Temples of the Living God

Well, good morning again.

My name is Jeff.

I am one of the pastors here at Church of the Advent.

And if you're here this morning and it's your first time, I just want to say welcome.

We're so glad that you decided to join us.

We would love to connect with you.

During the announcements, there's going to be a QR code on the screen for you to scan.

It's also in the lobby on your way out.

We'd love for you to scan that, fill out a form, and connect with you.

And one of our pastors will follow up with you.

And we would love to just get coffee and hear your story and hear about what God is doing in your life.

If you would have walked the streets of Corinth in the first century, you would have noticed a number of things about this city.

You would have noticed that it was a very wealthy city.

That it was a center of commerce and trade, of banking and finance.

You would have noticed that it was a center of a lot of travelers and tourism.

Tourists who came to the city for the city's many festivals and athletic games, athletic events.

You would have noticed that it was a city full of vice and crime.

One of the things that Corinth was famous for was its flourishing industry of prostitution.

All of this led one scholar to conclude that Corinth was at once the New York, the Los Angeles, and the Las Vegas of the ancient world combined.

Another thing that you would have noticed about the city of Corinth, in addition to all this, is that it was a very religious city.

There were 26 shrines and temples scattered throughout the city to various gods and goddesses.

The most prominent of which stood atop the city's highest point on a large hill.

And it was the temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty and fertility.

And it's to people in this city that Paul writes this letter.

And in this section, he's writing to people who are living in a city of temples.

And to people living in a city of temples, he tells them, you're to be the one temple.

You're to be the one temple that stands apart all the rest.

We've been in a series in 2 Corinthians called Power and Weakness.

And we've been walking through that letter chapter by chapter.

And if you're just reading 2 Corinthians straight through, if you're reading it straight through all in one go,

when you get to this section in 2 Corinthians 6, it can feel like this abrupt left turn.

In Paul's thought and in the flow of his words.

We're in this section, as we had two weeks ago, where Paul is making this direct appeal to the Corinthian church.

Some people that he's had some conflict with in the past.

And he's seeking to ask them to accept his authority as an apostle.

And for them to receive the authenticity of his ministry.

But he's also asking them to open their hearts to him again in love.

He's seeking to restore his relationship with them.

And right in the middle of the section, he sort of makes this what feels like an abrupt left turn.

He goes right into this really strong exhortation about pursuing holiness.

About pursuing holiness.

And you're like, okay, Paul, like, I thought I knew where this was going.

But I didn't realize that this is where we were headed.

But we're here now.

So, okay.

But I didn't realize that this was where we were going.

And what may feel like an abrupt transition in the flow of this letter actually shows us something really important.

It shows us that Paul's main concern, although he cares about his relationship with the Corinthians,

his main concern isn't about hurt feelings.

His main concern is about seeing the gospel transform the Corinthian church.

And as the gospel transformed the Corinthian church, that it would transform the city in which they live.

Paul calls on people living in a city of temples to be the temple of the living God.

Because that is what they are.

And so we're going to look at two things this morning that Paul reminds us of.

We're going to see that we're called to live the story of the temple.

And we're called to draw sacred boundaries.

We're called to live the story of the temple.

And we're called to draw sacred boundaries.

Let's pray together.

Lord, thank you for your word.

Thank you that all of it is true.

It is given to us in love.

I pray that you would speak to us by your Holy Spirit through your word.

That we may know, love, follow, and worship you.

In Christ's name, amen.

So first, Paul shows us that we're to live the story of the temple.

The central image of the temple comes from verse 16, where Paul says,

for we are the temple of the living God.

And in many ways, the story of the Bible is the story of the temple.

That place where God reveals his glory and manifests his presence with his people.

Genesis 1 and 2 shows us that all of creation is God's temple.

His presence and glory fills the cosmos.

And the Garden of Eden is sort of this microcosm of creation, where human beings made in his image embody his presence and his rule to the rest of creation as kings and as priests.

And humanity's job description is not only to serve God and worship God in this garden temple, but to extend its borders.

To extend its borders by cultivating God's creation until the earth is filled with the glory of God.

Old Testament scholar T. Desmond Alexander says this.

He says,

And so what did they do?

How did they respond to this boundary?

Well, when I was in seminary, I had an Old Testament professor who would talk about Genesis 3.

And he would say that the way that Genesis 3 should read is that a serpent came into the garden.

A serpent came into the garden and split.

Adam killed the serpent.

That's how Genesis 3 should read.

That Adam protects the garden from the presence of evil.

But that's not what Genesis 3 says.

Instead, Adam and Eve listen to the serpent.

And they rebel against the sacred boundary that God had set.

And so God expels them from the garden.

He expels them from his prisons.

And he strips them of their status as kings and priests.

And the story of the Old Testament is a story of God coming to restore his glory and his presence to his fallen creation.

That glory and that presence that was lost in Eden.

And the echoes of Eden run throughout the Old Testament story.

We see the echoes of Eden all throughout the Old Testament.

In particular, we see these striking similarities between Eden and these places where God came to dwell with his people.

The tabernacle and the temple.

So in Genesis, we see that the Lord himself walks with Adam and Eve in the garden.

But Leviticus and Deuteronomy say the exact same thing about the tabernacle and the temple.

That the Lord comes and dwells and walks with his people.

We know that Genesis 3 says that Eden was...

The entrance to the east of Eden was guarded by angels, by cherubim.

The tabernacle and the temple are entered from the east.

And the altar is guarded by angels, by cherubim.

The lampstand, the menorah in the tabernacle is designed to look like what?

Like a tree.

Symbolizing the tree of life.

And so the tabernacle and the temple, the place of God's dwelling, are meant to point us back to the Garden of Eden.

They're meant to point us back to Genesis.

And the message that we're supposed to get is supposed to be loud and clear.

It's supposed to be loud and clear that the redemption and the salvation that God brings is always about the restoration of his purposes in creation.

That's what we're supposed to see throughout the Old Testament story.

And here in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, Paul is following the grain of the story.

2 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

He's following the grain of the story of the temple.

In three verses, he quotes and alludes to six or seven different Old Testament passages that are all about God's covenant relationship with his people through his temple.

In verse 16, he quotes Leviticus 26, which says,

I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people.

God dwelling among his people.

God walking among his people.

Those are echoes of Genesis.

They're echoes of Eden.

In verse 17, he quotes Isaiah 52, which says,

Therefore, go out from their midst and be separate from them and touch no unclean thing, and then I will welcome you.

And here God is speaking through Isaiah to people who are living in exile in Babylon,

and he's saying to them,

Even though you live in exile, you're still people of the temple.

And so don't worship the idols around you.

Don't worship the gods around you,

because one day I'm going to bring you out of exile,

and I'm going to once again make you my dwelling place.

Again, we should hear Genesis,

Eden,

temple,

these echoes.

And then in verse 18,

Paul does this thing where he actually brings together two different passages.

He brings together 2 Samuel 7 and Deuteronomy 32.

And he brings them together in this quotation that says,

I will be a father to you,

and you shall be sons and daughters to me.

And what this is,

is again,

it's a reference of God dwelling among his covenant people in intimate relationship.

God is a father who dwells with his people as a father dwells with his sons and daughters.

And all of these references here in 2 Corinthians 6 were meant to hear the story of the temple

that goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden in Genesis.

And Paul is saying that this story has reached its climax in you, the church.

In Jesus Christ, we don't just have a temple.

We are the temple of the living God.

Jesus is our great high priest and our atoning sacrifice.

He entered the temple of the Holy of Holies and tore the curtain

so that the presence of God, the glory of God,

might be poured out by the Holy Spirit to all people.

The temple of God is no longer brick and mortar,

but it is flesh and blood.

It is you.

It is your very bodies have become the temple of the living God.

And so we see this story unfold from garden to tabernacle to temple to exile to Jesus to the church

of God filling all creation with his glory

and then in love coming to save and redeem and dwell with people who had rejected that glory

and to restore them once again to their vocation as royal priests.

And it is this glorious truth.

It is this new covenant reality about the temple that motivates us to be holy people,

that motivates us to pursue holiness in our lives.

Holiness is its moral purity.

It's godly maturity.

Holiness is looking like God.

It's looking like Jesus.

That's what holiness is.

And in chapter 7, verse 1, Paul says,

Since we have these promises, beloved,

since we are inheritors of this story,

let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit,

bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

He's saying if we are in fact God's temple,

if we've been receivers and inheritors of these promises in this story,

then we should take holiness in our lives seriously.

If Old Testament believers had to be cleansed from sin in order to enter God's holy temple,

how much more should we pursue holiness in our lives now that we have become that temple in our bodies?

And it's important to see, though, that as we talk about pursuing holiness,

as Paul exhorts and commands the Corinthians here to pursue holiness in our lives,

it's important to see that in this verse,

Paul is rooting our pursuit of holiness.

He's rooting it in God's grace.

He's rooting it in God's grace.

He says,

Since we have these promises, beloved,

since we have these promises,

he's talking about the assurance of all the promises that we have through faith in Christ.

And this says something really important

that I think we can sometimes miss

about the pursuit of holiness in our life.

And it's this,

that the pursuit of holiness

isn't about becoming somebody that we're not yet.

It's not about becoming somebody that we're not yet.

It's about becoming more and more of who we already are in Christ

as recipients of the gospel.

Pursuing holiness isn't about becoming more and more of something,

someone that we're not yet.

It's about becoming more and more of who we already are in Christ

by grace through faith.

And so this story of garden to temple,

to tabernacle to temple,

to Jesus,

frames and shows us

what Paul means when he says in verse 16

that in a city of temples,

we're to be the temple of the living God.

And it shows us why we should pursue holiness.

And it shows us

the particular way

that God,

that Paul is,

God through Paul,

is calling the Corinthians

to pursue holiness in their lives.

It shows us why,

it shows us one particular way

that we're actually meant to pursue holiness

in our lives.

And that is

that we're to draw sacred boundaries.

That we're to draw sacred boundaries

in our lives.

The central command here

in this section

is kind of a strange one,

to be honest.

In verse 14,

Paul says,

do not be unequally yoked

with unbelievers.

Now, what in the world does that mean?

Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

Well, a yoke

is a large piece of wood

that farmers would harness

to the backs

of two animals

who would drag a plow

through a field together

as they were plowing the field

for planting.

And this yoke,

this large beam of wood

harnessed to these two animals

would allow the animals

to work together productively.

It would allow them to

pull the plow together

in the same direction.

And in Deuteronomy 2,

there are some laws

about the agricultural life of Israel.

And there was a law that said

that you can't make an ox

and a donkey plow together.

You can yoke together two oxen.

You can yoke together two donkeys.

But don't yoke together

an ox and a donkey.

Why is that?

Well, because an ox

and a donkey

are fundamentally,

they're fundamentally

incompatible plowing partners.

They're fundamentally incompatible.

An ox is clearly bigger

and stronger than a donkey.

And so they won't

share the load equally.

And so if you harness them together,

it's going to be hard for them

to move in the same direction.

It's going to be hard for them

to move the plow.

And if you harness them together,

you also risk doing damage to the animals.

You risk hurting the animals.

The ox is going to be exhausted

from having to do all the work.

And the donkey is going to run the risk

of breaking a leg

while he tries to keep up.

And if that happens,

and your animals are hurt and exhausted,

then you can forget about plowing your field.

You can forget about planting your crops.

Instead, you need two animals

of the same kind

who can be yoked equally

and move the plow in the same direction

and share the load together.

And most likely,

Paul is using this image,

he's using this metaphor

to talk about

worship and fellowship

in the Corinthian temples.

And the 26 temples scattered around the city.

And he's warning them

against participating in idol worship,

participating in pagan practices

like the temple feasts

and things like prostitution.

He's warning them against

harnessing themselves

to all the various cults and religions

around the city.

And we see this

because of what follows

in verses 14 through 16.

In verses 14 through 16,

he asks several rhetorical questions

in a row.

And these five questions

are all making the same point.

He says,

for what partnership

has righteousness

with lawlessness?

What fellowship

has light

with darkness?

What accord

has Christ

with Belial?

Belial is this name

for Satan,

meaning worthless one?

What portion

does a believer share

with an unbeliever?

What agreement

has the temple of God

with idols?

And so,

why does Paul ask

this string of questions?

He asks them

to make one singular point,

which is,

all of these

are pointing to

a fundamental

spiritual incompatibility

between having communion

with Jesus

and having communion

with idols.

And so,

to be unequally yoked

is to be fundamentally

aligned

with somebody

or something

that is your

spiritual opposite.

To be unequally yoked

is to be fundamentally

aligned at your core

with somebody

or something

that's your spiritual

opposite.

There's something

at the center

of all of our lives

that is driving

the plow

of our decisions,

of our choices,

our habits,

our values.

It could be money.

It could be success.

It could be comfort.

It could be

even a good thing

like family.

But whatever it is,

that is what you're

harnessing

yourself to.

It's what you're

harnessing

the deepest places

of your soul to.

That is what you worship.

And Paul says,

don't be

harnessed together

with people

and things

that are

your spiritual

opposite.

Don't align yourself

with what is going

to do real damage

to your soul

and pull you away,

pull your heart away

from following Jesus.

Now,

here's what this

doesn't mean.

It's important

to see here's

what this doesn't mean.

This is not about

not having any

relationships

or associations

with people

who aren't Christians.

Of course,

it doesn't mean this.

We know this

from the rest

of Paul's writings.

In other places,

he assumes

that people have

relationships

with non-Christians.

And he always

encourages love

and friendship

and hospitality

in those relationships.

We also know this

just because of what

the rest of the Bible

teaches.

All throughout Scripture,

we see that we're called

to love our neighbors.

We're called

to be salt and light.

We're called

to love all people.

And that implies

relationship and friendship.

I mean,

if you look at the life

of Jesus,

I mean,

Jesus had more

non-Christian friends

than anybody.

He was known

for hanging out

with people

who weren't believers.

And so,

what this command

is about then,

what it is about

is creating

sacred boundaries

in your life

with people

and things

that are your

spiritual opposites.

Creating sacred

boundaries in your life

with people

and things

that are your

spiritual opposites.

So,

we're to love

our neighbors.

We're to love

our friends.

You're to share

your lives with them.

You're to share

your worldly goods

with them.

You're to invite

them to your dinner table.

You're to have

friendships

with all kinds

of people.

You're to share

everything

that you have

with them.

But don't worship

their idols.

Don't worship

their gods.

Don't be harnessed

into situations

where you're being

dragged away

into sin,

where you're being

pulled away

from following Jesus.

Instead,

we're to create

sacred boundaries.

You might say,

okay,

well,

what are some

examples of this?

What are some

examples of what

this looks like

practically?

I'm going to give

you three.

A lot of people,

actually,

when they read

this verse,

and you might have

been thinking this

when we read

the passage earlier,

a lot of people

think that this verse

is primarily

talking about marriage.

That's most often

how people quote

this passage.

But hopefully,

by seeing the context,

hopefully,

what you're able

to see is that

marriage is actually

not what this verse

is primarily about.

It's actually much

broader than that.

Again,

it's about anything

in your life

that you're aligning

yourself with

that is your

spiritual opposite.

Having said that,

marriage is one

particular potential

application of this

verse.

Because marriage,

let's be honest,

marriage is one of

the bigger harnesses

that you can get

into in life,

where you're

hitching yourself

to somebody else.

And you don't want

to marry someone

who's your

spiritual opposite.

You want to marry

someone who's

your spiritual partner,

someone who can

encourage you

to follow Jesus,

someone who can

pray with you

and for you,

someone who knows

how to speak

gospel truth

to the intricacies

of your personality.

At the same time,

we know that,

we know from Paul

in 1 Corinthians

that if you do

in fact find yourself

in a marriage

with an unbeliever,

we're actually

encouraged to

nevertheless stay

in that marriage.

In 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 7 · chapter mention

chapter 7,

Paul talks about

how someone can

continue to be

a spiritual influence

on their spouse

and potentially even

lead them to faith

in Christ.

But still,

the ideal is to

marry someone

that you're

spiritual equals with,

that you're

spiritually compatible

with.

A more common

example for all

of us might be

something like

in the workplace,

perhaps a political

or a business

relationship.

Maybe at work,

you could be asked

to enter into

a contract

or an agreement,

a business dealing,

a financial agreement

that would clearly

compromise your identity

in Christ,

that would clearly

compromise your ethics

and your values

as a Christian.

And so,

in those kinds

of situations,

you may need to

draw a sacred

boundary and say,

this is antithetical

to my identity

in Christ.

Let's say,

hypothetically,

you were an employee

of the Washington

football team,

the Washington

commanders,

and hypothetically,

the owner of that team

asked you to create

two sets of financial

books.

One that it reported

to the NFL

and one that was

actually true

in order to commit

financial fraud

and pay executives

millions of dollars.

This is just a

hypothetical example.

But this would be

a good opportunity

for a sacred

boundary.

This would be

a situation

in which you

should probably

unhitch yourself

from.

another example

more common

to us would be

certain friendships

that we have.

Maybe there are

some friendships

where you have

to draw some

spiritual boundaries

because maybe

that friendship,

that relationship

is pulling you,

dragging you

away from following

Jesus and into sin.

And again,

I want to be clear,

all of us in this room

should have relationships

and friendships

with people

who don't know Jesus.

but our deepest

spiritual fellowship,

our deepest

spiritual communion

should be people

who are going

in the same direction

as us.

People who are

plowing the field

of discipleship

and who can carry

the load with us

and who can encourage

us as our spiritual

partners to follow

Jesus.

Those are the people

that we should be

in closest

spiritual fellowship

with.

Now,

I fully admit

that most situations

in which creating

these type of

boundaries would apply

are probably

way too complex

for a sermon.

I mean,

there's probably

some really

complicated,

difficult situations

in which this

should rise.

And so,

I think

it's important

to say that

these types of things,

these types of

boundaries are best

to serve not

individually and privately

but in community

with a wise

counsel of brothers

and sisters in Christ

who can speak

into that situation.

But also,

you know,

if you're here

this morning

and you're maybe

wrestling with a

situation or your

relationship and

you're wondering,

am I unequally

yoked in this

situation?

Here's a list

of maybe some

diagnostic questions

that could help

you discern

if you are.

So,

here's a list

of some

diagnostic questions.

Is this

situation,

is this

relationship

drawing me

to idolatry?

Drawing me

to worship

something other

than God?

Am I being

pulled

to center

my life

on something

other than

Jesus?

Am I being

led

to delight

in

what grieves

the heart

of God?

Am I being

influenced

to sin?

Are my

choices

or my

actions

or my

habits

drifting

away

from

my

pursuit

of

holiness?

Is this

situation,

is this

relation

causing

my

affections,

my desire

for Jesus

to wane?

And if you

can answer

yes to

two or three

of those

questions,

it could be

that you

may need

to create

a sacred

boundary

in your

life.

And to

sum all

this up,

Paul is

telling the

Corinthians,

he's saying

in the

city of

temples,

we are

to be

the temple

that is

set apart

and unique,

we're to be

the temple

of the

living God

and this

is something

that motivates

us to

pursue

holy lives.

A

pursuit

that is

rooted in

God's

grace,

that's rooted

in the

gospel,

that's rooted

in who

we are

in Christ,

but nonetheless

a pursuit

that calls

us to

draw sacred

boundaries

in our

lives.

Now that

might seem

like a

tall order

and that's

because it

is.

The pursuit

of holiness

is a

tall order

and that's

why to

pursue holiness

in this

way,

to create

these kinds

of boundaries,

you need

something

better,

you need

something

stronger,

you need

something

more

beautiful

and compelling

in your

life to

be yoked

to if

you're

going to

unhitch

yourself

from something

else.

You know,

one of the

passages that

Paul quotes

here is

from Leviticus

Leviticus 26 · chapter mention

chapter 26

and he

quotes

verses 11

to 12.

Interestingly,

verse 13,

the very next

verse says,

I am the

Lord your

God who

brought you

out of the

land of

Egypt that

you should

not be

their slaves

and I

have broken

the bars

of your

yoke that

you should

walk upright.

The Lord

rescued Israel

from Egypt

from the

yoke of

slavery and

this would

be a

small picture

of what

Jesus Christ

would come

and do

for us

to break

us from

the yoke

of sin

and death.

If comfort

and security

and wealth

are driving

the plow

of your

life,

it's inevitably

going to crush

you.

It's inevitably

going to enslave

you because

idols,

see idols

can only

promise

but they

can't deliver.

Money and

success and

wealth are,

if that's what

you're harnessing

the center of

your life to,

if it's what's

driving the

plow,

it's going

to lead

you to

exhaustion

and it's

going to lead

you to real

spiritual damage

in your soul.

But to

people who

are weary,

to people who

are burdened,

to people who

are exhausted,

from harnessing

themselves to

idols,

from harnessing

themselves to

things like

comfort and

security and

wealth,

and the

heavy,

heavy yoke

that they

become.

Jesus says

these words

to us in

Matthew chapter

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

11.

He says,

come to me,

all you who

are weary

and burdened,

and I will

give you

rest.

Take my

yoke upon

you and

learn from

me, for I

am gentle

and humble

heart and

you will

find rest

for your

souls.

For my

yoke is

easy and

my burden

is light.

The glory

of Jesus

is that on

one hand,

he is our

total spiritual

opposite.

We're totally

incompatible with

him.

He's God,

he's holy,

he's righteous,

he's eternal.

He's our

total spiritual

opposite.

and yet,

at the same

time,

he's our

fully human

counterpart.

He knows

every single

burden that

you've faced

because he's

faced them

himself.

He's walked

the same roads

that you've

walked down,

he's plowed

the same fields

that you've

plowed,

and Jesus

is the one

person that

you can center

your life on.

He's the one

person that you

can align

yourself with.

He's the one

person that

you can harness

yourself to,

whose expectations

of you feel

light as a

feather,

whose commands

are restful

and life-giving

and joyful,

who when you

stumble and fall

again and

again,

is gentle

and lowly

in heart.

He's patient,

he's compassionate,

he's kind,

he's loving.

And when

Jesus carried

the heavy

yoke

of the wooden

cross,

when he carried

the heavy

yoke of the

cross,

no one else

carried it with

him.

He carried it,

he did it all

by himself,

and he did it

all for you

so that you

could believe

him,

so that you

could trust

him.

When he

says to

you,

my yoke

is easy,

my burden

is light,

come to me

all you who

are weary

and burdened

and I

will give

you rest.

And when

you see

that,

when you

see Jesus

as the one

who has

carried the

yoke of

the cross

for you,

you can

look at

all the

situations,

you can

look at

all the

relationships

in your

life,

and all

of their

complexity,

and all

of their

messiness,

and all

of their

difficulty,

and you

can look

at those

situations

and say,

maybe it's

time to

unhitch,

maybe it's

time to

unharness

myself,

so I can

pursue the

holy life

that God's

called me

to live,

that I might

know and

worship and

follow and

be in

relationship

with Jesus.

let's

pray.

Lord,

thank you

for your

word.

Thank you

that you

have made

us into

temples of

your presence,

our bodies,

our places

where you

dwell.

Lord,

I pray

that you

would help

us to see

the areas

of our

lives,

Lord,

where we

need to

pursue

holiness,

maybe where

we need

to draw

some

boundaries

in our

lives.

Thank you,

Jesus,

that you

have carried

the ultimate

yoke for

us.

You have

carried the

ultimate

burden for

us by

taking the

weight of

the cross

on yourself.

And it's in

your name we

pray.

Amen.