2 Corinthians 6:11-7:12

2 Corinthians 6:11-7:12

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Be Holy

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.”

1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

The Corinthians’ Repentance

2 Open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have cheated no one. 3 I do not say this to condemn; for I have said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. 4 Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation.

5 For indeed, when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were fears. 6 Nevertheless God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, 7 and not only by his coming, but also by the consolation with which he was comforted in you, when he told us of your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more.

8 For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. 9 Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. 10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. 11 For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. 12 Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you.

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), 2 Co 6:11-7:12

• Transcript

  Hey, good morning friends. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions. So good to have you this morning. Let's go ahead and do that drop down group. Let's go ahead and make sure everybody is able to join us online this morning. Let's make sure everybody is able to join us live online. We're at Second Corinthians chapter six, beginning of verse 11. Let's make sure everybody is able to join us for coffee and devotions. live there. Okay, wonderful. I think we're ready to go. Well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions is where every day you and I get together. We have a little bit of coffee we get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together in this year 2022. Lord willing, we'll make it from the book of Acts the book of fine Lehman. Were at Second Corinthians chapter six, beginning at verse 11. And we'll go all the way through verse, chapter seven, verse 12. It's all connecting, don't worry, let's have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll work through God's Word together. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for Your Word. We thank You for Your Holy Spirit. And we thank you, that you care for us, that you teach us and that you love us. Father, we pray that you would work in our hearts this morning that we might read, understand and know your word that we might follow after you in Jesus's name. Amen. Well, one of you asked me the other day, you said did you ever find your glasses and I went up to the pulpit the other day? And I was like, Oh, what's that in my in my Sukkot pocket and I found my glasses. They were hiding in one of my suit coat pockets. So I was surprised I normally don't put them there. All right, here we go. First, Second Corinthians chapter six, beginning at verse 11. Oh, Corinthian Corinthians. We have spoken openly to you. Our heart is open. You are not restricted by us but you are restricted by your own affections. Now in return for the same I speak as to children, you also be open. Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Bilaal? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever and what agreement has a temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God, as God has said, I dwell in them and walk among them, I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord, do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you, I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Therefore having these promises, Beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Open your hearts to us. We have wrong no one. We have corrupted no one. We have cheated no one. I do not say this to condemn, for I have said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great as my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful. In all our tribulations. For indeed, we came to Macedonia. Our bodies had no rest. But we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts. Inside were fears. Nevertheless, God who comforts a downcast comforted us by the calming of Titus, and not only by his coming, but also by the constellation with which he was comforted in you. When he told us of your earnest desire, your morning your zeal for me, so I rejoiced even more. For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though, only for a little while now I rejoice not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us and nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to regret but the sorrow of the world produces death, for observe this very thing that you sorrowed in a godly manner, what diligence it produced in you what cleaning, clearing of yourselves, what indignation What fear what vehement desire what zeal, what vindication, and all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong nor for the sake of him who suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you well, we need to ask ourselves, a What is this about? Be what's the best verses summarize this and see, what are we called to do in response to this? So what is this about? Remember, Paul has talked about his ministry to them in verses one through 10 he had talked to them about pleading with them that the day of salvation was near and that they that they needed to come to Jesus Christ and how he's reminding them that they're not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers or not to be tied together with people who are not of the faith, right, but to come out from amongst those who are in the darkness. And he uses a hodgepodge of mishmash of putting together a whole bunch of different passages here. I mean, he quotes Leviticus 2612 Jeremiah 3828. Ezekiel 3727, Isaiah 5211, Ezekiel 2030, and 4034 and 41. And second Samuel 714. I mean, he's taking all these passages to drive home this one point, that they are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers that they are to be in the world but not of the world. They are to be holy, and they're to be joined with people who are followers of Christ. And so, he says, Therefore, this is the, the implication the conclusion, the summary of this point, verse one, therefore, having these promises Beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, right. The desire is for holiness, that is Pastor Paul's heart for them. He wants them to be holy as their father as holy. He wants them to abide in Christ and to bear much fruit and repentance and holiness, as well. He said, I opened my heart to you, right? We We widened our hearts to you. So don't close them off to us. Right don't don't go chasing affections and going towards the world. But we preach to you the gospel. We brought to you Jesus. Christ. Don't harden your hearts to us now. Don't shut yourselves off now. But keep striving for holiness. And so he says in verse to open your hearts to us. We have wrong no one we have corrupted known we have cheated No one says you know my ministry to you I wasn't about peddling the gospel. I wasn't about cheating you out. I wasn't about trying to hurt you. And I haven't been about any of that even today. See how this is a personal defense of his ministry. And he tells them for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together. And to live together. Right Paul didn't take a sin from them. But but every day was teaching them every day was caring for them every day was loving them. Says I would die for you and I would live for you. I worked my my tail off making tents. I lived in front of you. I lived with you and I would have died for you. You remember what it was like in Macedonia? Right? We were we were persecuted every everywhere. Now I want to point this out right? This is one of these these few times that we actually get a window into the soul of an apostle into how they were feeling and thinking about things. Look with me at this right. I am filled with comfort I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation for in deed when we came to Macedonia. Our bodies had no rest. But we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts inside were fierce. We often think of Paul and we think of him as you know this giant this titan of the face going out without any fear bold as a lion. And then we find out that all around him there's tribulations and trials fear is inside of him. Isn't that interesting? Even the apostle was afraid, feared for his life, feared for others. Fear was inside him. But God didn't leave him there. Nevertheless, God who comforts a downcast verse six comforted us by the coming of Titus and he comforted them with the word that the people in Corinth still loved Paul. So he goes from there. And he talks to them in that last paragraph verses eight through 12 about the letter he wrote to them I'm convinced that this is first Corinthians as hard letter that he had to write to them. And this is again talking about the apostles heart, Pastor Paul's heart towards the people there. He wrote to them a heart letter and he doesn't regret having written that letter. But he did regret it at the time, right. He didn't want to write that type of letter. If you ever talk to an elder or pastor and they're like, oh, yeah, I really want to exercise church discipline. That's not that's probably not a an elder that you might want to be sitting under. Right? Church This is plan is something done in love with slowness, with prayerfulness with a heart towards the people. And he says, No, I don't regret sending the letter. No, but I regret that I had this and that. But I'm thankful. Right Paul? Paul finds out that the people in Corinth listened. He was showing them love desiring them to to repent of the sins that he was pointing out amongst them. And even though now they were questioning, right, this could be a side effect. Sometimes the messenger gets the bad rap but but at least they've repented. They've turned and this is a huge encouragement to Paul. He says verse nine. Now I rejoice. Not that you were made sorry, right? He's not trying to hurt them. But that your sorrow led to repentance. For you are made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us and nothing for godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted. But the sorrow of the world produces death is thankful to the Lord because even though it made them sorrow, it was a godly sorrow. That's the type of sorrow that doesn't have any hope doesn't it's not like this feud. Feudalism it's not just as dead you know, just gonna make you sore because I want to hurt you. But it's to see what's wrong. It's sometimes it's good for the Holy Spirit to afflict our souls that we might see our sin and repent and turn to life. What's the best verse to summarize all this? I get a whole bunch of underlined you're gonna have to help me out here. Right I have. I had underline verse 13. And underline verse 14. I don't underline verse one, I'd underline verse eight. I have verse nine, double underline and verse 10. underlined. I don't know, I just start underlining stuff that I think is really like, catching, but maybe you would be able to help me out here. If you had to just underline one or two verses what would you underline in your Bible? Well, last see calling. What are we called to do in our lives? How does this point us to Christ? How does this apply to us? Do you have affections? Do you desire the things of God is really tough. Because we're in the world that God tells us to come out of it. He tells us to be in the world but not of the world. What do you think about what's your prayer life like? How do you interact with people around you? is a really tough thing. Because you go to work. You leave your home and you're around your friends, you're around your co workers. You're around your unbelieving family. Sometimes, if we're honest with ourselves, we're just afraid. We're afraid of what it looks like to be a social outcast. or afraid of what it might look like to put the world to the side we're afraid of the social, financial, real life implications of telling the world No, I can't be like that. I can't go there. I can't do those things. I can't laugh at those jokes that can't watch those movies. I know I can. I love God. My affections have to be for the Lord. Do you go to him? Do you follow Him? When you're confronted with sin do you question your heart right when people this is tough for me, right i i really enjoy it. When people in the church point out sins in my life. Every night before we go to bed. I asked Olivia How did I hurt your feelings today? And I have to deal with how I didn't love her and the children. Well, this is a tough thing but it's a Holy Spirit provoking your heart toward holiness. Are you afflicted to sorrow that you might turn from sin and turn unto Christ? Do you desire holiness? Let's go ahead and pray. Father, we thank you so much that you don't, don't hide hard things from us. But you tell us what it means to follow you as a disciple. Lord, we pray that we might not close off our hearts toward you towards the elders or other brothers and sisters who might tell us hard things. That would make us sorrowful but that Your Holy Spirit would provoke us to holiness, to righteousness to be more and more like Christ. Father, please work in us your people. Make us more like you please teach us what it means to be in the world but not of the world. Please learn let our affections be for Jesus Christ and a walk in his ways in Jesus's name. Amen. Well, may the Holy Spirit be working in you toward holiness and through you and loving God and others and I'll see you tomorrow. Bye. Transcribed by https://otter.ai