2 Cor 6:14-7:1
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”
The initial questions that come to my mind after reading this are these:
1. Who are the “them” that we are to separate from?
2. What is the “unclean thing” that we are not to touch?
Who are the “them” that we are to separate from?
When everything is boiled down in the world there remains only two classes of people: believers and unbelievers, and this distinction is to be carried forward into the Church also. In other words, as Paul states, “all are not Israel that are of Israel” and not all are Christians who profess Christ, or prominently display a picture of a fish on their car bumper.
Being unequally yoked goes further than marrying an unbeliever, or becoming a business partner with an infidel, which is common enough. Unbelievers are “unclean” and should be avoided except where absolutely necessary. The plain message of Scripture, both O.T. and N.T. is to have nothing to do with them. Any association with the world is to be “unequally yoked.” So, how does this carry over into the Church today? It doesn’t carry over at all. Virtually any and all relationships are acceptable. I was getting my hair cut the other day from my “Christian” barber and our conversation landed on children and schooling and I volunteered that all of my seven grandchildren were being home-schooled. My barber added that that was a good thing, but that they should be, at about eleven or twelve, put into public school so that they could learn to socialize properly. I responded that that would be the worst possible age to do such a thing. Did he really believe that the world had something of value to teach my grandchildren? Yes, he did, and this coming from a “Christian.” The world to him was not an “unclean thing,” but rather necessary for our full development. This man, in my estimation is an “unbeliever.” He does not believe the Scripture rule of separation, and is skeptical of the value of this verse in this present age; he is faithless and deluded and probably lost. My only association with this person would be to fulfill my mission to deliver the Gospel, and that is all. He exhibited no signs of being a Christian except that he said he was a Christian and went to a building he called his church. This man is the run of the mill Christian, and no doubt has a form of godliness, but denies the power that makes a person Godly, faith and trust that God is who He said He is, and will do what He said He would do, no skepticism allowed.
Today the rule of not being “unequally yoked” should mean, to most serious Christians, that they be not joined in communion with most of those who simply say they are Christians and pack out the pews of the places they call “Church.” The serious Christian has only one recourse when the local church has become the local whorehouse or den of thieves, and that is to separate from them and “touch not the unclean thing.”
But, let’s not stop now while we’re having so much fun, let’s go deeper still. Let’s touch that nerve that will win you enemies faster than talking bad about their mother, their golden calf, the T.V. I told the Post Master of the post office in the little town where I live that I didn’t watch television anymore. She responded that she had heard of rare cases of individuals who didn’t watch T.V., but that she had never, in her whole life, met one. When I told her that I didn’t listen to the radio either, not even Rush Limbaugh, or subscribe to news papers, she began wondering if I wasn’t part of some strange cult. I reassured her that I was simply a Christian trying to keep my focus. At that time I never realized what a hold Hollywood had on people. The yoke that Christians have with Hollywood and its celebrity priest can be honestly called a shackle of carbide steel, welded shut, with the key thrown away. The influence that Hollywood carries on Christian lives is the worst kind of bondage, introducing all sorts of filthiness and uncleanness under the guise that it is just entertainment, and that if you don’t want to watch it all you have to do is turn it off. Next to religion, T.V. is the drug of choice for nearly all “Christians.”
Is television an unclean thing? Without a doubt it is evil to the core, lock, stock, and barrel. I feel that if Christians could destroy all their T.V.’s it would go very far in reversing the curse that has engulfed our nation. I also feel that the likelihood of that happening would be equal to our ability to successfully land a man on the surface of the sun. “Can a man carry fire in his bosom and not get burnt?” The fire of Hell burns in Hollywood and in our Christian homes.
What is the “unclean thing” that we are not to touch?
The Old Testament laws were given as types and shadows for us today of the vast degree to which one must go to stay pure, and the vast degree to which the world will corrupt a pure soul, and the consequences that must inevitably follow. The Israeli people are our example of how it works, of both the blessings of being pure, and the curse of compromise. But, somehow we on this side of the Cross have concluded that all has changed. We, the American Christian Church, have been, aptly and generously, instructed that by quoting, like some sort of mantra, “you are in the world but not of it” you can handily sidestep every situation in which you find yourself tempted to purity. It is like having a “get out of jail free card” for worldly Christians. This verse is quite possibly the most well known and quoted Bible passage in the Laodicean Church of America. This verse is used far and wide to justify everything worldly, and it is used by both leaders and laymen to the same degree. This verse has become the antidote to “touch not the unclean thing.”
How is it that the Church has effectively overridden the express mandate to NOT be unequally yoked, and to touch not the unclean thing? Jesus reminded the Pharisees that their faulty understanding of Scripture did not void out the true meaning. The law instructed them to take care of their parents. Jesus said,
Mark 7:10-13
Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’;* and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’* But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban” — ‘ (that is, a gift to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
Likewise, the Laodicean Church of America says, “whatever you can justify by covering it with the phrase “in the world but not of it” will effectively eliminate any guilt association that might be caused by having to live in the world.
The Laws of Moses appear to be difficult and meaningless to us who live under the shadow of the Cross and not under the shadow of the Law. Nonetheless, there is much meaning in the law for us today. The Law showed the seriousness of doing the things the way the world did things. The Jews were a separated people and their life, and the way they lived it, were distinguishable from everything around them, not so much by their inclusion of things, but by their exclusion and separateness. God’s ways were not to be looked at as something that was added to what they already had or knew, but that God’s ways were the right ways, and the only right ways. Therefore, the normal life of the Jew was to exclude anything that was contrary to the way of God, and that was the rule, and that is our rule. Yoking ourselves to the world was illustrated in the O.T. by the prohibition of ploughing with an ox and an ass, or to have sown differing kind of seeds together, or sewing wool and cotton together. What an absurdity to think that we can blatantly mix darkness and light, good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness, God and the Devil. What communion do we have with the world in any of its vast corruptions, even when it has a veil “Christian” spread across its bumper. We are the Temple of the Living God and the danger is immense that by thinking lightly, that we are in the world, we can touch the unclean thing without consequences. Today our unbelief is flagrant and the consequences paralyzing.
The unclean thing is no less than the dunghill of this present world and its inhabitants. We are commanded to “come out from among them” and to keep a very safe distance, “to be separate,” as one would avoid a society of lepers, or the plague, for fear of being infected or defiled in the presence of the God we say we cherish. How close can one get to a smoking fire and not come away smelling. We must not defile ourselves, and we must not mingle, bind, or unite, with those who do. Do we thus repay the Lord, O foolish and unwise?
A Defiled People
Hag 2:12-14
“If one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil, or any food, will it become holy?”‘” Then the priests answered and said, “No.” And Haggai said, “If one who is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it be unclean?” So the priests answered and said, “It shall be unclean.” Then Haggai answered and said, “‘So is this people, and so is this nation before Me,’ says the Lord , ‘and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean.
These verses speak loudly to a nation caught in its sin, and it speaks loudly to America. Where did the mentality come from that says, that if we put a Christian in the midst of the world we can make it holy; that by a Christian presence we can spread holiness? Where did the mentality come from that says that a Christian can maintain their purity when simultaneously mingling with impurity? Who said that we could keep an open relationship with the world and come away unscathed? It is a lie, it cannot be done.
Haggai here declares the same; it cannot be done. The pure person cannot by being with impurity and mixing with them impart his purity to them. But, to the contrary, if a holy person touches an unclean thing the holy person becomes unclean. To say it plainly: corruption and sin are more easily transferred to the righteous than righteousness transferred to the unrighteous. So the rule seems to be plain enough. Don’t think that an evil person living in the midst of goodness will commend that goodness to the evil person. The Spirit has declared that it is not so, but this is exactly what we see, routinely, in the institutional Church. We advertise, we promote, we poll neighborhoods, we beg and we plead that the world would please come and be a part of us, and they have, and we have become corrupt and unclean, deluded, because we now see as the world sees, and we see that the world’s ways and means have great promise for the Church. We have become an unclean thing and we don’t know how to repent, so the Lord will come to us in our darkest hour, and we will see our nakedness and be ashamed.
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As we watch the world tumble and turn, and the organized church slip into apostasy, words start taking on new value, meaning, and understanding, both for the worldly Christian and for those enlightened souls who recognize the fulfillment of end time prophecy. We have witnessed, in our generation, the grand sermons of talented preachers, with their endless chatter, flowing like a fermented mash, to inebriated crowds, bellying up to the bar for a round of worldly religion, and seen them stumble home, and still manage to confess, in the face of their sin, their creedal and national allegiance, then fall for the umpteenth time while convinced, by their pastor, that they can live in the world and not be of it. They are not only in the world, they are awash in it; it covers them; they have become to the “world,” just, the “religious world,” no different than those outside, just more cocksure that’s all.
This is the “Church” in America. We have become the poster child of the Laodicean Church and we don’t even know it. We have fallen, and can’t get up, nor do we want to! Amos’ prophecy of a famine that would not be of food or water, but of the Word of God, describes the complacency and self-assurance the Laodicean Church has found feeding on corn husk and wallowing in mire. The Church of Laodicea can not even conceive what is meant by “touch not the unclean thing.” Surely, to the Church in America this only means: don’t get caught stealing, or only get religious tattoos. Don’t say the g-d word; don’t lust after women openly while church members are with you; it’s O.K. to get married for the second and third time, because God knows you need sex, and having ill feelings toward the homeless is acceptable, (because they’re probably all drug addicts, and losers anyway); don’t watch XXX rated movies, but the filth during halftime is O.K., and the list goes on, and on, and on. The Laodicean Church really has no qualms about doing any of the things listed above, that all the rest of the Church members are also doing, including the leaders, which is the same as the world is doing, only the world doesn’t have their “get out of jail free” card to play. Being part of the status quo is comforting to them, and if one of their own happens to color outside the lines of satisfactory behavior, and go beyond the veil of their “cure all” verses, it’s alright, there is an endless supply of forgiveness potion on hand.
What in Heaven could the Lord have meant by “touch not the unclean thing” if everything we see in the organized Church, seemingly, meets His approval? I can assure you that the real meaning has much more to do with how we love Jesus (i.e. obedience) than it has with practicing acceptable Laodicean religion, whose highest goal is self satisfaction, pleasing men, and appearing righteous and holy, while “looking good”: cars, clothes, hair, teeth, education, electronic gadgets, position, endorsements, acquaintances, neighborhood, nationality, race, etc, etc, etc.
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There is a special feature of this age that has become a religion in its own right, and that is, religious skepticism. There are very many who are openly skeptic, and call themselves “Christian” and celebrate their inconsistency. It amazes me that the very thing in which we are called to exercise “faith” they will wholeheartedly reject because it doesn’t make sense to them or fit their lifestyle. Then there are the ignorant skeptics, who can not put a definition to their dilemma, or even know they have a dilemma, but are no less unbelievers than their brothers the “open skeptics.” This thing which should be the cause of anxiety–which denies a Christianity of “revelation” and obedience–becomes to them a form of godliness which disallows the power of true Godliness. Their skepticism and unbelief come all nicely clothed in the cloth of being “in the world but not of it,” how convenient.
2 Tim 3:5
…having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
Isn’t today’s institutional Church the epitome of these words spoken by Paul to Timothy? And, what is his conclusion?, “and from such turn away!” But we don’t turn away, we embrace, and are encouraged to embrace the more, and to tolerate, regardless of the filthiness. In every aspect of Church life touching the unclean, is promoted, and even advertised as being “good.” we have adopted all their ways: business practices, music, dress, education, even their means of reaching God.
We live in a country whose “believers” believe it has no reason to repent. Doesn’t the command to “repent” assume guilt? We are a guilty nation and so thoroughly infected that “guilt” has no meaning and consequently there is no need to repent.
Time is short and there is much work to be done, and few there be that do it.
“. . .Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. . . .”
Steve Blackwell
Steve,
You make very good points and I agree with just about all of them. I do think you give most of today’s religious “Christians” a bit too much credit for putting religion (half-baked though it is) before TV. I dare say many do not volunteer or attend certain church activities because they might miss their shows.
Like you I have never been able to reconcile the idea that a minister would have a TV show he is addicted to, or a favorite rock star or other celebrity. Yet we see many of our so called shepherds obsessed with TV, politics, sports, working out, hunting, and fishing and then somehow expect those in their congregations to be spiritually minded!!
The number of so-called believers that sound and act just like their unsaved co-workers and neighbors is amazing! When “American Idol” is in a new season you hear it discussed everywhere by supposed believers. Can’t they get the obvious clue from the name?
I understand completely how you fell like you should somehow retreat completely from the world, but Jesus said we WERE in it! We’re just not to be emeshed in it to the extent that we look, think, sound and act like the world. We are supposed to be different enough that people can tell there is something unusual about us. I don’t think that means we are to be condemning unbelievers right and left, but making the right choices about things and standing up for what is good and honest when we have the chance.
Unfortunately, I also see unrepentant sinners behaving as nicely and as considerately and even more patiently than I do sometimes. So it’s not about being Mr. Cheerful or Mrs. Happy Face only. People will remark that you are a nice person, but it doesn’t point them to Christ. It’s about taking the hard path when a choice needs to be made; perhaps a choice that will cause your boss or co-workers some pain or inconvenience. That is when we find out how far “nice” goes!
Just don’t give up doing the good works God has called you to do! As Paul says “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
As for “believers” who feel they have nothing to repent of, it’s because their leaders, the ones who tickle their ears with soothing thoughts like “we are all dirty beggars” and “we can’t help but sin” and never expose their sins for what they are, offensive as spitting in God’s own face, because their leaders have no desire to be unpopular shepherds who rule with the rod of iron they are supposed to use…..the Word of God.
ProdigalKnot,
Nice of you to stroll past my humble shop and sit for a spell. Your visits are always welcome. I see that you have taken issue with my lenient leanings toward my fully liberated worldly Christian brothers and sisters. I really am not a hurtful character and do pray for their true, and effectual, and final, freedom. I genuinely do have a heart for the lost and would gladly spurn these pungent words of obvious ire, for something more akin to familial chit-chat, but the day is short. Let him who is saved say so, and live so. Let him who is the elect display that, to which, he is elected; if it be to the world, display that, if it be to the Lord, display that. Don’t tell me you are the elect, show me by your chaste and holy life. If he is not yet chaste then let him bear his testimony in sackcloth and ashes. The Lord asks no more than this from His children, and we should ask no more than this from our brothers and sisters. Let me see him who has accepted his Lord’s mission on this earth, and not become a traitor by compromise, and who has remained a loyal soldier to Him he calls “Lord?” To find this man, or this woman, is to find that person of whom it is written, “he loved not his life to the death.”
Your words always cause me to rethink what I have written, as they should. “Iron sharpeneth iron,” and brother sharpeneth brother, if we do not become cemented in pride, creeds, statements of faith, or “the traditions of the elders.”These things stifle our God given freedom and makes the saint, the serf, of the Sunday morning sermon. Our true freedom rest in the revelations we receive from the Spirit, to understand the mind of God, concerning the perfection He requires, the pitiful state of our power, the willingness of His generosity, and the humility of our gratitude, in the acceptance of the status of “child of the Most High God,” from the “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” Will we now tell our Father King that He must accept a certain level of uncleanness? Will we mar His kindness with self applied mire? or will we plead for help and accept His gracious Spirit helper, and be delivered to sup at a table prepared in the presence of our enemy, and feast on the peace of knowing we have loved our Lord, through obedience to His desires.
To allow any of the world, by any of its many contrivances, to separate us from the work of the Lord is unfaithfulness, but to deliberately sabotage His work by selfishness is high treason. Scriptures state that it is he, who endures to the end, that is saved. Only by effectively eliminating the leaven of the world from our lives is this possible, as the whole O.T. aptly demonstrates, and the N.T. demands.
Thank you brother and the Lord bless you,
Steve Blackwell
“Let him who is saved say so, and live so.”
Amen, brother!
People who are too shy to witness must know that they have to AT LEAST live irreproachable lives! And those that do witness must make sure that their lives do not cancel out their witness!!
I hate finding fault with my brothers and sisters, but it is our job to rescue them from error and help keep them on the right path. It’s very sad that many have no interest in comparing their lives to scripture. They are happy if their pastor is happy. How very sad.
Grace and peace to you in Christ Jesus.
Steve Foltz
This is my response to an e-mail I received by someone who had read this post.
It is beyond me how someone could read this post and, in the face of my uncompromising words, not only compliment me for shedding needed light, but find solace in their sins. I tried to use words that would close any door of escape to those who would think that they had discovered another antidote for their sin other than faith in Jesus, which is the same as obedience to Jesus’ words, i.e. “if you love me keep my commandments.” But, the Christian world will have their sins, and they cannot be bound to the demands of Christ, and they justify all their doings, not by repentance, but by showing where Jesus loves them along with their cart load of crap (sorry if this expletive offends anyone). Should we pray that the Lord will continually forgive us for being weak? NO! We are weak, no doubt! there is not one who has the power to deliver himself from the clutches of death and Hell. We shouldn’t be constantly saying, “thank you Lord, for once again forgiving me from this same old sin, that I love so much, and preserving me for yourself.” How worldly is that prayer? He doesn’t want to constantly forgive our weakness, He wants to be our strength, to conquer sin, and destroy it, to parade Satan through the streets naked and in chains, not to witness the saints being led captive to their sins; may it never be so. These Christians want a spiritual fix, not deliverance. They want a pillow and a blanket, and a cup of hot tea, not a trumpet blast and a command to advance and take back lost ground. Grace, mercy, and forgiveness are reserved for those who overcome yet stumble, who are victorious yet bleed, for all others there awaits only wrath and judgment. So, how important is it to be found “in Him”? It is the only important thing on planet earth, everything else is a delusion and pandering to the flesh.
It is not “well put” it is in your face truth. Can you handle it, or is there yet another worldly antidote that will rescue you from Godliness. Of course we are all sinners, but God doesn’t feel sorry for us; He has not given us that option, but He has given us Truth and a Door, and a Path, and a Life, and a Narrow Way in which to walk. He is not a father like an earthly father; our Father is a consuming fire, and that fire kills before it heals; it purifies and transforms.
So, just in case I didn’t make myself clear, God doesn’t just sit around waiting for you to sin so that He can forgive you, He demands change and obedience, and if you do not conform there is a very hot lake that awaits you. God forbid that I would provide you another opportunity to sin and to ask forgiveness.
Steve Blackwell
Prodigal Knot says in his first post: “I don’t think that means we are to be condemning unbelievers right and left, but making the right choices about things and standing up for what is good and honest when we have the chance.”
This sounds to me like a watered down version of the knee jerk “judge not lest you be judged” response of carnal churchianity. He may not have intended it to sound that way and I don’t mean to be confrontative, but I never noticed Steve Blackburn “condemning” anyone in his excellent post above on “touch not the unclean thing”. His words were gentlle, yet accurate and Scriptural. We, as believers are required to be “salt” and “light” not sugar and sweet. The Holy Spirit convicts, Satan “condemns.”
John 7:24 says Christians should “judge with righteous judgment” which means not self-righteously but with the Word of God as the plumb line. I am more persuaded than ever that God has abandoned most of professing Christianity and the true believers consist of a scattered little remnant outside of what is referred to as “church” which Prodigal Knot says the “leaders” are not doing their job. The Bible says a group of elders should SERVE, not a nicolaitan LEADER. That is one of the biggest problems in organized churchianity today. The Bible only mentions “pastor” one time it is in the context of “teacher.”
It matters not that religious people gather in the name of Christ, sing “Amazing Grace” and preach many sound biblical doctrines. If God’s power and life are not there, God is not there! Those places exist to bind up bundles of tares for the fire (Matthew 13:40). It is no place for a true born-again believer — especially now in the end of the age.
It is the hour when God’s little remnant must seek Him with all their hearts to be led to where they can be delivered and the “watchmen on the wall” like Steve are to warn as many as will hear. Matthew 7:13 states plainly that only a FEW will be saved. This should send chills up spines! This verse alone was responsible for putting the “fear of God” in me when I was part of churchianity and saw the painful discrepancy of the Words of Jesus and the actions of the religious people around me.
It is night. The world is asleep, or “drunk”, given over to strong delusion for refusing the love of the truth (2 Thess 2:10). Find a patriotic “christian’ with a “God Bless America” bumper sticker and tell them that America was NOT founded on Christianity but on Luciferian freemasonry and see what kind of “christian” [DEMONIC] reaction you get! Passive, indifferent, TV-brainwashed stooges who proclaim to be ‘Christians’ who “believe” in Jesus (mental assent only) with the faith of demons (James 2:20) in this hour are in BIG TROUBLE and don’t even know it. They never read their bibles and their “American” idol is their TV set yet they still insist they are ‘christians’. They fail to realize that the Hebrew meaning of the word “believe” in John 3:16 translates to: FOLLOW, CLING TO and OBEY, not a mere mental assent to the fact that Jesus Christ hung on a cross so they can continue in sin and apathy. Consider the warning in Matt. 24:48-51 against carelessness and the time of Christ’s coming. Indifferent ‘Christians’ may prove not to be Christians at all. Half of the sleeping virgins had no oil. They were unaware of their lack until it was too late and the door to the kingdom was shut in their faces and Jesus told them “I never knew you.”. We will see an accelerated process in the days ahead of separation involving apparent believers (the mental assent, 5 minute ‘decision card’ only types) being overcome by sleep (strong delusion) and wine (spiritual drunkeness or deception).
As Paul said in I Thess. 5:5-11, “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.”
If you are a faithful believer, Jesus is now asking you to WARN OTHERS just as Steve is doing here on this website. And you will be persecuted for your obedience “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake, but he who endures to the end shall be saved.” Matt 10:22
“Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Rev. 18:4. “Her” refers not only to the world but to the harlot organized 501(c)3 “church” that rides the government beast system of this world, or in other words, Laodicean apostate christianity.
“To execute on them the Written Word, this honor have all His saints.” Psalm 149:9
His maidservant,
Lynn D.
Well said Lynn.
Thank you,
Steve Balckwell