The Word Made Fresh
1We are coworkers with Christ, and we beg you not to accept God’s grace because you think you deserve it. 2Instead, God says, “At the proper time I have heard you, and helped you on a day of salvation.” Don’t you see? Now is the proper time! Now is the day of salvation!
3We’re not blocking anyone’s path. We want no faults to be found with our work. 4We are God’s servants, and we have proved ourselves in every way – in persistence, with afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger, 6through purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness, love, 7truth-telling, and the power of God, carrying the tools of righteousness in both hands, 8honored and dishonored, in good and bad reputations. We are treated as if we were fakes, but we have been honest. 9We have gone unrecognized even though we are well known. We have been at death’s door, but we are alive. We have been punished severely, but not to death. 10In sorrow we have rejoiced, in poverty we have made many rich, having nothing but possessing everything.
11We have spoken plainly to you Corinthians and our heart is opened wide to you. 12Your affection may be limited, but not ours. 13And I ask you as my children to open wide your hearts, too.
14Don’t join with unbelievers – there’s no partnership between righteousness and lawlessness, or between light and darkness. 15What can Christ and Belial possibly have in common? 16What does a believer and an unbeliever share? What does God’s temple have in common with idols? You are the temple of the living God! God has said,
“I will be with them and walk among them.
I will be their God and they will be my people.
17So, separate yourselves from them, says the Lord.
Don’t touch anything that is unclean.
Then I will welcome you 18as your father,
and you will be my children, says the Lord, the Almighty.”
Commentary
1-10: Paul uses Isaiah 49:8 as a springboard to an assurance of God’s saving grace. Now is the time, he says, to accept the grace of God, and he assures them God’s grace is not accepted in vain. He and Timothy have done everything in their power – both active (“purity, knowledge, patience, kindness,” etc.) and passive (“hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments,” etc.) – to remove every obstacle from anyone’s acceptance of Christ.
11-13: Yet he senses some resistance on their part, and entreats them to return the affection he and Timothy have for them.
14-18: Paul cautions them about associating with unbelievers, for they are as separate as night and day. “Belial” in verse 15 is the only occurrence of the name in the Bible. It is a Greek term that refers to the devil and means “worthless” or “wicked.” Believers have no more in common with unbelievers than Christ has with the devil, in other words. Believers are temples in which God resides (see 1 Corinthians 3:16), he says, and then he cobbles together several passages from the Old Testament (Leviticus 26:11-12, Ezekiel 37:27 among others) to illustrate the point.
Takeaway
Our lives take on new meaning when we dedicate ourselves to Christlike living. Such a life inspires others to want a closer relationship with the Lord. The more we follow Jesus, the less likely we are to fall into step with the devil.