In the workbook for the session 4 study, Kelly goes through chapter 5. She begins the DVD study starting with chapter 6 verse 14.
"Fix on the unseen - eternal, not the temporary" was how Kelly started out session 4.
Because we are in this new covenant, Paul tells the Corinthian church to not be yoked to this world with unbelievers. Don't be teamed up or mis-matched with an unbeliever.
What Yoke Does Mean
The definition of "yoke" is: teamed together, going in the same direction. If you're not yoked together correctly or compatibly, you will be going in two different directions, two different mindsets.
This causes:
- Striving
- Fighting and tugging to go in a certain direction
What Yoke Does Not Mean
Look at 1 Corinthians 5:9-10:
- It does't mean to stop relating to the sinner. If so, we'll just need to leave the world. It does mean: relationship ties that compromise what God wants to do in our lives.
- It doesn't mean we don't have friendships with unbelievers.
What it does mean is that our values will be markedly different from the culture.
"We don't want to be tied in such a way where another person's direction in life holds power over God's calling in our life" - Kelly Minter
Think About This
Are we yoked to a person (not a marriage partner Kelly emphasized) whose direction is completely different than our direction in life? Where are we unequally yoked?
Three Promises
Sometimes this verse (v. 14) can appear to be so negative. It's not a negative at all. Paul looks back to the OT and gives us three promises that God has given to us.
Look at 2 Corinthians 7:1 where it says "dear friends.....since we have these promises"....
God will dwell with us. Here in 2 Corinthians 6:16b Paul quotes Levitcus 26:11-13. The context: the Israelites have just come out of Egypt - the land of slavery and bondage. The Lord had brought them out and said these words to them (v.11-13)
He's making a dwelling place among the Israelites because He delivered them, brought them out, so they were no longer slaves.
Now we are the temple where God dwells. He broke the bars of our yoke. Why would we want to re-yoke ourselves to bondage? The reason we do is because of what the Israelites did or said "you know Egypt wasn't so bad."
Remember always the cost of Christ to break that yoke.
God will receive us. Look at 2 Corinthians 6:17. It sounds conditional, but it's indicative - it's what is true. As a result of that truth, we now have an imperative - a command. Because the Lord dwells, we want to come out, be separate. Because the Lord is going to recieve us, we don't want to touch the "unclean thing".
Verse 17 of 2 Corinthians is found in Isaiah 52:11. Context: Israelites coming out of bondage from Babylon per King Cyrus. Paul didn't mention "you who carry the vessels of the Lord" which is mentioned in Isaiah but not in 2 Corinthians.
Meaning: when the Israelites were coming out of Babylon back to Jerusalem, they got to take those vessels that were taken out of the temple with them back to Jerusalem - back to its rightful place.
Meaning: when the Israelites were coming out of Babylon back to Jerusalem, they got to take those vessels that were taken out of the temple with them back to Jerusalem - back to its rightful place.
"Do not touch the unclean things", Kelly said, made more sense: "why would we ever want to touch the unclean things when we are holding the vessels of the Lord? We cannot bear both the sacred and the sacrilegious at the same time. The God who freed you has given you something very sacred to carry in this life."
He will be a Father to us. We looked at 2 Corinthians 6:18. Paul is probably pulling from 2 Samuel 7:14 here, Kelly mentioned. God is telling David He will be a Father to his son Solomon - fulfilling a covenant with Israel.
Closing
When we unequally yoke, we get someone else's portion, somebody else's share. It's not a share we want.
This is why we don't want to be unequally yoked because we are holy people under a new covenant.
Why live the old way when we can live new.
Session 5: "Rethinking Generosity"
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