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Pathways Through Paul
Daily Devotional
November 19
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Today's Pathway:
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We concluded yesterday's Pathway by seeing that Paul told his readers that they needed to stop being yoked together with unbelievers. Beginning in the second half of verse 14 Paul raises several rhetorical questions designed to make the Corinthians realize how sinful and foolish their worldly associations were. He opens with the question that is the real issue for the Corinthian church members: what fellowship is there between righteousness and unrighteousness? Obviously, yoking someone who is righteous to someone who is unrighteous can never possibly work out, because the two people are of different spiritual species. They are going in two opposite directions. In order for there to be any unity between these two, one of these people is going to have to change, and the vast majority of the time it is going to be the believer. While there is always the possibility that the righteous could influence the unrighteous, this is clearly not God's program, or else He would not have commanded the believers to abstain from it! Christ sets the example in this. In Hebrews 1:9 this is said of Jesus,
"Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity".
The Greek word translated "iniquity" is the same word that is translated "unrighteousness" in our text, and literally means "no law". If Jesus hated lawlessness and loved righteousness, should not those who claim Him as their Lord do the same?
He then asks, What fellowship can light have with darkness? The answer again is obvious - NONE. Darkness is the absence of light, and when the lights are turned on the darkness vanishes. The two things are completely incompatible, and can not possibly coexist. Yet many Christians, who are supposed to be the "light of the world" (Matthew 5:14) are comrades with those who have chosen to reject Jesus because they love the darkness (John 3:19). Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:11,
"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them."
Unfortunately, this edict has been abandoned by many churches as well. Rather than shine the light of the Gospel into a darkened world, they have brought the darkness of the world's system into the church in an alleged attempt to win the lost. The world's music, vocabulary, priorities, and philosophy now exist in many churches, and the end result has not been the spiritual enlightenment of a sin-darkened world, but rather the dimming of the Gospel light by putting it under the bushel (Mathew 5:15) of compromise.
Paul continues in verse 15 by asking if there can be any "concord" between Christ and Belial. The Greek word translated "concord" is the word from which we get our English word "symphony". A symphony plays in harmony, and the sound it makes is beautiful. Does Jesus make beautiful music with the Devil? The holiness and purity of Christ cannot possibly harmonize with the wickedness and impurity of Belial! The word "belial" means "worthless". Can the One Whom the angels call "Worthy" (Revelation 5:12) possibly be linked with the one who is called "worthless"? Impossible! Then Paul applies it back to the Corinthians by asking if believers and infidels can participate ("part") with each other. Since Jesus and Satan can have no harmony together, certainly those who believe in Jesus and therefore are the sons of God (John 1:2) can not participate together with those who do not believe and are therefore of their father the Devil (John 8:44).
Finally, in verse 16, Paul asks if there can be agreement between God's temple and idols. Once again, the answer must be "No". It would be blasphemous to put a statue of Dagon, or Diana, or Baal in the house of God. We know that in times of apostasy Israel did things like that (II Kings 21:7, Jeremiah 32:34), and we know that the antichrist will establish himself as god in the temple during the Tribulation period (II Thessalonians 2:4). However, in the Old Testament, when revival came the false gods were cast out (II Kings 23:4-6), and at the end of the Tribulation when Jesus returns the antichrist will be cast out (Revelation 19:20). There can be no agreement between God's house and idols, and no yoking between believers and unbelievers.
We will continue this study again tomorrow.
Pastor Mark J Montgomery
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