2 Corinthians 6:17

2 Corinthians 6:17. Wherefore, come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch no unclean thing. We have here another quotation, from Isaiah 52:11, in which Israel is prophetically summoned to shake off the defilement they contracted by their long residence among the idolaters of Babylon, by finally quitting it;

and I will receive you a reminiscence from Ezekiel 20:34, as rendered in the LXX.,

and will be to you a Father, and ye shall be to me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. This is a free combination of various passages in the Old Testament such as Jeremiah 31:9; Isaiah 43:6; and as the word “Almighty” occurs nowhere in the Old Testament save in the LXX. of 2 Samuel 7:8, it is possible that 2 Corinthians 6:14 of that chapter may have come under the apostle's eye while writing (or dictating) this sentence. The spirit of these concluding words may be thus expressed: ‘Hard duty this (ye will say) in such a case as ours; for if we are to “come out from among” all unbelievers, all idolaters, all the unclean, we shall have to come out from all our nearest and dearest relatives, even fathers and mothers.' ‘Perhaps so (replies the apostle), but even then ye will find One who will be to you what all the parents in the world cannot be, and ye will be to Him sons and daughters in a sense unutterable and eternally enduring.' (Compare Psalms 27:10.) And here there seems, too, a touching reminiscence of our Lord's own words to Peter when he said, “Lo, we have left all and have followed Thee:” “Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or hinds for my sake and for the Gospel's sake, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brethren, and sisters and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life” (Mark 10:28-30), and our Lord Himself was the first to exemplify, in His own case, this re-construction of all the relationships and affections of life, on the basis of a deeper and more enduring tie, after they have been sacrificed in their natural form on the altar of lofty principle (see Matthew 12:46-50).

Note. Though “unequal yoking” here seems to have no special reference to marriages of this character, yet, as a fact, greater and more varied evils, from the very earliest period and in every age, have sprung from this cause than can well be described. It was the immediate cause of that frightful wickedness that brought the flood upon the old world (Genesis 6:1-7). Against this snare the Israelites were repeatedly warned in view of their entrance into the Promised Land (Exodus 34:16; Deuteronomy 7:3-4, etc.). Into this pit Samson fell to his cost (Judges 14:3); and Solomon (1 Kings 11:1-10); and on account of the extent to which marriage with strange wives had been carried during the captivity, Ezra ordered a national humiliation, which was followed by a formal undoing of the unlawful connexion (Ezra 9:10). Of course, by how much the Christian calling is higher, and the consecration it implies more sacred, than that which preceded it, the more glaring is the inconsistency, and the greater the loss incurred. The result on a principle obvious enough is, not that the “righteousness” of the one party dissolves the “unrighteousness” of the other, but that the lower drags down the higher (see 1 Corinthians 15:33).