This passage usually gets quoted in reference to dating or marriage, which is not actually what Paul is talking about in context. There wasn’t a lot of “dating” in Corinth, for one. It is not an unreasonable principle, though.
So what is the context? Paul has jumped rather abruptly from talking about the Corinthians reconciling themselves to God to them separating themselves from the idolatry in the culture. The darkness in the city is diametrically opposed to the light of Christ and the church. The temples of Aphrodite and Poseidon were diametrically opposed to the temples of God within each believer.
Paul then walks through four promises of God from the Jewish scriptures, from Exodus, Isaiah, Ezekiel and 1 Samuel. Like the Israelites leaving exile, the new believers in Corinth were to leave behind the idols of the land of their exile.
This means both the material things and the spiritual things that linked the Corinthians to the false idols in their city.
We don’t live in the city of Corinth with shrines to pagan deities and pressure to worship them. But we do have plenty of idols in our culture today. An idol has been called “a good thing that has become an ultimate running.” Tim Keller calls them something that we go to for things only God can provide.
Within the church, we can turn ministry success, doctrinal precision, even moral living into idols. Idols can appear to be satisfying and positive initially, but will never satisfy ultimately.
We are built to serve someone or something. We are built to look for something bigger than ourselves. For the Corinthians, the Greek gods presented real temptations to serve that role, especially with the world around them all oriented in that direction.
But Paul offered the alternative – the true God who lives within His people, and a true partnership with His people. We are yoked together in true community as we serve the only thing ultimately worth serving.
– Sermon Notes, Dave Lester, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, April 15, 2018
2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1
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