2 Corinthians 7

          Therefore, since we have these promises...

          - 2 Corinthians 7:1

Anytime you're reading the Bible and you see the word, "Therefore," if you want to understand what you're about to read you must check to see what the "therefore" is there for.  What is about to follow is a direct follow up to what came before.

If we look at the verses which came right before this we see:

          2 Corinthians 6

          As God has said:

          “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God,
           and they will be my people.”

          17 Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the 

          Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

          18 And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and  

          daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

Right before we get to 2 Corinthians 6, Paul quotes part of the Old Testament where God tells several very powerful statements:

• I will live with them (A promise from God)
• I will be there God (A promise from God)
• They will be my people (A statement about a relationship)
• Be separate (A command from God)
• Touch no unclean thing (A command from God)
• I will be there Father / You will be my sons and daughters (God's description of the nature of the relationship)

At first seems like two of these statements seem very much out of place.  God makes a series of statements about our relationship, and in the middle of all of it, He gives us commands to be "separate" and "touch no unclean thing."  On paper it seems like an odd time to do that.

But what you must understand is that fundamental to God's character is His holiness.  "Holy" or "Holiness" are churchy words which we sing in church a lot, but we rarely stop to define them.  If you've attended church for any length of time, you've literally sung 100s of songs declaring that God is "Holy."  

But what does the word mean? 

HOLY = Set apart

The word "Holy" most literally means, "Set apart."  Saying that God is Holy means that God is set apart and different from everything else.  He is clean and righteous. He is without blemish.  God is clean of all sin or impurity.

In the glimpses of the throne room of Heaven we see in Isaiah 6 and Revelation, on both occasions we see that there are special angels in Heaven who's only job is to fly around the throne of God declaring, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty." 

This isn't because they have a stuttering problem.  In the Hebrew culture linguistically they would emphasize a word by repeating it.  So for example when Jesus would make an important point He would say, "Truly, truly."  This was to emphasize the point. In English we do this by adding "er" or "est" to the end of a word.  So something can be big, bigger, or biggest.

In the throne room of Heaven they don't simply repeat that God is holy once.  They do it twice.  This was a really big deal. Very rarely did they emphasize anything to the 2nd repetition.  And of all the characteristics of God to choose, it was "Holy. HOLY! HOLY!!!"  

This is a HUGE!  We know that God is love, but the angels singing to God don't say He is "Love, love, love." They say He is "Holy. HOLY! HOLY!!!"

So why when God is defining His relationship with His people would He say they need to "Be separate" and not touch anything "unclean"?  Because being set apart and holy is pivotal to being a part of God's family.

So what does Paul say next...

Therefore, 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.

          - 2 Corinthians 7:1

          In light of God inviting us into His family...

          In light of God calling us His children....

If we want to honor that invitation, we must seek to purify ourselves from anything that would contaminate our bodies or spirits.  One of the defining elements of a relationship with God is pursing holiness.  

Our salvation comes in three parts:  Justification, sanctification, and glorification.

JUSTIFICATION = The moment we put our faith in Christ we are declared righteous, and stand before God legally cleansed of our sin.

SANCTIFICATION = The process throughout our life where we work with God's empowering to remove sin from our lives.

GLORIFICATION = The removal of our entire sin nature after we leave this life.

When Paul speaks about removing any contaminates from our bodies or spirits, he's referring to our sanctification.  He's talking about the daily process of working to live more and more like Jesus on a daily basis.  

We don't aim to live more like Jesus to earn our salvation, but we do so to honor the invitation to be apart of God's family.

APPLICATION

In light of this invitation from God to be a part of His family, holy and set apart, where do you know you need to do some cleaning?

• Where are your motives impure?
• Where is a relationship fractured?
• Which thoughts do you know are impure?
• Who have you wronged and need to seek reconciliation?
• Where does your life look more like the world than the life of Jesus?

As members of God's family, we pursue holiness! That is what we do. That is what God's family does!

Sean Chandler | Associate Pastor

Sean has been a part of the association of Hill Country Bible Churches for over twenty years. He received Christ as a youth while attending Hill Country Bible Church Austin. He attended Hill Country Bible Church NW from 1989 to 2002. At that time he began attending HCBC Pflugerville. He served as a student ministry intern there for two years. In 2008, Sean graduated from Columbia International University with a double major in Bible and Bible teaching. Sean married his wife, Jennifer, in 2006. Their first child, Liam, was born in 2012, and their second, Chloe, was born in 2014.

He blogs regularly at seanchandler.net.