Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Corinthians 6:17

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean [thing]; and I will receive you.

17. Wherefore come out from among them ] A combination of Isa 52:11 with Eze 20:34. This passage must be read in conjunction with 1Co 5:10, and must be understood not of absolute separation, but of abstinence from any kind of intimacy. “Wherever union in the highest cannot be, wherever idem velle atque idem nolle is impossible, there friendship and intimate partnership must not be tried.” Robertson.

and touch not the unclean thing ] The passage (see Isa 52:11) refers to the priests and Levites, and relates to the ceremonial defilement caused by contact with whatever was unclean. See for instance Lev 11:8; Lev 11:24; Lev 11:31-40; also Rev 18:4.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Wherefore – Since you are a special people. Since God, the holy and blessed God, dwells with you and among you.

Come out from among them – That is, from among idolaters and unbelievers; from a frivolous and vicious world. These words are taken, by a slight change, from Isa 3:11. They are there applied to the Jews in Babylon, and are a solemn call which God makes on them to leave the place of their exile, to come out from among the idolaters of that city and return to their own land; see my note on that place. Babylon, in the Scriptures, is the emblem of whatever is proud, arrogant, wicked, and opposed to God; and Paul, therefore, applies the words here with great beauty and force to illustrate the duty of Christians in separating themselves from a vain, idolatrous, and wicked world.

And be ye separate – Separate from the world, and all its corrupting influences.

Saith the Lord – see Isa 3:11. Paul does not use this language as if it had original reference to Christians, but he applies it as containing an important principle that was applicable to the case which he was considering, or as language that would appropriately express the idea which he wished to convey. The language of the Old Testament is often used in this manner by the writers of the New.

And touch not the unclean thing – In Isaiah, touch no unclean thing; that is, they were to be pure, and to have no connection with idolatry in any of its forms. So Christians were to avoid all unholy contact with a vain and polluted world. The sense is, Have no close connection with an idolater, or an unholy person. Be pure; and feel that you belong to a community that is under its own laws, and that is to be distinguished in moral purity from all the rest of the world.

And I will receive you – That is, I will receive and recognize you as my friends and my adopted children. This could not be done until they were separated from an idolatrous and wicked world. The fact of their being received by God, and recognized as his children, depended on their coming out from the world. These words with the verses following, though used evidently somewhat in the form of a quotation, yet are not to be found in any single place in the Old Testament In 2Sa 7:14, God says of Solomon, I will be his Father, and he shall be my son. In Jer 31:9, God says, For I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born. It is probable that Paul had such passages in his eye, yet he doubtless designed rather to express the general sense of the promises of the Old Testament than to quote any single passage. Or why may it not be that we should regard Paul here himself as speaking as an inspired man directly, and making a promise then first communicated immediately from the Lord? Paul was inspired as well as the prophets; and it may be that he meant to communicate a promise directly from God. Grotius supposes that it was not taken from any particular place in the Old Testament, but was a part of a hymn that was in use among the Hebrews.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

2Co 6:17-18

Wherefore come ye out from among them, and be ye separate.

Separation from the world

When a person conversant with the vegetable productions of the earth, observes in the forest a plant whose properties he is desirous of improving, he removes it from its native wild into his garden. There, rooted in luxuriant soil, sheltered from inclement blasts, secured against immoderate humidity, duly watered in seasons of drought, defended from the encroachment of worthless herbs which even in that cultivated spot are continually springing on every side; it testifies by a conspicuous transformation the fostering care of its protector. Its growth enlarges; its juices are meliorated; its tints are heightened; its fragrance is exalted; its fruits are multiplied. It is no longer a barren weed; but the delight of him who has appropriated it to himself. In correspondence with the general outlines of this similitude, the God of mercy purifies unto Himself a peculiar people. Between the objects of favour, however, in the two cases, there exists a very important difference. The plant is unconscious, senseless, passive. Choice has no concern in its improvement. Not so the human being addressed by the gospel. Him God has created a moral agent. From him God requires active concurrence; co-operation of the will manifested by exertions of obedience. He does not hurry the man by arbitrary force from amidst the thorns and thistles of iniquity. Come out from among them, He cries, and be separate. Bestowing on the helpless individual adequate powers by the influence of His Spirit, He commands him to exert them and come forth. (T. Gisborne, M. A.)

Separation from the world, Christian service

I. Is a distinct act.

1. It is a change of masters.

2. It is a change of companion. Worldly men are not suitable, healthy, or possible companions for Christians.

3. It is a change of views, and habits, and ways.

II. Is a distinct existence. It involves a separateness. The Church is separate.

1. As an institution.

2. As a community.

3. As a moral influence.

III. Is a holy condition. Touch not the unclean thing. Although this at the first applied only to idolatry, we may take it as applying to every unclean thing.

1. Evil is offensive to God.

2. Evil hinders all good in the soul. It is as the thorns which destroy and choke the wheat.

3. Evil is incompatible with good. Fire and water cannot coexist.

IV. Brings the acceptance and reward of God. Acceptance involves–

1. Reconciliation.

2. Restoration to privileges.

3. Complete forgiveness, peace, and happiness. (J. J. S. Bird, M. A.)

Renouncing the world

I. We must renounce its corrupt maxims and doctrines.

II. We must forsake the unhallowed pleasures and amusements of the world.

III. We must be separated from the world in its general spirit and character. (J. Richards.)

Separation and adoption

I. The precept. In order to a Christian position there must be a special act which determines on which side of one fixed line the rest of our actions shall stand.

1. This act is the same deep necessity now that it was in Corinth. The human heart is the same, and the same temptations, with only slight variations in their form, still beset men. Every age brings its new brood of vices and adds to the funded stock, but very few that have once got a foothold die out. History hardly tells of one extinct species in the flora of guilt. If civilisation multiplies the refinements of culture, so does it the refinements of iniquity. Nay, men are just as eager to climb up some other way, instead of entering by the lowly door of repentance and faith. And therefore the responsibility of choice is just as pressing. It is impossible to evade it and slip into any third way. On one side we must be–Christs or Belials. We do assort with the unbelievers, or come out from among them and be separate, and the Judge knows which we do.

2. The Church has sometimes made a mistaken use of this truth. It has done so whenever it has stood, a Pharisee, aloof from the throng of humanity, saying scornfully, I am holier than thou. It has done so whenever it has made dress, badge, ritual, feeling, professions the line of distinction rather than a principle ruling the life. The right way for the Church to distinguish itself from the world is as its Head distinguished Himself–by a purer holiness and a warmer zeal to help and save the world. Christian men should be known by every nobler disposition, lovelier trait, and holier deed.

3. Nevertheless, it will be true that there is a distinction or a coming out, that mankind are of two armies under two leaders, that outward decency cannot be taken for inward renewal, self-cultivation for the upward-looking faith which works by love and through Christ receives the Spirit.

4. Till each individual soul has chosen to clear itself of all entangling alliances with the one of these two opposing forces and pledged itself to the other, how can it imagine it is safe?

5. A beginning and a continuing, a revolution and a habit, a new principle and a new life is this great decisive act. A coming out from irreligious associations is one part. It implies energy of purpose kindled by faith. Being separate implies the maintenance of the ground thus taken against all opponents, whether they frown or laugh, sneer or slight, reason or threaten. Touch not the renounced pollution, is an adjuration to the sanctified conscience. And these are the three daily heroisms in the discipline of the soldier of Jesus Christ.

II. To the sternness of the law is added the tenderness of grace.

1. If man will do his part, God does His. God worketh within us to will and to do, prompting holy desires and stirring the stagnant fountain. No man can come to Me except the Father who hath sent Me draw him. When that dinner of husks is fairly ended and the prodigals penitence has directed his feet towards home, the first form his lifted eyes see is his fathers, meeting him while yet a great way off. An infinite benediction falls on the returning child; you feel the power of the promise, I will receive you, etc. Sons and daughters! Not children merely, losing individual consolation in the generality of the family! God uses names that come nearer to personal affection and meet a personal want. He calleth His own by name. And whereas it was the Lord that said, Come, it is the Lord Almighty, with His onmipotence the guarantee of His promise, that says, Ye shall be My sons and My daughters.

2. The practical results upon character.

(1) Confirming, and chiefly by fostering in the heart a keener abhorrence of sin. Under the witnessing of that Divine Guest impurity, selfishness, uncharitableness grow insupportably hateful.

(2) Supporting: by supplying heavenly arms under the agitations of sorrow.

(3) Quickening: by fresh spiritual communications out of His own fulness, giving to your growing holiness an increasing power of life. (Bp. Huntington.)

Soul salvation consists in

I. World renunciation. Come out from among them. The renunciation must be–

1. Voluntary.

2. Entire. Touch not the unclean thing–i.e., sin, in all its forms and phases.

II. Divine adoption. I will receive you, etc. As a father, what does He do for His children?

1. He loves them.

2. He educates them.

3. He guards them.

4. He provides for them. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The greatest revolution

The text demands a change in human life, of all changes the most urgent and glorious-the change without which all other changes are not only worthless, but disastrous. It involves–

I. An urgent separation. Come out from among them. Them–the carnal, idolatrous, corrupt men of the world.

1. How? Not by personally withdrawing from all communication with them. This, if possible, would neither be right, generous, nor useful. It means come out from them in spirit. Let your intercourse with them be like that of angels, who had no sooner discharged their errand than they flew back with rapid wing to the pure heavens again.

2. The Divine command implies–

(1) Urgency. So long as you mingle in sympathy with the ungodly you are degrading your nature, imperilling your interests, incurring the displeasure of your God.

(2) Strenuous effort. Heaven will not drag you out against your will; you must marshal your own energies and struggle away from the magic dominion of evil. He who would be free, himself must strike the blow. Come out from this moral Egypt; flee from this Sodom; forsake this Babylon!

II. A glorious identification. I will receive you, etc. Here is–

1. A Divine reception. Here is a compensation for all the sacrifices you may be required to make. What matters it that you leave old fellowships, even father, mother, children?

2. Divine affiliation. (Homilist.)

And will be a Father unto you.—

The Fatherhood of God

I. The promise.

1. I will be a Father unto you. Some may inquire, How is it that God here promises to be what He is? The text is an assurance that God will act the part of a Father. There is, alas! many a parent who does not act the part of a father to his children. But can God, the Father of spirits, act in an unpaternal way toward any of His children?

(1) No. He treats none with unkindness or injustice. His offers of mercy are to all; for all Christ died.

(2) Yes. In so far as His children refuse to allow Him to act a parental part. Consider the Prodigal Son. The father is still the father, but he does not act the part of a father, just because that child has chosen to betake himself to the far country. So soon as he penitently returns, the parent in loving welcome shows himself to be what he really is–a father. So God remains under all circumstances the Father of our spirits; and the question is, whether we will permit Him to be a father to us. It is one thing to have the conviction that God made us, and another to be assured that He loves us with as much individual tenderness as if no other created being existed. Do any ask, How can this be? How can it not be? If a man has seven children, does he love each only one-seventh as much us he would do if he had but one? Nay, if there be any difference, he will love each the more, because of the expansive influence on his heart of the love of the many. The infinite God does not love me less because I am one of millions. Let me place myself where I may rejoice in its manifestation.

2. And ye shall be My sons, etc. Is not this a needless tautology? No, God may be a father to us; but except we act as His children we cannot be happy. The love that a mother lavishes upon her wayward children avails not for his joy, but rather acts as a painful rebuke so long as he returns it not and leads an unfilial life. So with regard to God and man. How gracious, then, this twofold promise! He will not only show us parental affection, but give us a filial heart.

II. Its condition. Some ignore this, and then complain that in their experience the promise is not fulfilled.

1. Separation unto God is demanded (2Co 6:17). This does not imply a monkish seclusion. If the Church be so withdrawn from the world, how shall it leaven it with a holy influence? Touch not the unclean thing. Contagion is the idea conveyed. In time of plague it were cruel indeed if all were to flee, but it would be equally their duty to avoid, if possible, contracting the malady, for then their ability to help would be gone. The physician should attend the sufferers, but it would not be well for him to sleep in the infected apartment. But exactly from what amusements, societies, and occupations are we to separate ourselves? Each must be guided by conscience and Scripture. From all that is condemned by Gods Word, that is injurious to our spiritual welfare, that which, though not unlawful, is not needful for us, and may set a bad example, and that about the lawfulness of which we are in doubt we must withdraw ourselves. If the mother is uncertain as to whether some berry for which her child cries is poisonous or not, she will assuredly withhold it; and if we are undecided as to whether some occupation or amusement for which inclination clamours will prove harmful to our soul, let us give God, not our hearts, the benefit of the doubt.

2. Wherefore, thus referring to what he has already said–

(1) For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? None, and the believer removing not therefrom is involved in contention which belies his Christianity.

(2) What communion hath light with darkness? None. If there be, it is to the detriment of the light. How has the brightness of many a Christian life been dimmed by intimacy with the ungodly!

(3) And what concord hath Christ with Belial? None. So is there none betwixt those who are Christs disciples and Satans servants. The withdrawal is not to be comprised in a single act, but must be the habit of the life. Pliable found it easy to run from the City of Destruction, hard to continue his journey. (Homilist.)

Sons of God

1. We have here one of the many instances in which the apostle quotes from the O.T. and applies it to Gentile Christians. Now having these promises–we, you, having them! The apostle identified the Jewish and Christian churches, and considered the Scriptures of the first, the inheritance of the second, and that promises addressed to the Jews, and having relation to local and temporary circumstances, have yet an eternal principle in them which makes them applicable to the church in all time.

2. Every thoughtful person is conscious, immediately the idea is suggested of men being the children of God, of the feeling that this relationship is common to all men. Paul himself adopts the saying of the Greek poet, And we His offspring are. Simply considered in their human character men are the children of God, but some men are the sons of God in a sense different from others.

I. The origin and source of this peculiar relationship, Christianity is a supernatural intervention of God, and it teaches that men become the sons of God in a sense which cannot be predicated of them in their previous natural condition (Joh 1:12-13). They are not born of blood, of one particular race; it is not because of being either Jew or Gentile, of the family of Seth or of Shem, which makes men sons of God. Nor of the will of the flesh. This privilege is not an inherent element in humanity which only requires development. Nor by the will of man–i.e., in respect to external acts, rites, or sacraments, which a man has power to dispense or to keep back; neither of caste, induction, or ritualism, but of God–you are born of Him. There is through Christ, and in connection with the truth of Christ, a direct influence and operation of the Spirit of God upon the soul of a believing man, infusing a new spiritual life into the conscience, and that spiritual living man is a son of God, and shelters himself under the Divine Fatherhood in a sense altogether unique.

II. Its privileges.

1. Honour, nobility. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!

2. The conscious utterance of sentiments and feelings appropriate to this relationship. Because ye are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

3. The indwelling of the Spirit–the Spirit which regenerates and sanctifies, not only enters, but makes the heart His home, filling it with light and peace.

4. A life of filial confidence; the belief that they shall have from their Father what is necessary, both for temporal and spiritual life. Why take you thought for raiment, etc.?

5. Heirship. If children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.

III. Its duties.

1. A perpetual, calm, grateful joy. I think it a great thing to be born into this world–to be a man. To be possessed of these senses and faculties, to have Gods universe spread before us with all the intellectual and moral force that we have within us, even life, with its warfare, its work, and its vicissitudes–about all these things there is joy. Aye, but to be born again, to have the spiritual eye opened to those things which are only realised by faith, to be born into this new and spiritual world, to awake up to a consciousness that through Christ we are the sons and daughters of God–how we ought to rejoice in that!

2. A ready acknowledgment of the relationship. Men are not ashamed to own a relationship with illustrious ancestors. And there is something wrong when Christians are ashamed of their relationship to God, of that highest nobility that God can confer.

3. Obedience.

(1) The obedience of children. A little child does not ask reasons, or if it does it is told to wait. Christians should apply this to themselves, and remember that part of the duty of sons to their Divine and loving Father is prompt obedience.

(2) But added to that there must be the obedience of men–I mean that with enlightened reason, and with high and glowing purpose, you shall determine that, God helping you, you will live and act worthy of your parentage.

4. Contentedness with our lot, and a using of our spiritual privileges–delight in the intercourse with our Father, acquiescence in chastisement, and an exercise of filial faith in what is to be the end proposed by Him.

5. A gradual preparation for that great day when the Son shall appear in the presence of the Father, and when there shall be a blessed realisation of the hope which has sustained the child from the beginning.

IV. Its ultimate consummation.

1. The glorification of your entire nature. You look for your Saviour to sanctify your souls, and you took for Him to change your body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body. This is to be the beginning of the consummation, and will lead to the period when there will be the whole family in heaven.

2. Positive and conscious association with the elder sons of creation, who kept their first estate, and who rejoice over one sinner that repenteth. Their joy will be full when the two races–the fallen and the unfallen shall be brought together in visible companionship before the throne of God. (T. Binney.)

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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 17. Wherefore come out from among them] Is it not plain from this and the following verse that God would be their God only on the ground of their taking him for such, and that this depended on their being separated from the works and workers of iniquity? for God could not inhabit in them if they had concord with Belial, a portion with infidels; c. Those who will have the promises of God fulfilled to them must come under the conditions of these promises: if they are not separate-if they touch the unclean thing, God will not receive them and therefore will not be their God, nor shall they be his people.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

The apostle here quoteth words out of the Old Testament, no where to be found there syllabically, without variation, but keeping to the sense of them, which is a thing very usual with the penmen of the New Testament. The first quotation seemeth to be taken from Isa 52:11; Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord. Interpreters are not agreed as to the term from whence the prophet there admonisheth the Jews to depart: some make it to be their former sinful courses; others make it to be the kingdom of the devil and antichrist; others make it to be literal Babylon; the prophet foreseeing, that when the Jews should have a liberty given them to leave Babylon, (which happened in the time of Cyrus the Persian monarch), some of them (now as it were incorporated with the Chaldeans) would linger, and find a difficulty to pluck up their stakes in Babylon, though it were in order to their return to Jerusalem, heretofore the joy and praise of the whole earth. Whatever was the prophets meaning, certain it is, the apostolical precept cannot be interpreted of a leaving literal Babylon, for neither the Christian jews, nor Gentiles, were at this time there; he must therefore be understood of a mystical Babylon. And the sense must be this: Come out and be ye separate from those with whom your souls will be in as much danger as the Jews were in the literal Babylon. But whether by these are to be understood idolaters only, or all notorious scandalous livers, is the question: The true determination of which, I conceive, dependeth upon the sense of those words: Come out, be ye separated; which words, I think, are not fully interpreted by those that follow,

touch not the unclean thing; for, doubtless, the former words are a precept concerning the means to be used in order to that as an end, it being a hard thing to touch pitch, and not to be defiled therewith. On the other side, they interpret it too rigidly, who make it to be a prohibition of all commerce or company with such persons; for this is contrary to the apostolical doctrine in his former Epistle to this church, where he had allowed, 1Co 5:1-13, a civil commerce and traffic with the worst of men; and, 1Co 7:1-40, had forbidden the separation of Christians and heathens, once joined in marriage, unless the unbeliever first departed. The text therefore must be understood only of elective and unnecessary, intimate communion; and is much the same with that, 2Co 6:14; Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers. So as that it doth by no means justify the withdrawing of all civil or religious communion from those whose judgments or practice in all things we cannot approve; it only justifieth our withdrawing our communion from idolaters, and from notorious scandalous sinners in such duties and actions, or in such degrees, as we are under no obligation to have fellowship and communion with them in; and our forbearing to touch their unclean things in that fellowship and communion which we are allowed with them, having no fellowship with them in their unfruitful works of darkness, but reproving them, even while in civil things, and some religious actions, we have some fellowship with them.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

17. Quoted from Isa52:11, with the freedom of one inspired, who gives variationssanctioned by the Holy Spirit.

be ye separate“beseparated” (Ho 4:17).

touch not the uncleanthingrather, “anything unclean” (2Co 7:1;Mic 2:10). Touching ismore polluting, as implying participation, than seeing.

receive youThe Greekimplies, “to myself”; as persons heretofore out of doors,but now admitted within (2Co5:1-10). With this accords the clause, “Come out fromamong them,” namely, so as to be received to me. So Eze20:41, “I will accept you”; and Zep3:19, “gather her that was driven out.” “Theintercourse of believers with the world should resemble that ofangels, who, when they have been sent a message from heaven,discharge their office with the utmost promptness, and joyfully flyback home to the presence of God” (1Co 7:31;1Co 5:9; 1Co 5:10).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Wherefore come out from among them,…. Since they were the temple of the living God, built up an habitation for the Most High; since he resided among them, took his walks in the midst of them, was their God, and they were his people. These words are taken out of Isa 52:11 where the several phrases here used may be observed. They seem to be directed to the Israelites, and particularly to the priests and Levites, who bore the vessels of the Lord; and are fitly applied to believers under the Gospel dispensation, who are by Christ made priests unto God. They are usually interpreted by the Jewish writers, as a call to the Jews to come out of captivity, to quit Babylon and Persia, and the several cities and countries where they were; and are applied in Re 18:4 to mystical Babylon, the church of Rome, as a call to God’s people, to leave the superstitions and idolatries of that church, lest they be partakers of her plagues; and here, by the apostle, as an exhortation to believers in general, to forsake the company and conversation of the men of the world: who may be said to come out from among them at first conversion, when they are called to forsake their own people, and their Father’s house, to leave their native country, and seek an heavenly one; and when, in consequence of effectual calling grace, their conversations are different from what they were before, and from other Gentiles; when they dislike their former companions, abhor their sinful conversation, abstain from it, keep out of it, as being infectious, hurtful, and detrimental to them; when they have no fellowship with the workers of iniquity, but reprove them both by words and deeds, which is their incumbent duty: the phrase in Isaiah is, “go ye out from the midst of her”; which Kimchi interprets, “out of the midst of every city in which thou art”; that is, in which idolaters lived; and well agrees with

here, “out of the midst of them”:

and be ye separate, saith the Lord; this phrase is not to be met with expressly in our version of the above text in Isaiah, but is signified by several expressions in it; the words rendered “depart ye, depart ye”, are by the Targum, or Chaldee paraphrase on the place, expressed by , “be ye separate, be ye separate”, which are the very words of the apostle here; and the phrase, “touch no unclean thing”, is explained by R. Aben Ezra,

, “that they might be separate from the nations of the world” and another word, , “be ye clean”, signifies such a purgation as is made by separation, by removing the clean from the unclean, by separating the wheat from the chaff. The people of God are a separate people in election, redemption, and the effectual calling, and ought to be so in their conduct and conversation; they ought to separate themselves from all superstition and will worship in religious matters, and from the evil customs and manners of the world, though they are sure to become a prey, and to expose themselves to the contempt and rage of it:

and touch not the unclean thing. The allusion is to several laws under the former dispensation, which forbid touching many things which were accounted unclean, whereby pollution was contracted, and the persons were obliged to a ceremonial cleansing; see Le 5:2

Nu 19:11. It has no regard to touching, tasting, and eating any sort of food, which was forbid as unclean by the ceremonial law; for the difference between meats clean and unclean was now removed; but if anything is particularly designed by the unclean thing, it seems to be idolatry, and to be a prohibition of joining with worshippers of idols in their idolatrous practices, whereby a moral pollution is contracted; since in the beginning of the former verse it is said, “what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?” though it is rather intended in general, to forbid all communion and fellowship with unclean persons and things, not to touch them, to come nigh them, or have anything to do with them:

and I will receive you; this, and what follows in the next verse, are said to encourage believers to keep at a distance from wicked and immoral persons, whose company and conversation are dishonourable, ensnaring, and defiling. These persons had been already received into the love of God, his best and strongest affections, from which there can be no separation; and in the covenant of grace, which as it cannot be removed, so neither could they be removed out of that; they were received into the church of Christ, and had a place and a name in it, better than that of sons and daughters; and as they had been received by Christ, when they came to him as poor perishing sinners without him, so they were still received graciously, notwithstanding their many backslidings: neither of these therefore is the sense of this passage: but, that whereas by quitting society with carnal men, they would expose themselves to their resentments; the Lord here promises, that he would take them under the wings of his protection; he would take care of them and preserve them, keep them as the apple of his eye, and be a wall of fire round about them, whilst in this world; and when he had guided them by his counsel here, would “receive” them “to glory”: this clause seems to be taken from the latter part of

Isa 52:12 which may be rendered, “the God of Israel will gather you”; i.e. to himself, and protect them.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Saith the Lord ( ). Isa 52:5; Ezek 20:33. Cf. Re 18:4.

Unclean thing (). Or unclean person. Genitive case is the same for both.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Come out, etc. Isa 52:11, 12, after the Septuagint, with several changes.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “Wherefore come out from among them.” (dio ekselthate ek mesou auton) “wherefore come ye out from the midst of them,” the fellowship of the unbelieving, infidel company, Rev 18:4; turn your back upon the unbelieving, Christ rebelling world of religious and irreligious; stand aloof, Eph 6:13-18.

2) “And be ye separate,” (kai aphoristhete) “and be ye separated,” in a state of separation of fellowship from them, in your code of conduct socially, morally, ethically, and in worship. Be aloof from union with, approval of all ungodliness, Rom 12:1-2; 1Co 10:21.

3) “Saith the Lord,” (legei kurios) “says the Lord,” actively, daily, till today, 1Co 10:31.

4) “And touch not the unclean thing “ (kai akathartou me haptesthe) “and to not touch an unclean thing,” signifying that intimate believer association with unbelievers was as surely unclean as touching of unclean things under the law, Isa 52:11.

5) “And I will receive you.” (kago eisdeksomai humas)

and I will receive or welcome you all,” into my fellowship communion, to avoid, shun the appearance of evil, is to be received into the daily fellowship of the Lord. Jas 4:7-8; Jas 4:10.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

17. Wherefore come out from the midst of them. This exhortation is taken from Isa 52:11, where the Prophet, when foretelling the deliverance, at length addresses the priests in these terms. For he makes use of a circumlocution to describe the priests, when he says, Ye that bear the vessels of the Lord, inasmuch as they had the charge of the vessels, by means of which the sacrifices, and other parts of divine worship, were performed. There can be no doubt that his design is to admonish them, that, while eagerly desirous to come forth, (621) they should be on their guard against any contamination from the many pollutions with which the country (622) was overrun. Now this is no less applicable to us, than to the ancient Levites, for if so much purity is required on the part of the keepers of the vessels, how much more in the vessels themselves! (623) Now all our members are vessels, set apart for the spiritual worship of God; we are also a royal priesthood. (1Pe 2:9.) Hence, as we are redeemed by the grace of God, it is befitting that we keep ourselves undefiled in respect of all uncleanness, that we may not pollute the sanctuary of God. As, however, while remaining in this world, we are nevertheless redeemed, and rescued, from the pollutions of the world, so we are not to quit life with the view of departing from all uncleanness, but must simply avoid all participation. The sum is this. “If with a true affection of the heart, we aim at the benefit of redemption, we must beware of defiling ourselves by any contamination from its pollutions.”

(621) “ Cependant qu’ils sont attendans auec ardent desir le iour de deliuerance;” — “While they are waiting with eager desire for the day of deliverance.”

(622) “ O — ils estoyent;” — “Where they were.”

(623) Diodati, in his Annotations, explains the expression ye that bear the vessels of the Lord, (Isa 52:11,) to mean — “You sacred officers, to whom only it belongeth to carry the vessels and ornaments of the temple; and thereby are spiritually meant all believers, whereof every one beareth a vessel sacred to the Lord, viz., himself.” — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

NO COMPROMISE, BUT COMPLETE SEPARATION

2Co 6:17-18.

PAUL was not only a great preacher; he was a great soul! He was one of those rare men who see life through serious eyes, and seek to set a true philosophy of the same before their fellows. It takes deep conviction and high courage to do that. It is no shallow flatterers work; nor indeed is it possible to him who is selfish or cowardly. Nothing short of moral earnestness can make a true apostle a critic of the conduct of his friends, and no other motive can lead to the voluntary risk of losing friendship by speaking truth than the intense love for the souls of those concerned.

That is why Paul said what he did in this Epistle to the Corinthian Christians. He felt commissioned of God to cry aloud against their sins, and the intensity of his speech was only an expression of his desire to saveto save them from going back to unbelief, back to unrighteousness, back to darkness, back to Belial, back to infidelity, back to idols.

There is need of reproof for some of us. There is need of persuasion for others. I do not feel myself worthy to criticize my brethren, but I find myself unwilling to see those I love go unchecked into sin, sinking their own souls, injuring other immortals, and dishonoring Him who died for them. Wherefore, my text, come out from among them, and he ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing: and I will receive you.

Such separation from unbelievers ought to characterize the Christian in

BUSINESS PURSUITS

It is as true for the Christian in the world of trade as anywhere, that: righteousness has no fellowship with unrighteousness; that light hath no communion with darkness; that Christ hath no concord with Belial, nor the believer any part with the infidel (2Co 6:14).

In the very character of his calling, Christs man must be separate from sinners. The custom of trade may have weight with unbelievers, and they may silence conscience by saying, No matter about the morals; there is money in this. But the believer plays into Belials hand the moment he does the same. His calling must be clean, and his shop, Christs stopping place.

I went one time into a saloonists house to see some of our Sunday School children, and learned that the liquor dealer was a professed follower of Christ. I said to myself, What a travesty! And yet, that is no more a fresh crucifixion of Christ than many a supposedly respectable Christian is guilty of. I often think of Sidney Laniers poem, Ah, the Cruel Marts of Trade, and say, one of the cruelest things about them is the unchristian offices into which Christian men are lured by money. I would to God that we had more men among us who would rather live on two dollars a day for honest work than two hundred dollars for the devils duty jobs.

In the methods of conducting business, Christian men ought to be separate from sinners. Misrepresentations, deceits, cheats, lies, robbery! Let those be laid to the charge of unbelievers only, and Christs kingdom will sooner come!

It is not the theoretical infidelity that retards the progress of the church today; it is the practical infidelity of pious hypocrites. A certain gentleman telegraphed to know what a certain business man was worth. The answer came, His note is worth a million dollars; his word is not worth a cent. Over such church members hundreds stumble into unbelief, and go down to eternal death. Making money is not sin per se; but dont sell the soul and your Saviour for silver and gold.

Some years ago, in a southern slave market, a black boy was being cried off to the highest bidder. The last offer on him had come from a cruel driver, and the little fellow shook with fear. A kind man, seeing the situation, went near and said, Tom, if I buy you will you be honest? In indescribable tones Tom answered firmly, I will be honest, sir, whether you buy me or not. Oh, for a church full of Christians who counted integrity above all temporal gain! God would work miracles for them and through them His kingdom would come.

The Christian ought to be separate from sinners in the store he sets by his business pursuits. It is not a matter of surprise that a godless baker said to me, Seven days in the week I propose to run this shop wide open, until I accumulate $50,000. That is my dream and I intend to live wholly for it.

But that a Christian should give to self-gain all his time, talent, and energy, how strange! And yet, the commonest excuse among church members today for absences from important services rests just there. Many seem to reckon that it is not wrong to miss prayer meeting if there is money in so doing; not wrong to sleep all day on Sunday so as to start with recuperated energies on Monday morning. That is true not only of the needy, but of men of excellent income. The millionaire has less time for his soul than the one dollar a day laborer, and Satan has little trouble to convince the competent Christian that the getting of gold is important above hearing the truth, growing in spirit, or saving immortals.

At a summer resort, a lady late to breakfast remarked to a friend as she hurried into the dining hall, I am late because tired! I danced last night until I blistered my feet. The man was courageous and knew this woman to be a professed Christian, and so he said, Did you ever blister your feet in the service of your Redeemer? Of course it hurt her feelings. She looked her contempt for such coarseness, and retreated.

One week later she came with tear-filled eyes and said, Sir, I beg your pardon for my expression of anger. God has forgiven me, after many days of prayer, and now when my feet blister again it shall be in His service and not in sensual pleasure. Ah, the multitudes! the multitudes! men and women who have professed Christ, and yet crowd our streets and shops, blistering their feet for mammon, and having not one evening a week, not one hour in an evening to go an errand for Christ, to unsaved or backsliding, or sinking souls! Our Christianitywhat is it? Wherein are we separate from sinners?

This text is a call to Christians to be separate from sinners in

THEIR ACCUSTOMED PLEASURES

The same great teacher who said of business pursuits, No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (Mat 6:24), said to John, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1Jn 2:15).

There must be a line of separation between the Christians accustomed pleasures and those of unbelievers. It is only the carnal that call that into question. It is only when men love modern amusements more than the church that they debate the subject. It is only when liquor has a greater attraction than the Lord that men defend the wine cup, or the whisky goblet. It is only when lust eats into the life and drives the Spirit of God from the heart, that men defend lewdness and say, At the most it is only indiscretion.

Gods good men are not debating how far they can be worldly and yet escape hell. Their faces are set the other way. Like the wise coachman, they see how far they get from the precipice at the roadside, and not how near to it they can drive without going over. And there is nothing that tells the tale of a mans character as his accustomed pleasures do. It is a surer index than his pursuits. Many a man has chosen an honorable pursuit, or profession, who quits it at close of day to go in quest of evil people and hurtful pleasure. You dont know a man so much by spending the afternoon with him, as you do by spending the evening with him. In the afternoon he is a skilful doctor; in the evening a sensual dancer. In the afternoon he is an excellent accountant; in the evening he is a godless gambler. In the afternoon he commands and strong men obey his behests; in the evening he is commanded by harlots and has no mind of his own.

Charles Spurgeon says, When the days work is done, then the birds of a feather flock together. It is with many men as it was with those Christians of old, of whom, when they were liberated from prison, it was said, Being let go, they went to their own company.

If your pleasure is in sin, then in sin you choose to live, and unless grace prevent, in sin you will not fail to perish.

The Christian who crosses the line that ought to separate him from sinful pleasure, does so at the cost of his character. Some years ago in Kentucky a man insulted a preacher who wore my name. The story goes that uncle Clark Riley hauled off his broadcloth Prince-Albert, and throwing it on the grass said, Lay there preacher until I lick this man, and then he waded in.

Christianity is not a coat that you can doff when tempted by the world, and don when the debauch is over. If you have any you will drag it in the mire while you wallow in social mud, and the best you can hope thereafter is a stained character. The way to conquer the world is to separate yourself from its sins and stand on higher ground. Clifford was right in saying, Holiness is wholeness, health, beauty, and it attracts. It is real, and men love reality. It is the sham they hate. The real man, even if silent, is always a power; the fraud eloquent as Cicero must collapse. To the tempted among professed followers, Stebbins lines are appropriate,

Christian, walk carefully, danger is near;On in thy journey with trembling and fear.Snares from without and temptations within,Seek to entice thee once more into sin.

Christian, walk prayerfully, oft wilt thou fall,If thou forget on thy Saviour to call;Safe thou shalt walk, through each trial and care,If thou art clad in the armour of prayer.

In the very nature of the case there can be no competition in the matter of pleasure between the church and the world. It is the custom of some backsliders to say that the church didnt furnish them with amusements, and they had to go to the world for their pleasures. But the charge incriminates the man who makes it. The church doesnt exist to amuse men; the church exists to save men, and every member of it ought to be engaged in that business. The Christian doesnt require cards, and dance, and whisky for excitement, until he has turned his back on Jesus. And if he has passions for such things, you can present him all the pure and innocent amusements ever invented and he will not thank you for them. Bishop Fallows house salon could never compete with the real saloon, simply because it didnt satisfy the drinkers appetite. It didnt have enough patronage to keep it alive; its visitors were sober men who preferred non-intoxicating drinks, and they were too few. The well-ordered home cannot compete with the bawdy house. It may have beautiful pictures on the wall, the sweetest music within, and sisters that suggest angels in their virgin sweetness, and yet the lustful brother turns his back on all that attraction and takes his way to the strange womans den. Do you upbraid the pure home for not giving him what he craved? No! Nor should you upbraid the Church of God for not competing with the world in presenting pleasure to the men and women who leave it and go in search of that which the lower nature craves. The church is not wrong! It is the sensual man! There are two Greek legends of mythical lore that point a moral. The one is to the effect that Ulysses, having to sail by a spot on the southern shore of Italy, where the sirensbeautiful mermaidssang men to their destruction on the rocks, succeeded in passing only by being bound hand and foot. These creatures were so attractive that he would have cast himself into the sea to join them, but for the ropes that held him fast. But the Argonauts, passing the same spot, took with them Orpheus, the sweetest singer ever heard, and being entranced by his music, they laughed to scorn the song the mermaids could sing. That is the secret of the Christian religion! The Christian who lives as he ought finds the temptations defeated by a counter-attraction. The love of Christ in the heart destroys the love of sin, and the new song of salvation enables us to despise the siren song of temptation. That man alone is really proof against the pleasures of the world, who, as he sails the seas of life, carries on board the Divine Orpheus, whose heavenly music is daily satisfying his soul.

Finally, let such separation show

THE SUPERIOR PURPOSE

It will prove its purity if consistently maintained.

That is what the world wants to see in Christian characterpurity of purpose. There is not a young Christian in the land, nor an older one, who cannot impress men favorably with his profession by purity of life. You are in a shop surrounded by godless men. They swear at you; they laugh at your religion; they try you to see if you will yield to temptation. Stand up in your integrity, maintain quiet dignity, keep your words pure and your every action chaste, and your character will so rise in their estimation that they will honor you.

But yield to their temptations, make yourself one of them, and they will despise you for your Christian profession and your dissolute practices. Hence our text, Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing: and I mill receive you.

Such separation shows ones sincerity. It isnt easy to separate ones self from sinful people. It takes courage! It requires character! Yes, it takes the aid of Christ. Somebody has said, Many a soldier can walk right up to a cannons mouth who could not say No! to two or three companions pressing him to enter the canteen. But the battle won, when a man separates himself once for all from such pursuits and pleasures and people, is greater than any ever gained at Thermopylae, or Waterloo, or Bunker Hill. It may not be known to many here below, but up yonder all Heaven hears of it, and Jesus Christ, the Great Captain, will record it in His eternal record. Oh, brother! fight down that passion; put your heel on that lust; drive back that evil pleasure. If Heaven is true, and God is as good as His Word, your hope for time, and your happiness in eternity depends upon it. Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing: and I will receive you.

When you cut loose from sinful people and pleasures, God and good people will remain to you. What need you more? With Christians as your brethren and sisters, and Christs service for your work, and all innocent people for your companions, and all pure pleasures for your enjoyment, and God for your Father, what need you more?

I pity the man who parts company with good people and accepts the companionship of social carrion crows. But I pity him most who turns his back on the Great God and says, I will not be your son! For him there are such days of darkness ahead; there are such faithless days ahead; there are such fatherless days ahead! When the storms come there will be such despair! When sickness overtakes, such a sense of sin; and when death approaches, such visions of evil spirits waiting to conduct the stained soul to its eternal cell! God separate us from sinful things, pursuits, pleasures, purposes, people! God save us and help us to sing,

Jesus, I my cross have taken,All to leave and follow Thee;Naked, poor, despised, forsaken;Thou from hence my all shalt be.Perish every fond ambition;All Ive sought, or hoped, or known;Yet how rich is my condition;God and heaven are still my own.

Go then, earthly fame and treasure;Come disaster, scorn and pain;In Thy service, pain is pleasure;With Thy favor, loss is gain.I have called Thee Abba Father;I have stayed my heart on Thee;Storms may howl, and clouds may gather;All must work for good to me.

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

(17) Wherefore come out from among them.Another composite quotation follows, beginning with Isa. 52:11. In their primary historical sense, the words were addressed as to the priests and Levites who were to return from Babylon. They were not to bring back with them any symbol of that unclean ritual which they had witnessed there. The local and historical meaning has for the Apostle passed away, and the unclean thing is identified with the whole system of heathenism. The close connection of this verse with the great prophecy of the atoning work makes it probable that, in writing of that work, St. Paul had remembered, or, perhaps, actually turned to Isaiah 53, as it stood in the LXX. version, and so was led on to the verse which almost immediately preceded it. I will receive you comes, in lieu of the ending of Isaiah, from the Greek of Eze. 11:17; Jer. 24:5.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

17. Wherefore In order to secure the fulfilment of these promises they must be a faithful and not an apostate Church.

Come out The earnest warning of Jehovah (to his people to come out from Babylon) applied to the Christian Church to come out from the uncleanness of an unregenerate world. This injunction requires not hatred against the wicked as men, but avoidance of participation in their works as sinners, or in such associations with them as imply a countenancing of their sins.

The unclean thing The thing defiled with sin, by whose touch you would yourself be defiled.

I will receive you Namely, into favour and fellowship with myself, and to all the joys of my salvation.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘Wherefore “Come you out from among them, and be you separate,” says the Lord, “And touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be to you a Father, And you shall be to me sons and daughters,” says the Lord Almighty.’

So in response to His sovereignty and the ratification of the covenant they must come out from the world and be separate, avoiding contact with all that is unclean, that is, in this context, all that is connected with idolatry and the sins connected with it. This may refer to food known to have been offered to idols, or to the temple catamites and prostitutes, or to sexual misbehaviour, or all of these. Jesus, however, went further. He defined unclean in the New Testament sense in these terms, ‘fornication, thefts, murders, adulteries, coveting, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, ranting and raving, pride, foolishness’ (Mar 7:22). All such uncleanness must be avoided.

Paul’s words are possibly based on Isa 52:11, where the command to ‘come out from there, touch no unclean thing’ is given but it is not intended to be a direct quotation. It is the idea rather than the actual literal Scripture which he saw as important. God’s people must come out to Him from the world and separate themselves to Him leaving behind all that is unclean. Since He takes up His home among us, they in turn (as we are) are called to separate themselves from everything that is incompatible with his holiness. The verbs are aorist imperatives (exelthate, aphoristhete) indicating that immediate and decisive once-for-all separation is called for.

‘Says the Lord.’ This is not in the text of Isaiah but is Paul’s addition to stress from Whom the command comes.

The pledge is then given that if His people will obey Him, then God will receive them and be a father to them, and they, in turn, will be to Him sons and daughters (2Co 6:17-18).

I will receive you is possibly drawn from Eze 20:34 LXX (“I will receive you from the countries where you had been scattered,” ). The second part is taken from 2Sa 7:14, “I will be his father, and he will be my son.” Paul sees God’s promise to David, that he will be a father to Solomon, and that Solomon will be a son to him, fulfilled again in God’s relationships with His people. But the singular son is here changed to the plural sons, and the phrase ‘and daughters’ is added, possibly under the influence of Isa 43:6, “Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth”. There is to be a family relationship and family affection between God and his people.

This whole string of Old Testament part references concludes with the phrase ‘says the Lord Almighty’. The phrase is a familiar one in the LXX (but unique in Paul). The term pantokrator, which translates the Hebrew seba’ot, is commonly rendered “almighty” but actually means “master of all things” or “ruler of all”. With this phrase Paul emphasises the awesome truth that it is the One who rules over all Who chooses to dwell among us and be our Father.

This use of pantokrater suggests that there is a good possibility that this string of loosely bound together extracts from Scripture may have been found by Paul in a record of such quotations, and that he quotes them as he found them, for the references to the Lord sound as though they are part of a quotation. He could not carry his Bible around with him. Such lists are known, for example, from Qumran. But if this be so he puts his stamp of approval on it.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

2Co 6:17-18. And be ye separate, saith the Lord, As God’s promises of dwelling in a peculiar manner among the Jews obliged them to separate themselves from the converse of their heathen neighbours, that they might not be ensnared with their superstitions; much more are Christians obliged, by that peculiar gracious presence of God which they enjoy, to separate themselves from all impure and idolatrous worship. It has been questioned whence this quotation is taken. Some say from Jer 31:1. &c. but that does not sufficiently express the paternal relation,I will be a Father, &c. Others refer it to 2Sa 7:8; 2Sa 7:14 which may be applied to Christ, and in him to believers. Comp. Heb 1:4-5. Some think it is not expressly to be found any where, and that it refers to all the scriptures, where God calls his people by the title of children.

Inferences.What an honour and encouragement is it to the faithful servants of Christ, that God and they, in a proper order, are embarked and employed in the same glorious cause, which is founded on Christ’s acceptance with the Father, that sinners might be accepted through him! The day of gospel grace is the only day for finding acceptance with God; and therefore every one should see to it, that he receive it without delay, and do not hear of its glad tidings in vain. But how careful should ministers be, to behave in so unblameable a manner, as not to disgrace their sacred office, nor prejudice their hearers against the doctrines they preach! They are to approve themselves faithful, by their purity and knowledge, patience, kindness, and unfeigned love, in all their sufferings, trials, and labours, by the assistance of the Holy Ghost; by a right use of the word of truth and the armour of righteousness, to guard them against temptations on every side, even such as arise from honour and dishonour, from evil report and good report: and they should labour, by divine grace, to behave as true and faithful persons, and to be made manifest as such, in the consciences and esteem of real Christians, while they are traduced as deceivers, or are treated as mean and insignificant wretches, by others. In this way of acquitting themselves, behold how signally God appears for them. How much soever they may be chastened, they are wonderfully kept alive, till their Lord has done his work by them: how sad soever their outward condition may seem to be, they are filled with all joy and peace in believing: and how poor soever they be in this world, they possess all things in Christ, their Head, and are instruments of making many rich toward God. O how freely and affectionately are their hearts and mouths open to their flocks; and what a reasonable return is it, that their people’s hearts should be enlarged in like love to them! For they are neither straitened in the love of their pastors, nor in their ministrations of the promises; but all their straitness lies within themselves, in their own carnality and unbelief. And how concerned should believers be for grace, to enable them to live answerable to the exalted privileges by which God has honoured and distinguished them; to abstain from every thing, that has the least aspect of falling in with any corruptions that lie in opposition to the purity of their faith, worship, and obedience; and to take heed that they be not unequally yoked with unbelievers in any relation, or in any sense, that tends to ensnare and defile them. For they can no more, as believers, have Christian fellowship with others in sinful, superstitious, and idolatrous customs, than righteousness and unrighteousness, light and darkness, Christ and Belial, or the temple of God and idols can be reconciled and harmonize. And, to encourage the people of God to separate from every thing polluting, and offensive to him, he, who is the Lord Almighty, has promised that, in their relinquishing such things, they shall be no losers; but that he will dwell in them, and commune with them; will receive them into his special care and protection; and will be the best of Fathers to them, and treat them as his sons and daughters.

REFLECTIONS.1st, We have an account,

1. Of the general exhortation which, as ambassadors for Christ, St. Paul and his fellow-labourers addressed to all their hearers. We then as workers together with him, as the instruments that he employs in calling lost sinners to a state of reconciliation with God, beseech you also, among others to whom we are sent, that ye receive not the grace of God in vain, nor slight his Gospel, remaining empty professors, instead of actual possessors, of the power and life of godliness. For he saith, addressing his Son, the Messiah, Isa 49:4-6. I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee; answering his prayers, as most acceptable before him, and supplying him with the needful strength to finish the great atonement, and to carry on the work of salvation in his faithful saints: behold, now is the accepted time, when the sinners of every nation are invited to partake of the blessings and privileges of the Gospel, and are sure of acceptance with God through his dear Son, if they accept of the invitation: behold, now is the day of salvation; seize therefore the present moment, and fly for refuge to Jesus, the hope set before you. Note; (1.) To-day God invites, to-day we should hear and obey; no moment is to be trifled with; every breath that we draw is precarious; to-morrow may not belong to time, but to eternity. What an awakening consideration! How are we called to improve the present NOW! (2.) Ministers must with importunity and eagerness urge upon dying men the necessity of attending instantly to the things of their everlasting peace, before they be hid from their eyes.

2. Of their carefulness to avoid every occasion of offence. Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed; behaving so discreetly, both among Jews and Gentiles, as to give no ground of prejudice against that gospel which we preach, but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, becoming the character that we bear; in much patience, meekly resigned, and steadily persevering; in afflictions, of various kinds, which we suffer for our work’s sake; in necessities, wanting even food and raiment; in distresses, from which we see no human way to extricate ourselves; in stripes, beaten both in the synagogues and before the heathen tribunals; in imprisonments, cast into dungeons; in tumults, from outrageous mobs; in labours, unceasing; in watchings, in fastings, having our rest broken, and our provision scanty; and sometimes voluntarily denying ourselves food and sleep on a religious account. And in these sufferings we are supported by pureness, acting with the greatest simplicity of intention, and integrity of conduct; by knowledge, fully acquainted with the truths which we deliver; by long suffering, bearing with the perverseness and provocations of opposers; by kindness, in temper and manners gentle, and courteous; by the Holy Ghost, of whose gifts, graces, and consolations we abundantly partake; by love unfeigned to God and man; by the word of truth, which unadulterated we deliver; by the power of God, whose everlasting arms are under us, and who, in the miracles that he enables us to work, bears testimony to our doctrine; by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, furnished out of the armoury of God with every thing necessary for our spiritual warfare; by honour and dishonour, not elated with the high esteem of some, nor discouraged by the insolent contempt of others; by evil report, and good report, mentioned with great commendation by our friends, and branded with the most infamous slanders by our enemies; as deceivers, so treated by many, and yet true, proved and found faithful to Christ, and the souls of men; as unknown, represented as men of no figure and despicable, and yet well known; those who are best acquainted with us, are sensible of our real characters, of our importance and usefulness; as dying, and every hour in jeopardy, and behold we live, amidst all our dangers; as chastened from the Lord, and by the hands of men, and not killed, immortal till our work is done; as sorrowful, under manifold temptations, yet alway rejoicing in a sense of the divine love and favour; as poor in this world, yet making many rich, with the unsearchable riches of Christ; as having nothing, which we can call our own, dependent on Providence for daily bread; and yet possessing all things, having a present fulness in the contentment that we enjoy, and blessed with all the internal riches of grace.

2nd, The Apostle’s heart glowed with warm affection, and he cannot but unbosom himself. O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged; we speak with the greatest freedom, and long for your salvation. Ye are not straitened in us; we love you ardently; we would keep back nothing from you that could promote your spiritual and eternal interests; but ye are straitened in your own bowels, and fail to make the suitable returns of gratitude, or to receive fully the blessings which we communicate. Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children from whom I may justly expect the strongest filial regard) be ye also enlarged, in mutual love toward us your faithful ministers, and in your cordial reception of that blessed Gospel, with all its precious doctrines and inestimable privileges, which we declare unto you. As a father then I admonish you, for the credit of your profession, and for the good of your own souls, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, intermarrying with the unconverted heathen, or otherwise entering into near and close connections with them, particularly not joining in any of their religious services: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What holy friendship can subsist between a renewed and an unrenewed soul? And what communion, in society and converse, hath the enlightened Christian with the unawakened sinner, any more than light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? What harmony can subsist between the members of Christ and the children of the wicked one? Or what part or lot hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? How can the worshippers of the true Jehovah, and who are themselves his living temple, join with heathens in their idolatrous worship? How absurd is it, and incongruous? For ye are the temple of the living God, where his divine Spirit is pleased to take up his abode; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, in a nobler sense than he ever was in his temple of old, blessing them with his presence and abiding communion; and I will be their God, united to them in love, and making them partakers of my Divine Nature; and they shall be my people, yielding to me a holy and willing obedience. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate from all unnecessary intercourse and familiarity with the surrounding heathen, saith the Lord; and touch not the unclean thing; keep at the greatest possible distance from idolatry and every abomination; and I will receive you as my peculiar people, and will be a Father unto you, shewing you the most endeared affection; and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty, admitted to that high dignity and most inestimable privilege. Note; (1.) A child of God must separate himself from the ways and manners of a world that lieth in wickedness. (2.) God cannot bear a rival in our hearts; no idols must be harboured there.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

2Co 6:17 . With the foregoing quotation Paul now combines another in keeping with his aim (2Co 6:14 ), containing the application which God has made of His previous promise. But this quotation is still freer than the one before, after the LXX. Isa 52:11 , and the last words, , are perhaps joined with it through a reminiscence of Eze 20:34 (comp. Eze 11:17 ; Zec 10:8 ). Osiander and most expositors find in . . a reproduction approximately as to sense of the words in Isa 52:12 : ; but this is, at any rate, far-fetched, and, considering Paul’s usual freedom in joining different passages of the O. T., unnecessarily hars.

] applies to the heathen .

] Just as . . . had referred ( aorist ) to the separation to be accomplished from the fellowship of heathen life, so this refers, in the sense of the prophetic fulfilment, to the continuing ( present ) abstinence from all heathen habits (not simply from offerings to idols), and . . to their reception into sonship , see 2Co 6:18 . It is correlative to ; God wishes to receive those who have gone forth into His paternal house, i.e . into the fellowship of the true theocracy (2Co 6:18 ).

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing ; and I will receive you,

Ver. 17. And be ye separate ] For gross idolatry and for fundamental errors only must we separate. Corruptions grew so great in the Church of Rome, that it justly occasioned first the separation of the Greek Churches from the Latin, and then of the reformed Churches from the Roman. Machiavel observed; that after the thousandth year of Christ, there was nowhere less piety than in those that dwell nearest to Rome. (Disp. de Rep.) And Bellarmine bewails it, That ever since we cried up the pope for antichrist, his kingdom hath not only not increased, but hath greatly decreased. (Lib. iii. de Papa Rom. c. 21.)

And I will receive you ] So you shall be no losers, I will put you into my bosom. God imparteth his sweetest comforts to his in the wilderness,Hos 2:14Hos 2:14 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

17. ] The necessity of separation from the heathen enforced by another citation, Isa 52:11 , freely given from memory; . . being moreover substituted, from Eze 20:34 , for , . . The must be understood of the pollutions of heathenism generally , not of any one especial polluted thing, as meat offered to idols.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

2Co 6:17 . . . .: wherefore, “Come out from among them and be separate” saith the Lord , “ and touch not an unclean thing and I will receive you .” So, too, the Heavenly Voice of the Apocalypse cried “Come out of her” to those who were in danger of contamination with the sins of pagan Rome (Rev 18:4 ). But the command must not be misapplied. St. Peter was wrong in “separating” himself from his Gentile brethren (Gal 2:12 ), as he was wrong in calling that “unclean” which God had cleansed (Act 10:14 ). And St. Paul never counsels any at Corinth to “separate” himself from the body of his fellow Christians on account of their sinful lives. (1Co 5:13 is a direction to the Church to excommunicate a sinful member, a quite different thing.) To the Apostle separation from heathendom was imperative, but separation from the Christian Church was a schism and a sin.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

from among = out of (Greek. ek. App-104.) the midst of.

Lord. App-98. a. Quoted from Isa 52:11.

the = an, i.e. any.

receive. Greek. eisdeclomai. Only here.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

17.] The necessity of separation from the heathen enforced by another citation,-Isa 52:11,-freely given from memory; . . being moreover substituted, from Eze 20:34, for , . . The must be understood of the pollutions of heathenism generally, not of any one especial polluted thing, as meat offered to idols.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

2Co 6:17. – ) Isa 52:11, , , , , , …- , from the midst of them) from the Gentiles.- , saith the Lord) The additional epithet follows [in 2Co 6:18, augmenting the force of the words by Epitasis (end.)], the Lord Almighty.-, unclean) The masculine, Isa 52:11; Isa 52:1 : comp. Isa 65:5. To this may be referred, let us cleanse ourselves, ch. 2Co 7:1.- , touch not) To see, when it is necessary, does not always defile: Act 11:6; to touch is more polluting.-, I will receive you [within] to me) as into a family or home [Comp. ch. 2Co 5:1-10.-V. g.] We are out of doors, but we are admitted within. The clause, Come out from, etc., corresponds to this. God is in the saints, 2Co 6:16, and the saints are in God. corresponds to the Hebrew word , Eze 20:41; Zep 3:19-20.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

2Co 6:17

2Co 6:17

Wherefore come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord,-Since God and Satan cannot walk together, he tells his children to come out from among them and be separated and touch no unclean thing.

and touch no unclean thing; and I will receive you,-In the Mosaic dispensation, the man who touched any unclean thing could not come into the congregation of Israel until he purified himself. The uncleanness there was of the flesh, now it is of the spirit. Do not be led into evil associations by the corrupting servants of Satan, for God cannot receive you unless you be clean from them.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

come out from among them

Separation, Summary:

(1) Separation in Scripture is twofold: “from” whatever is contrary to the mind of God; and “unto” God Himself. The underlying principle is that in a moral universe it is impossible for God to fully bless and use His children who are in compromise or complicity with evil. The unequal yoke is anything which unites a child of God and an unbeliever in a common purpose Deu 22:10.

(2) Separation from evil implies (a) separation in desire, motive, and act, from the world, in the ethically bad sense of this present world-system. (See Scofield “Rev 13:8”) and (b) separation from believers, especially false teachers, who are “vessels unto dishonour” 2Ti 2:20; 2Ti 2:21; 2Jn 1:9-11.

(3) Separation is not from contact with evil in the world or the church, but from complicity with and conformity to Joh 17:15; 2Co 6:14-18; Gal 6:1.

(4) The reward of separation is the full manifestation of the divine fatherhood 2Co 6:17; 2Co 6:18 unhindered communion and worship Heb 13:13-15 and fruitful service 2Ti 2:21 as world-conformity involves the loss of these, though not of salvation. Here, as in all else, Christ is the model. He was “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners” Heb 7:26 and yet in such contact with them for their salvation that the Pharisees, who illustrate the mechanical and ascetic conception of separation (See Scofield “Mat 3:7”), judged Him as having lost His Nazarite character. Luk 7:39 Cf; 1Co 9:19-23; 1Co 10:27.

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

come: 2Co 7:1, Num 16:21, Num 16:26, Num 16:45, Ezr 6:21, Ezr 10:11, Psa 1:1-3, Pro 9:6, Isa 52:11, Jer 51:6, Act 2:40, Rev 18:4

and I: Joh 6:37, Joh 6:38, Rom 15:7

Reciprocal: Gen 3:3 – touch Gen 12:1 – Get Gen 20:6 – to touch Exo 33:16 – separated Lev 5:2 – touch Lev 7:19 – General Lev 11:3 – parteth Lev 11:8 – they are unclean Lev 11:24 – General Lev 20:24 – which Num 5:3 – without Num 6:8 – General Num 19:11 – toucheth the dead Num 23:9 – dwell alone Num 25:2 – they called Num 35:34 – I dwell Deu 10:8 – time the Lord Deu 14:6 – General Deu 20:18 – General Jos 6:18 – in any wise 1Sa 8:20 – General 1Sa 15:6 – depart 1Sa 27:5 – some town 1Ki 22:4 – I am as thou 2Ki 9:27 – Ahaziah Psa 26:4 – General Psa 45:10 – Hearken Psa 114:2 – General Psa 139:19 – depart from Psa 141:4 – to practice Pro 1:15 – walk Pro 2:12 – deliver Pro 18:1 – Through Pro 24:19 – Fret Son 2:10 – Rise Isa 43:6 – bring Jer 3:19 – put thee Jer 15:17 – sat not Jer 50:8 – out of the midst Jer 51:45 – deliver Eze 42:20 – a separation Zec 2:6 – and flee Mat 7:13 – at Joh 1:12 – to them Act 7:3 – Get Act 17:4 – some 1Co 5:9 – not 1Co 10:14 – flee Phi 2:15 – sons Col 1:13 – and Col 2:21 – General 1Th 1:9 – the living Heb 10:21 – the house Heb 12:14 – and holiness 1Pe 2:24 – being 2Pe 1:4 – are given 1Jo 5:21 – keep Rev 21:4 – the former

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

2Co 6:17. Come out from among them denotes a complete separation from the thing spoken of, having nothing to do with any of its activities, nor having any interests in common with it. The Gentiles were largely given to the practices of idolatry, and the Corinthians had been mixed up with such

relations. Unclean means to be foul in a ceremonial as well as literal sense, and the practices of idolatrous nations were defiled in both senses. Their complete separation from all such was a condition on which the Lord would be willing to receive them.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

2Co 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 Isa 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 youa reminiscence from Eze 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 Testamentsuch as Jer 31:9, Isa 43:6; and as the word Almighty occurs nowhere in the Old Testament save in the LXX. of 2Sa 7:8, it is possible that 2Co 6:14 of that chapter may have come under the apostles 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 Psa 27:10.) And here there seems, too, a touching reminiscence of our Lords 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 Gospels 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 (Mar 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 Mat 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 (Gen 6:1-7). Against this snare the Israelites were repeatedly warned in view of their entrance into the Promised Land (Exo 34:16; Deu 7:3-4, etc.). Into this pit Samson fell to his cost (Jdg 14:3); and Solomon (1Ki 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 (Ezr 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 resulton a principle obvious enoughis, not that the righteousness of the one party dissolves the unrighteousness of the other, but that the lower drags down the higher (see 1Co 15:33).

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

As if the apostle had said “Go not then to the idol’s temples, join not with idolaters in communion to avoid persecution; but come out from amongst them, as an holy people separated to the Lord, and defile not yourselves with any unclean thing; and while you are pure, and cleave to God, he wil own you for his sons and daughters.”

Observe here, 1. A pressing exhortation to make a full separation from unclean persons and things, particularly from all idolatry and idolatrous worship; Come out from among them. The words are taken out of Isa 52:11 where the prophet exhorts the remnant of Israel to come fully out of unclean Babylon.

Learn hence, That God expects and requires his saints should make a separation from all uncleanness, but especially from the uncleanness of idolatry. God expects a separation from us, from all unclean courses, from all unclean company, from the presence and appearance of all uncleanness, from communion with idolatrous churches, and from communicating with what is sinful in the truest churches of Christ upon earth.

Observe, 2. A quickening encouragement to back this exhortaion: I will receive you, and be a Father to you.

Here is a twofold promise,

1. Of reception, I will receive you.

2. Of adoption, I will be a father to you.

God will receive them both into his house and heart.

Learn hence, That Almighty God will, as a Father, undoubtedly receive all those into his family and favour who renounce communion with all impurity. As he is Almighty, he is abundantly able, and as he is a Father, he is graciously willing, to recompense all the services and sufferings of his children, for the honour and interest of his name and truth.

It is sufficiently known how this text hath been mispplied by separatists to very bad purposes:

1. To justify their schismatical separation from the best and purest of the reformed churches, under pretence of finding greater purity among themselves: whereas nothig will justify a separation from a church, but that which makes a separation between God and that church. If the church’s way of worship (in their opinion) be faulty, they presently pronounce it false, and they must not join in false worship, if all that is faulty be false worship: if Christ doth not disown his church for that faultiness, we ought not to desert her for it.

2. Others would seek occasion from these words, to justify their practice, in refusing to come to the Lord’s table where some vicious persons are apprehended to be, lest they should pollute the ordinance, and there touch the unclean thing; whereas the presence of a bad man at the sacrament pollutes the ordinance only to himself; for unto the pure all things are pure; and who will neglect a certain duty, to escape an uncertain danger? True, we must not own such worship, as we know God rejecteth. But as God pardoneth the faulty imperfections of other men’s worship, and of our own also, thus must we bear with our own and one another’s failings that are tolerable, so far as we cannot cure them.

Woe unto us, had Almighty God no more charity for us than we have for one another! A defective worship is not a false worship; sinful defects in the administration of ordinances, do not hinder the saving effects of ordinances; a wise and good man is certainly as great an enemy to separation, as he is to superstition: doctrines crying up purity, to the ruin of unity, reject; for the gospel calls for unity, as well as for purity.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

2Co 6:17-18. Wherefore Encouraged by this gracious promise, and that you may obtain the fulfilment of it; come out from among them Withdraw yourselves from all intimate society with them; and be ye separate As Gods promise of dwelling in a peculiar manner among the Israelites, obliged them to separate themselves from the converse of their heathen neighbours, that they might not be insnared with their superstitions; much more are Christians obliged, by that peculiar gracious presence of God which they enjoy, or may enjoy, to separate themselves from the society of the ungodly, and from all their sinful practices, customs, and habits. And touch not the unclean thing Keep at the utmost distance from every person and thing whereby you might be drawn into evil, and contract guilt. And I will receive you Into my house and family. And will be a father unto you Will stand to you in the near relation of a father; loving you, caring and providing for you; allowing you near access to, and close intimacy with, myself. And ye shall be my sons and daughters And therefore mine heirs, and joint-heirs with my only- begotten and beloved Son; saith the Lord Almighty That infinitely great and omnipotent Being, who is the maker and upholder, the author and end of all things. This promise made to Solomon, (1Ch 28:6,) is here applied to all believers; as the promise made particularly to Joshua is applied to them, Heb 13:5. Who can express the worth, who can conceive the dignity of this divine adoption? Yet it belongs to all who believe the gospel with a living, operative faith; to all who so receive Christ in his sundry offices as to be born of God, Joh 1:12-13. They have access to the Almighty; such free and welcome access as a beloved child to an indulgent father. To him they may flee for aid in every difficulty, and from him obtain a supply of all their wants.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Wherefore Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord [Isa 52:11], And touch no unclean thing; And I will receive you,

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

REGENERATION AND SANCTIFICATION

17. Therefore come out from the midst of them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing: and I will receive you.

18. And I will be unto you for a Father, and you shall be unto me for sons and daughters, saith the Lord mighty. This is clear, grand and glorious on regeneration, a splendid text from which to preach this precious grace to lost sinners. Here the Almighty condescends to call them from the deep abysses of slumdom and filthy cess-pools of iniquity, kindly and lovingly entreating them to leave the devil and his filth, outright and forever, bidding adieu to their old companions in vice and immorality, with a distinct understanding that they are never to return. How lovingly and importunately He here pleads with them, Touch not the unclean thing;

i. e., when they leave the devil, their wicked companions and sins, they are never again to touch them. Millions are now in Hell he undertook gradually to break off from sinful habits. In that case the gradualism generally runs the wrong way. No drunkard ever reforms gradually; he can not do it. With him it is sudden and eternal abandonment and dissolution of all partnership with the whisky devil, or damnation world without end. There is no successful reform without adhesion to the Divine mandate, Touch not the unclean thing. When the sinner does his part, leaves the devil and all sin never to go back, then he has nothing to do but come to God by simple faith in His promise here given, I will receive you, I will be unto you a Father, and you shall be unto me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Gods word never can fail. If it did, His throne would crumble and His kingdom fall. Hence the vilest sinner has nothing to do but take God at His word, leave all and leave forever, coming to God with the full assurance of faith Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. How strange the guilty, debauched millions of earth do not heed this call of loving mercy and fly at once to the embrace of a sympathizing Heavenly Father, thus passing triumphantly out of darkness into light, out of bondage in freedom, out of pollution into purity, out of death into life, out of Hell into Heaven.

1. Having, therefore, these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all the pollution of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God . This is one of the many instances in which the uninspired chapter- makers committed an egregious blunder, by cutting the paragraph in two in the middle, illustrating the fact that they did not know much about the meaning of the Scripture. So this verse belongs to the preceding subject of regeneration, confirmatory not only of the two separate and distinct works of grace in the plan of salvation, but their intimate proximity either to other. It only took Israel eleven days to travel from Mt. Sinai, on the bank of the Red Sea, to Kadesh-Barnea, which means holy delight and lies right on the order of Canaan. Gods an was for them to enter the land of corn and wine at that early date instead of retreating away and wandering forty years in the waste, howling wilderness. This verse, so clear and explicit on entire sanctification as a second work of grace, follows immediately after the preceding verses expository of regeneration, showing that young converts should not delay till they grieve away the Spirit, but hasten with all expedition into entire sanctification. The promises here mentioned are given in the preceding verses, where God most unequivocally promises the sinner regeneration and adoption when he comes to Him by simple faith, having abandoned the devil and all of his sins, leaving his kingdom forever. We find two distinct departments appertaining to this glorious second work of grace, i. e., the flesh and the spirit. What is the filthiness of the flesh? Tobacco in all of its forms and phases is terribly filthy, really intolerably nasty, so much so that a decent sinner such as your humble servant once was, though brought up in the worst tobacco State in the world, never could use it. While all my friends not only used it, but tried to get me to do the same, my sense of decency revolted against it, even in my childhood. It is a rank narcotic poison, productive of paralysis, dyspepsia, heart disease, Brights disease, and a vast catalogue of terrible physical maladies. A sinner ought to quit it for the sake of common decency; a Christian, for Jesus sake; but if you get truly sanctified, it will do its own quitting, as you will get so near God you will be afraid He will smell your filthy tobacco breath when you pray. Opium is also a terrible filthiness of your flesh which none but Jesus with His sanctifying blood can eradicate out of the craving system. Intoxicating drinks must all go forever in this dark catalogue. There is to be no compromise whatever along this line. Gluttony must go, too.

The physical can no longer predominate over the spiritual if you are going to be holy to the Lord. The hog must go down and the angel come up. Jewelry and all needless ornamentation and gaudy display pollute your body, and disqualify it to become the honored and beautiful temple of the Holy Ghost. If you get sanctified, you no longer need artistic beauty in any of its forms and phases, as you have the beauty of holiness, which so eclipses all others as to bury them away in eternal oblivion. In the motley group designated filthiness of the Spirit, we find evil tempers, passions, incentives and predilections generally, such as anger, wrath, malice, revenge, envy, jealousy, pride, vanity, lust, egotism, sectarianism, and the malevolent affections indiscriminately. All these are the works of the devil, which Jesus came to destroy (1Jn 3:8). You have nothing to do but turn them over to Him and leave them with Him. He will exterminate them world without end. To this glorious reality the Holiness Movement furnishes witnesses by wholesale who were once the slaves of the whisky devil, besotted drunkards; and the lust devil, debauched libertines, down at the bottom of slumdom. They are now standing in front of the battle waving the blood-stained banner, shouting the war-cry, and ranked among the most efficient preachers of the age. You need not think that anything is hard for Omnipotent Grace. You have nothing to do but give Him a chance. Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. This clause is expository of the preceding commandment to cleanse ourselves from all the filthiness of the flesh and the spirit. Whenever we get rid of all our unholiness, then our holiness is perfect, i. e., complete, has the field without a rival. This follows as a logical sequence from the simple fact that all of our unholiness either appertains to body or soul. Hence, when we get rid of these two classes of pollution, which is the antithesis of holiness, then we have what the Scripture calls perfect or complete holiness. Remember this is a statement of quality rather than quantity. A small garden may be as clean as a large field, yet there is a great difference in magnitude. When you get saved from all the filthiness of the flesh and spirit, your holiness is complete, though you may be but a spiritual infant contemplating growth into manhood. Yet we must not follow natural analogies too far, lest these metaphors break down and become incorrect, as we have a rule in rhetoric that we are not to press a metaphor too far, as it is only legitimate for exegesis within its sphere. In the spiritual realm, while sanctification gives us purity and subsequent growth in grace maturity, yet we must bear in mind that in spiritualities there is no getting old in the sense of incurring infirmity, as in the case of the body. But while we grow into maturity, we continue to grow more rapidly than ever, never reaching the terminus and never getting old, but blooming in immortal youth forever, growing on till we leave this world, and then growing in Heaven more rapidly than ever we did on earth, because Heaven is much more congenial to growth and prosperity than this world, this spiritual growth and development continuing through all eternity.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Verse 17

The unclean thing; the sinful pursuits and pleasures of the idolatrous world around them.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

Third, Paul quoted from Isa 52:11 where God called His people to separate (depart) from Babylon and its idolatry. He applied this to the Corinthian situation in which unbelievers practiced idolatry. The contexts both in Isaiah and here have nothing to do with separation because of doctrinal differences between Christians. Both passages are speaking about pagan idolatry. The promise of fellowship with Himself for separation (Eze 20:34; Eze 20:41) should motivate us to be obedient.

"There was a grave danger that, through carelessness and compromise, the Corinthian believers would be carried away, as it were, into a Babylonian captivity of the soul." [Note: Ibid., p. 256.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)