Bible Commentaries

SECTION 9. — PAUL BEGS THAT HIS LOVE TO THE CORINTHIANS BE RETURNED: AND EXHORTS THEM TO SEPARATE THEMSELVES FROM ALL DEFILEMENT. CH. 6:11-7:1.

Our mouth is opened to you, Corinthians; our heart is enlarged. You are not narrowed in us: but you are narrowed in your hearts. The same recompense-as to children I say it, be you also enlarged.

Do not become differently yoked to unbelievers. For what partnership is there for righteousness and lawlessness? Or, what fellowship for light with darkness? And what concord of Christ with Beliar? Or, what portion for a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement for God’s temple with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, according as God said, “I will dwell among them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people.” (Leviticus 26:11.) For which cause “Come forth out of the midst of them and be separated,” says the Lord, “and touch not an unclean thing” (Isaiah 52:11). And I will receive you and will be to you for a father and you shall be to me for sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. These promises then having, Beloved ones, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and of spirit, accomplishing holiness in the fear of God.

After completing his long exposition of his apostolic work, its credentials, grandeur, encouragements, and motives, by a graphic picture of the circumstances in which he performs it, Paul turns suddenly to his readers and addresses to them a tender (2 Corinthians 6:11-13) and solemn (2 Corinthians 6:14 to 2 Corinthians 7:1) appeal.

2 Corinthians 6:11-13. Our mouth: of Paul and Timothy, writers of the Epistle.

Is opened: Ezekiel 33:22; Matthew 13:35; Acts 18:14; Ephesians 6:19, etc.: more graphic than “we have begun to speak to you.” It is Paul’s contemplation of his own bold words. Cp. Genesis 18:27.

Corinthians: a loving appeal, like Philippians 4:15. The heart is enlarged when its thoughts, emotions, purposes, increase in depth and breadth and height. Cp. Psalms 119:32; Isaiah 60:5. Paul refers evidently to his great love for his readers. While speaking to them he has become conscious of its intensity.

Narrowed: cognate to the word I have rendered “helplessness” in 2 Corinthians 4:8; 2 Corinthians 6:4; 2 Corinthians 12:10; Romans 2:9; Romans 8:35; and used here in its simple sense of being shut up in narrow space. From this is easily derived its frequent sense of being in extreme difficulty and almost without way of escape. It is the exact opposite of enlargement. No narrow place in the hearts (2 Corinthians 7:3; Philippians 1:7) of Paul and Timothy do the Corinthians occupy.

But you are narrowed etc.: sad and earnest rebuke. The word rendered in the A.V. “bowels,” in the R.V. “affections,” denotes, not specially the lower viscera, but (cp. Acts 1:18) the inward parts generally, heart lungs, etc. It is used for the seat of the emotions, and in the Bible especially for love and compassion. Cp. 2 Corinthians 7:15; Luke 1:78; Philippians 1:8. We have no better English rendering than heart. The Corinthians were thrust into a narrow place, not in Paul’s affection for them which was deep and broad, but in their own affection for him. They were narrow-hearted. For littleness of love towards those who deserve our love is a mark of a defective nature. Paul asks for the same affection, as a recompense for his affection towards them.

As to children: 2 Corinthians 12:14; 1 Corinthians 4:14; 1 Thessalonians 2:7.

Be you also enlarged: make a large place for me in your hearts, and thus yourselves become nobler.

As Paul speaks to his readers, he feels how great is his love to them. Not in this do they fall short; but in their own affection to him. He asks therefore as a recompense, speaking to his own children in Christ, that they will cherish for him a love like his for them, and thus themselves be ennobled.

2 Corinthians 6:14 to 2 Corinthians 7:1. Do not become: milder than “be not,” as suggesting that they are not yet joined to unbelievers. Cp. 1 Corinthians 7:23.

Differently-yoked to unbelievers: like an ass joined to an ox by being put under its yoke. It recalls the prohibition of Deuteronomy 22:10. The suddenness of this warning, and the earnest questions and quotations supporting it, prove that Paul had in view real defect or danger at Corinth. And the question of 2 Corinthians 6:16, following a question equivalent to this warning, proves that Paul refers here specially to participation in idol rites; as in 1 Corinthians 10:14 ff, where we have similar words. And this agrees with the worldly spirit betrayed in 1 Corinthians 3:3; 1 Corinthians 6:1; 1 Corinthians 8:10. But his words simply forbid such alliances with unbelievers as imply common aims and sympathies. There is no hint that Paul refers here specially to marriage. But this most intimate of all human alliances is certainly included in his prohibition. Those already married to heathens, Paul deals with in 1 Corinthians 7:12, as a special case: and he does not forbid (1 Corinthians 5:10) all intercourse with bad men. The practical application of his words must be left to each man’s own spiritual discernment.

2 Corinthians 6:14-15. Two pairs of questions, suggesting an argument in support of the foregoing warning.

Righteousness, lawlessness: practical conformity to the Law and practical disregard of it. Same contrast in Romans 6:19. The former is a designed consequence of the righteousness reckoned to all who believe, and a condition of retaining it.

Light, darkness: Acts 26:18; Colossians 1:12 f; Ephesians 5:8 ff; 1 Peter 2:9.

Light: a necessary condition of physical sight, and of spiritual insight.

Darkness: causes ignorance of our surroundings, physical or spiritual. Cp. 1 John 2:8 ff. This second contrast makes us feel the force of the first. All who keep the Law are in the light; all who disregard it, in the dark. And these cannot go together.

Beliar: evidently a name of Satan, the great opponent of Christ. Same word probably as “Belial,” 1 Samuel 1:16; 1 Samuel 2:12, etc., a Hebrew word denoting apparently “No-good.” From the abstract contrast of light and darkness Paul rises to the personal contrast of the Sun of righteousness and the Prince of darkness. Same argument in Matthew 6:24. The 4th question brings questions 1, 2, and 3, of which no. 3 is a climax, to bear directly on the matter in hand. If conformity to the Law and disregard of it are as incompatible as light and darkness, and as utterly opposed as Christ and Satan, what in common can there be to one who by faith accepts Christ and one who tramples His word under foot? This conclusion comes to us with sudden force, because it is put in the same form as the argument from which it is drawn. The inference is treated as itself the climax of the argument.

Unbeliever; denotes here one who rejects the Gospel: for his supposed alliance with a believer implies that he has heard of it.

2 Corinthians 6:16. Reveals the special reference of the general warning of 2 Corinthians 6:14; which, after being supported by questions 1, 2, and 3, has just been repeated in question 4. From the general matter of “unbelievers” Paul comes now to the specific matter of idolatry. Against this he warned the Corinthian Christians in 1 Corinthians 10:14 ff, by referring to the Lord’s Supper: he warns them now by the great truth that believers are the temple of God. Similar argument with other purposes in 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19. See notes. The word we puts Paul among those he warns. They share with him this great dignity; and he with them the duty it involves.

Living God: in contrast to lifeless idols, as in 1 Thessalonians 1:9. See under 2 Corinthians 3:3. The words temple of God bring before us the inviolable sanctity of the Old Testament sanctuary, which was strictly separated from whatever was not sanctified. This absolute separation every Jew was eager to defend, even at the cost of life. Paul now says that his readers are themselves the sanctuary of Him who dwelt of old in the Tabernacle. And, that they may feel the force of this reference, he supports it by a free quotation giving the exact sense and scope, and in part the words, of God’s solemn summing up, in Leviticus 26:11 of the blessings of the Mosaic Covenant. Notice especially Leviticus 26:1. With God’s words to Israel, the words of Paul to the Corinthians accord.

I will dwell among them; implies that the essential idea of a temple is, the Dwelling-Place of God. That God might dwell in the midst of Israel, i.e. in order that day by day He might reveal Himself among them, He bade them erect the Tabernacle. Cp. Exodus 29:44-46. He was thus fulfilling His ancient promise (Genesis 17:7 f) to stand in special relation to Abraham’s children as their God. Notice carefully that Paul assumes that the ancient promise, fulfilled in outward and symbolic form in the ritual of the Tabernacle, is valid now; and assures believers of the inward and spiritual presence of God in themselves. For the entire ritual was an outward symbol of the spiritual realities of the better covenant.

2 Corinthians 6:17-18. For which cause: Paul’s own words, introducing a quotation from Isaiah 52:11, as an appropriate practical application of the truth asserted in the foregoing quotation. He gives the sense, and in part the words, of Isaiah.

From the midst of them: of the heathens. Isaiah says “from the midst of her,” i.e. of Babylon, the place of bondage to idolaters.

Be separated; i.e. from idolaters: LXX. rendering for “be cleansed.” In prophetic vision Isaiah beholds the sacred vessels given back (by Cyrus, Ezra 1:7) to Israel; and bids the Levites lay aside the ceremonial defilement of Babylon and fit themselves to bear the vessels back to Jerusalem.

Touch not an unclean thing: Isaiah’s warning to the returning exiles not to take with them anything belonging to the idols of Babylon; repeated by Paul to those who had escaped from the idolatry of Corinth. An appropriate quotation: for all idolatry is bondage.

And I will receive you: not found in Isaiah. But the sense, viz. that those whom God leads out of the land of bondage He will Himself receive to be His own, is frequent in the Old Testament. Cp. Ezekiel 11:17-21 : “And I will receive them from the nations… and I will give them to the Land of Israel.”

And I will be to you: not found word for word in the Old Testament, but reproducing the sense of many passages. It may have been suggested by 2 Samuel 7:8; 2 Samuel 7:14, “These things says the Lord Almighty, (LXX.,)… I will be to him for a Father, and he shall be to me for a son”; Jeremiah 31:9. “I have become a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn”;

Isaiah 43:6, “Bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth.” The last two passages refer specially to return from captivity. The words sons and daughters in Isaiah 43:6 point specially to the equality of the sexes in the family of God: cp. Galatians 3:28.

Almighty: and therefore able to perform His promises. Cp. Genesis 17:1.

2 Corinthians 6:1. Practical application of these quotations, in harmony with 2 Corinthians 7:14 a and 2 Corinthians 7:16 a. Notice carefully that God’s words to Israel in the wilderness and through Isaiah are promises now possessed by Christian believers. For God acts always on the same principles: and therefore His words to one man are valid for all in similar circumstances. Moreover, the Mosaic ritual and the Old Testament history are symbolic of the Christian life. God’s visible presence in the midst of Israel was an outward pattern of His spiritual presence in the hearts of Christians: and the obligations which His presence laid upon Israel were a pattern of those resting upon His people now. And when, through the pen of Isaiah, God called the exiles returning from the dominion of idolaters His sons and daughters, He taught plainly that in days to come He would receive as such those whom He rescued from sin. Indeed, the universality, to believers, of the favor of God in gospel days makes His promise to David a promise of adoption for all believers.

Let us cleanse ourselves; (cp. 1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 3:3;) refers probably to abstinence from the outward corruptions of idolatry. It is justified by the truth that deliverance from sin, although it is God’s work in us, is yet obtained by our own moral effort and our own faith. It therefore depends upon ourselves whether we are made clean. [The aorist subjunctive exhorts us, not to a gradual and progressive, but to a completed, cleansing from all defilement. So Ephesians 4:22; Ephesians 4:25; Colossians 3:5; Colossians 3:8; 1 John 1:9.] Our flesh is defiled when our hands and feet and bodies do the bidding of sin; our spirit, when we contemplate sin with pleasure. Flesh rather than “body,” because the defilement comes from desires belonging not so much to each individual organized body as to the common material and nature of all living bodies. Even the spirit, that part of us which is nearest to God, is capable of defilement. Cp. 1 Corinthians 8:7; Titus 1:15. Perhaps Paul had in view the sensuality always and specially at Corinth, connected with idolatry. He warns his readers, not only against all actual contact with sensuality, but also against that consent of the spirit which often defiles the inner life even when there is no outward sin.

Accomplish: to perform a purpose, or complete something begun. Same word, 2 Corinthians 8:6; 2 Corinthians 8:11; Romans 15:28; Galatians 3:3; Philippians 1:6; Hebrews 8:5; Hebrews 9:6; 1 Peter 5:9.

Holiness; brings to bear on the foregoing exhortation the teaching in 2 Corinthians 6:16 that we are the temple of God. Cp. 1 Corinthians 3:17.

Accomplishing holiness: not identical with cleanse yourselves; or it would be needless. It denotes everything involved in being “the temple of God”; viz. absolute reservation for God alone. See note under Romans 1:7. For God claimed that none set foot in the temple except to do His work. Now this devotion to God implies cleansing from all sin. For all sin is opposed to God. Therefore, that God has given us the honor of being his temple and has promised to receive us as His children, is a strong motive for cleansing and consecrating ourselves. For only thus can we be His temple.

In the fear of God: cp. Ephesians 5:21. It brings before us the dread presence and power of Him who slew Nadab and Abihu, and the company of Korah: Leviticus 10:2; Numbers 16. Cp. “Living God” in 2 Corinthians 6:16. All contact with impurity is in us a defilement of the temple of God and an insult to the majesty of Him who dwells therein. Therefore fear as well as hope should prompt us to abstain from all sin.

The argument of this verse is akin to that of Leviticus 11:43 ff; Leviticus 20:1 ff, Leviticus 20:25 ff. God has promised to dwell in our midst. And, since He can tolerate no rival, His presence in us requires absolute devotion to Him: and this involves separation from whatever, in symbol or reality, is opposed to Him. Therefore, that God has promised to dwell in us as His temple and receive us as His children, ought to move us to turn from all sin and to claim by faith that complete purity (cp. Romans 6:11) which He is ready to work in us. This reference to the Old Testament also teaches that the service of Christ is quite incompatible with that of Satan; and that therefore there is no true harmony between believers and unbelievers.

Paul’s appeal in 2 Corinthians 7:11-13 was prompted naturally by his foregoing defence of his apostolic work, which was really throughout an appeal to his readers. But the reason of the sudden transition in 2 Corinthians 7:14 is not so evident. It may be that he knew that the disaffection towards himself of some at Corinth arose from their tolerance in some measure of the corruptions of idolatry. Or, the warning may have been prompted simply by the greatness of the peril. Certainly, of the exhortation in 2 Corinthians 6:1 this is a practical application.