Don’t Be Yoked To It - Don’t Even Touch It! - 2 Corinthians 6-7

2 Corinthians 6:16-18 (ESV)

What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,

“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,

and I will be their God,

and they shall be my people.

Therefore go out from their midst,

and be separate from them, says the Lord,

and touch no unclean thing;

then I will welcome you,

and I will be a father to you,

and you shall be sons and daughters to me,

says the Lord Almighty.”

In this section Paul is writing about how the Church of Christ is different than the world.   He has jus told them that believers should not be yoked with unbelievers:

2 Corinthians 6:14 (ESV)

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

He is telling them that because he just told them their true partnership in their work should be with Christ, based upon the free gift of grace:

2 Corinthians 6:1 (ESV)

Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

The term yoke can mean marriage. It can mean business.  It can mean any combination of things when we understand Paul’s point.  He is trying to tell us that God sent Jesus to die for us and to make a way for us to have a relationship with Him.  Once we have that relationship with Him, we cannot return and have a relationship with anything other than Him.  We can’t return to the world.   We are to be the light to the world.  We are to be the example to the world.  We are to be showing God’s grace to the world.  But we are not to be yoked to the world.  How is that even possible?  Once we have tasted the good word of God’s grace, how can we ever go back to the filth of this world?    We are sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty.  We are to touch no unclean thing, much less be yoked to it!