creation, where human beings made in his image embody his presence and his rule to the rest of creation as kings and as priests.
And humanity's job description is not only to serve God and worship God in this garden temple, but to extend its borders.
To extend its borders by cultivating God's creation until the earth is filled with the glory of God.
Old Testament scholar T. Desmond Alexander says this.
He says,
And so what did they do?
How did they respond to this boundary?
Well, when I was in seminary, I had an Old Testament professor who would talk about Genesis 3.
And he would say that the way that Genesis 3 should read is that a serpent came into the garden.
A serpent came into the garden and split.
Adam killed the serpent.
That's how Genesis 3 should read.
That Adam protects the garden from the presence of evil.
But that's not what Genesis 3 says.
Instead, Adam and Eve listen to the serpent.
And they rebel against the sacred boundary that God had set.
And so God expels them from the garden.
He expels them from his prisons.
And he strips them of their status as kings and priests.
And the story of the Old Testament is a story of God coming to restore his glory and his presence to his fallen creation.
That glory and that presence that was lost in Eden.
And the echoes of Eden run throughout the Old Testament story.
We see the echoes of Eden all throughout the Old Testament.
In particular, we see these striking similarities between Eden and these places where God came to dwell with his people.
The tabernacle and the temple.
So in Genesis, we see that the Lord himself walks with Adam and Eve in the garden.
But Leviticus and Deuteronomy say the exact same thing about the tabernacle and the temple.
That the Lord comes and dwells and walks with his people.
We know that Genesis 3 says that Eden was...
The entrance to the east of Eden was guarded by angels, by cherubim.
The tabernacle and the temple are entered from the east.
And the altar is guarded by angels, by cherubim.
The lampstand, the menorah in the tabernacle is designed to look like what?
Like a tree.
Symbolizing the tree of life.
And so the tabernacle and the temple, the place of God's dwelling, are meant to point us back to the Garden of Eden.
They're meant to point us back to Genesis.
And the message that we're supposed to get is supposed to be loud and clear.
It's supposed to be loud and clear that the redemption and the salvation that God brings is always about the restoration of his purposes in creation.
That's what we're supposed to see throughout the Old Testament story.
And here in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, Paul is following the grain of the story.
He's following the grain of the story of the temple.
In three verses, he quotes and alludes to six or seven different Old Testament passages that are all about God's covenant relationship with his people through his temple.
In verse 16, he quotes Leviticus 26, which says,
I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people.
God dwelling among his people.
God walking among his people.
Those are echoes of Genesis.
They're echoes of Eden.
In verse 17, he quotes Isaiah 52, which says,
Therefore, go out from their midst and be separate from them and touch no unclean thing, and then I will welcome you.
And here God is speaking through Isaiah to people who are living in exile in Babylon,
and he's saying to them,
Even though you live in exile, you're still people of the temple.
And so don't worship the idols around you.
Don't worship the gods around you,
because one day I'm going to bring you out of exile,
and I'm going to once again make you my dwelling place.
Again, we should hear Genesis,
Eden,
temple,
these echoes.
And then in verse 18,
Paul does this thing where he actually brings together two different passages.
He brings together 2 Samuel 7 and Deuteronomy 32.
And he brings them together in this quotation that says,
I will be a father to you,
and you shall be sons and daughters to me.
And what this is,
is again,
it's a reference of God dwelling among his covenant people in intimate relationship.
God is a father who dwells with his people as a father dwells with his sons and daughters.
And all of these references here in 2 Corinthians 6 were meant to hear the story of the temple
that goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden in Genesis.
And Paul is saying that this story has reached its climax in you, the church.
In Jesus Christ, we don't just have a temple.
We are the temple of the living God.
Jesus is our great high priest and our atoning sacrifice.
He entered the temple of the Holy of Holies and tore the curtain
so that the presence of God, the glory of God,
might be poured out by the Holy Spirit to all people.
The temple of God is no longer brick and mortar,
but it is flesh and blood.
It is you.
It is your very bodies have become the temple of the living God.
And so we see this story unfold from garden to tabernacle to temple to exile to Jesus to the church
of God filling all creation with his glory
and then in love coming to save and redeem and dwell with people who had rejected that glory
and to restore them once again to their vocation as royal priests.
And it is this glorious truth.
It is this new covenant reality about the temple that motivates us to be holy people,
that motivates us to pursue holiness in our lives.
Holiness is its moral purity.
It's godly maturity.
Holiness is looking like God.
It's looking like Jesus.
That's what holiness is.
And in chapter 7, verse 1, Paul says,
Since we have these promises, beloved,
since we are inheritors of this story,
let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit,
bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
He's saying if we are in fact God's temple,
if we've been receivers and inheritors of these promises in this story,
then we should take holiness in our lives seriously.
If Old Testament believers had to be cleansed from sin in order to enter God's holy temple,
how much more should we pursue holiness in our lives now that we have become that temple in our bodies?
And it's important to see, though, that as we talk about pursuing holiness,
as Paul exhorts and commands the Corinthians here to pursue holiness in our lives,
it's important to see that in this verse,
Paul is rooting our pursuit of holiness.
He's rooting it in God's grace.
He says,
Since we have these promises, beloved,
since we have these promises,
he's talking about the assurance of all the promises that we have through faith in Christ.
And this says something really important
that I think we can sometimes miss
about the pursuit of holiness in our life.
And it's this,
that the pursuit of holiness
isn't about becoming somebody that we're not yet.
It's not about becoming somebody that we're not yet.
It's about becoming more and more of who we already are in Christ
as recipients of the gospel.
Pursuing holiness isn't about becoming more and more of something,
someone that we're not yet.
It's about becoming more and more of who we already are in Christ
by grace through faith.
And so this story of garden to temple,
to tabernacle to temple,
to Jesus,
frames and shows us
what Paul means when he says in verse 16
that in a city of temples,
we're to be the temple of the living God.
And it shows us why we should pursue holiness.
And it shows us
the particular way
that God,
that Paul is,
God through Paul,
is calling the Corinthians
to pursue holiness in their lives.
It shows us why,
it shows us one particular way
that we're actually meant to pursue holiness
in our lives.
And that is
that we're to draw sacred boundaries.
That we're to draw sacred boundaries
in our lives.
The central command here
in this section
is kind of a strange one,
to be honest.
In verse 14,
Paul says,
do not be unequally yoked
with unbelievers.
Now, what in the world does that mean?
Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers.
Well, a yoke
is a large piece of wood
that farmers would harness
to the backs
of two animals
who would drag a plow
through a field together
as they were plowing the field
for planting.
And this yoke,
this large beam of wood
harnessed to these two animals
would allow the animals
to work together productively.
It would allow them to
pull the plow together
in the same direction.
And in Deuteronomy 2,
there are some laws
about the agricultural life of Israel.
And there was a law that said
that you can't make an ox
and a donkey plow together.
You can yoke together two oxen.
You can yoke together two donkeys.
But don't yoke together
an ox and a donkey.
Why is that?
Well, because an ox
and a donkey
are fundamentally,
they're fundamentally
incompatible plowing partners.
They're fundamentally incompatible.
An ox is clearly bigger
and stronger than a donkey.
And so they won't
share the load equally.
And so if you harness them together,
it's going to be hard for them
to move in the same direction.
It's going to be hard for them
to move the plow.
And if you harness them together,
you also risk doing damage to the animals.
You risk hurting the animals.
The ox is going to be exhausted
from having to do all the work.
And the donkey is going to run the risk
of breaking a leg
while he tries to keep up.
And if that happens,
and your animals are hurt and exhausted,
then you can forget about plowing your field.
You can forget about planting your crops.
Instead, you need two animals
of the same kind
who can be yoked equally
and move the plow in the same direction
and share the load together.
And most likely,
Paul is using this image,
he's using this metaphor
to talk about
worship and fellowship
in the Corinthian temples.
And the 26 temples scattered around the city.
And he's warning them
against participating in idol worship,
participating in pagan practices
like the temple feasts
and things like prostitution.
He's warning them against
harnessing themselves
to all the various cults and religions
around the city.
And we see this
because of what follows
in verses 14 through 16.
In verses 14 through 16,
he asks several rhetorical questions
in a row.
And these five questions
are all making the same point.
He says,
for what partnership
has righteousness
with lawlessness?
What fellowship
has light
with darkness?
What accord
has Christ
with Belial?
Belial is this name
for Satan,
meaning worthless one?
What portion
does a believer share
with an unbeliever?
What agreement
has the temple of God
with idols?
And so,
why does Paul ask
this string of questions?
He asks them
to make one singular point,
which is,
all of these
are pointing to
a fundamental
spiritual incompatibility
between having communion
with Jesus
and having communion
with idols.
And so,
to be unequally yoked
is to be fundamentally
aligned
with somebody
or something
that is your
spiritual opposite.
To be unequally yoked
is to be fundamentally
aligned at your core
with somebody
or something
that's your spiritual
opposite.
There's something
at the center
of all of our lives
that is driving
the plow
of our decisions,
of our choices,
our habits,
our values.
It could be money.
It could be success.
It could be comfort.
It could be
even a good thing
like family.
But whatever it is,
that is what you're
harnessing
yourself to.
It's what you're
harnessing
the deepest places
of your soul to.
That is what you worship.
And Paul says,
don't be
harnessed together
with people
and things
that are
your spiritual
opposite.
Don't align yourself
with what is going
to do real damage
to your soul
and pull you away,
pull your heart away
from following Jesus.
Now,
here's what this
doesn't mean.
It's important
to see here's
what this doesn't mean.
This is not about
not having any
relationships
or associations
with people
who aren't Christians.
Of course,
it doesn't mean this.
We know this
from the rest
of Paul's writings.
In other places,
he assumes
that people have
relationships
with non-Christians.
And he always
encourages love
and friendship
and hospitality
in those relationships.
We also know this
just because of what
the rest of the Bible
teaches.
All throughout Scripture,
we see that we're called
to love our neighbors.
We're called
to be salt and light.
We're called
to love all people.
And that implies
relationship and friendship.
I mean,
if you look at the life
of Jesus,
I mean,
Jesus had more
non-Christian friends
than anybody.
He was known
for hanging out
with people
who weren't believers.
And so,
what this command
is about then,
what it is about
is creating
sacred boundaries
in your life
with people
and things
that are your
spiritual opposites.
Creating sacred
boundaries in your life
with people
and things
that are your
spiritual opposites.
So,
we're to love
our neighbors.
We're to love
our friends.
You're to share
your lives with them.
You're to share
your worldly goods
with them.
You're to invite
them to your dinner table.
You're to have
friendships
with all kinds
of people.
You're to share
everything
that you have
with them.
But don't worship
their idols.
Don't worship
their gods.
Don't be harnessed
into situations
where you're being
dragged away
into sin,
where you're being
pulled away
from following Jesus.
Instead,
we're to create
sacred boundaries.
You might say,
okay,
well,
what are some
examples of this?
What are some
examples of what
this looks like
practically?
I'm going to give
you three.
A lot of people,
actually,
when they read
this verse,
and you might have
been thinking this
when we read
the passage earlier,
a lot of people
think that this verse
is primarily
talking about marriage.
That's most often
how people quote
this passage.
But hopefully,
by seeing the context,
hopefully,
what you're able
to see is that
marriage is actually
not what this verse
is primarily about.
It's actually much
broader than that.
Again,
it's about anything
in your life
that you're aligning
yourself with
that is your
spiritual opposite.
Having said that,
marriage is one
particular potential
application of this
verse.
Because marriage,
let's be honest,
marriage is one of
the bigger harnesses
that you can get
into in life,
where you're
hitching yourself
to somebody else.
And you don't want
to marry someone
who's your
spiritual opposite.
You want to marry
someone who's
your spiritual partner,
someone who can
encourage you
to follow Jesus,
someone who can
pray with you
and for you,
someone who knows
how to speak
gospel truth
to the intricacies
of your personality.
At the same time,
we know that,
we know from Paul
in 1 Corinthians
that if you do
in fact find yourself
in a marriage
with an unbeliever,
we're actually
encouraged to
nevertheless stay
in that marriage.
In 1 Corinthians
chapter 7,
Paul talks about
how someone can
continue to be
a spiritual influence
on their spouse
and potentially even
lead them to faith
in Christ.
But still,
the ideal is to
marry someone
that you're
spiritual equals with,
that you're
spiritually compatible
with.
A more common
example for all
of us might be
something like
in the workplace,
perhaps a political
or a business
relationship.
Maybe at work,
you could be asked
to enter into
a contract
or an agreement,
a business dealing,
a financial agreement
that would clearly
compromise your identity
in Christ,
that would clearly
compromise your ethics
and your values
as a Christian.
And so,
in those kinds
of situations,
you may need to
draw a sacred
boundary and say,
this is antithetical
to my identity
in Christ.
Let's say,
hypothetically,
you were an employee
of the Washington
football team,
the Washington
commanders,
and hypothetically,
the owner of that team
asked you to create
two sets of financial
books.
One that it reported
to the NFL
and one that was
actually true
in order to commit
financial fraud
and pay executives
millions of dollars.
This is just a
hypothetical example.
But this would be
a good opportunity
for a sacred
boundary.
This would be
a situation
in which you
should probably
unhitch yourself
from.
another example
more common
to us would be
certain friendships
that we have.
Maybe there are
some friendships
where you have
to draw some
spiritual boundaries
because maybe
that friendship,
that relationship
is pulling you,
dragging you
away from following
Jesus and into sin.
And again,
I want to be clear,
all of us in this room
should have relationships
and friendships
with people
who don't know Jesus.
but our deepest
spiritual fellowship,
our deepest
spiritual communion
should be people
who are going
in the same direction
as us.
People who are
plowing the field
of discipleship
and who can carry
the load with us
and who can encourage
us as our spiritual
partners to follow
Jesus.
Those are the people
that we should be
in closest
spiritual fellowship
with.
Now,
I fully admit
that most situations
in which creating
these type of
boundaries would apply
are probably
way too complex
for a sermon.
I mean,
there's probably
some really
complicated,
difficult situations
in which this
should rise.
And so,
I think
it's important
to say that
these types of things,
these types of
boundaries are best
to serve not
individually and privately
but in community
with a wise
counsel of brothers
and sisters in Christ
who can speak
into that situation.
But also,
you know,
if you're here
this morning
and you're maybe
wrestling with a
situation or your
relationship and
you're wondering,
am I unequally
yoked in this
situation?
Here's a list
of maybe some
diagnostic questions
that could help
you discern
if you are.
So,
here's a list
of some
diagnostic questions.
Is this
situation,
is this
relationship
drawing me
to idolatry?
Drawing me
to worship
something other
than God?
Am I being
pulled
to center
my life
on something
other than
Jesus?
Am I being
led
to delight
in
what grieves
the heart
of God?
Am I being
influenced
to sin?
Are my
choices
or my
actions
or my
habits
drifting
away
from
my
pursuit
of
holiness?
Is this
situation,
is this
relation
causing
my
affections,
my desire
for Jesus
to wane?
And if you
can answer
yes to
two or three
of those
questions,
it could be
that you
may need
to create
a sacred
boundary
in your
life.
And to
sum all
this up,
Paul is
telling the
Corinthians,
he's saying
in the
city of
temples,
we are
to be
the temple
that is
set apart
and unique,
we're to be
the temple
of the
living God
and this
is something
that motivates
us to
pursue
holy lives.
A
pursuit
that is
rooted in
God's
grace,
that's rooted
in the
gospel,
that's rooted
in who
we are
in Christ,
but nonetheless
a pursuit
that calls
us to
draw sacred
boundaries
in our
lives.
Now that
might seem
like a
tall order
and that's
because it
is.
The pursuit
of holiness
is a
tall order
and that's
why to
pursue holiness
in this
way,
to create
these kinds
of boundaries,
you need
something
better,
you need
something
stronger,
you need
something
more
beautiful
and compelling
in your
life to
be yoked
to if
you're
going to
unhitch
yourself
from something
else.
You know,
one of the
passages that
Paul quotes
here is
from Leviticus
chapter 26
and he
quotes
verses 11
to 12.
Interestingly,
verse 13,
the very next
verse says,
I am the
Lord your
God who
brought you
out of the
land of
Egypt that
you should
not be
their slaves
and I
have broken
the bars
of your
yoke that
you should
walk upright.
The Lord
rescued Israel
from Egypt
from the
yoke of
slavery and
this would
be a
small picture
of what
Jesus Christ
would come
and do
for us
to break
us from
the yoke
of sin
and death.
If comfort
and security
and wealth
are driving
the plow
of your
life,
it's inevitably
going to crush
you.
It's inevitably
going to enslave
you because
idols,
see idols
can only
promise
but they
can't deliver.
Money and
success and
wealth are,
if that's what
you're harnessing
the center of
your life to,
if it's what's
driving the
plow,
it's going
to lead
you to
exhaustion
and it's
going to lead
you to real
spiritual damage
in your soul.
But to
people who
are weary,
to people who
are burdened,
to people who
are exhausted,
from harnessing
themselves to
idols,
from harnessing
themselves to
things like
comfort and
security and
wealth,
and the
heavy,
heavy yoke
that they
become.
Jesus says
these words
to us in
Matthew chapter
11.
He says,
come to me,
all you who
are weary
and burdened,
and I will
give you
rest.
Take my
yoke upon
you and
learn from
me, for I
am gentle
and humble
heart and
you will
find rest
for your
souls.
For my
yoke is
easy and
my burden
is light.
The glory
of Jesus
is that on
one hand,
he is our
total spiritual
opposite.
We're totally
incompatible with
him.
He's God,
he's holy,
he's righteous,
he's eternal.
He's our
total spiritual
opposite.
and yet,
at the same
time,
he's our
fully human
counterpart.
He knows
every single
burden that
you've faced
because he's
faced them
himself.
He's walked
the same roads
that you've
walked down,
he's plowed
the same fields
that you've
plowed,
and Jesus
is the one
person that
you can center
your life on.
He's the one
person that you
can align
yourself with.
He's the one
person that
you can harness
yourself to,
whose expectations
of you feel
light as a
feather,
whose commands
are restful
and life-giving
and joyful,
who when you
stumble and fall
again and
again,
is gentle
and lowly
in heart.
He's patient,
he's compassionate,
he's kind,
he's loving.
And when
Jesus carried
the heavy
yoke
of the wooden
cross,
when he carried
the heavy
yoke of the
cross,
no one else
carried it with
him.
He carried it,
he did it all
by himself,
and he did it
all for you
so that you
could believe
him,
so that you
could trust
him.
When he
says to
you,
my yoke
is easy,
my burden
is light,
come to me
all you who
are weary
and burdened
and I
will give
you rest.
And when
you see
that,
when you
see Jesus
as the one
who has
carried the
yoke of
the cross
for you,
you can
look at
all the
situations,
you can
look at
all the
relationships
in your
life,
and all
of their
complexity,
and all
of their
messiness,
and all
of their
difficulty,
and you
can look
at those
situations
and say,
maybe it's
time to
unhitch,
maybe it's
time to
unharness
myself,
so I can
pursue the
holy life
that God's
called me
to live,
that I might
know and
worship and
follow and
be in
relationship
with Jesus.
let's
pray.
Lord,
thank you
for your
word.
Thank you
that you
have made
us into
temples of
your presence,
our bodies,
our places
where you
dwell.
Lord,
I pray
that you
would help
us to see
the areas
of our
lives,
Lord,
where we
need to
pursue
holiness,
maybe where
we need
to draw
some
boundaries
in our
lives.
Thank you,
Jesus,
that you
have carried
the ultimate
yoke for
us.
You have
carried the
ultimate
burden for
us by
taking the
weight of
the cross
on yourself.
And it's in
your name we
pray.
Amen.