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Saturday, December 12, 2020

Today's Passage : Today's Passage:The Temple of the Living God

Bible Verse:2 Corinthians 6:14-18 (ESV)

"Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”"

Message: “Belial” sounds like the name of some pagan idol-god, but it actually is not. It is a Hebrew word that originally meant without (beli-) value (ya’al), that is, worthless. It became personified as specifically spiritual worthlessness, and people who lived immersed in depravity eventually became known as “sons of Belial”. Paul uses it as a vivid expression for the gulf separating the Christian from the lost. And here we have another of the least popular concepts in the Bible. God does not want those He has saved, through the extraordinary sacrifice of his Son Jesus Christ and the grace freely available to all who answer the call, to associate with those who have heard the call and rejected it. Christian racial harmony Counterbalancing this is the Great Commission, Christ's commandment to us to spread the gospel to all ears. We are expected to teach, preach, and proselytize the unsaved. For it was Christ's purpose to call sinners to repentance. (Luke 5:32) But there comes a point — and fairly quickly — when adamant rejection will end our duty towards a specific person. If they are not interested or reject God's word, as Jesus told his apostles, we should move on and “shake the dust from our sandals.” Which means, using a more modern idiom, “wash our hands of them.” Christians often don't like to hear this, because they have non-Christian friends and they don't want to stop seeing them. But it is explicitly and repeatedly commanded of us in the Bible. “Whoever is not with me is against me,” Christ tells us in Matthew 12:30. John wrote: “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.” (2 John 1:10-11) “Do not be deceived: Bad company ruins good morals.” (1 Corinthians 15:33) Take, as an example, sex. Sex is always an attention-grabber, for the teachings of the Bible about sex are almost diametrically opposed to the exploding secular worship of human appetites. The concept of sexual morals has almost disappeared outside Christianity. Every year the boundaries are extended. Television now celebrates adultery as a lifestyle choice. Listed among the Academy Award nominees for Best Picture of 2013 was The Wolf of Wall Street, which has a hard-core pornographic scene and is rated “R”. But our problem, as Christians, is not to stop the immorality of the unwashed, but to save ourselves from a perverse generation. (Acts 2:40) We are commanded, not to change society, but to save ourselves — and as many who will listen to the truth — from it. So let us ask ourselves: How much have our morals been watered down or compromised by secular friendships, in person or by virtual friendship with pagan television and movie writers?