It was one of the most common memory verses back in the early 1980s.....2 Corinthians 5:17...."Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." This is from the NKJV....because it is what we were memorizing back then. The following verses are from the ESV.
In chapter six....verses four through ten Paul began to describe his ministry....and that of Timothy who was with him. In these words he described how they had to have great endurance as they went through afflictions and hardships and calamities. There were beatings and imprisonments....and He went on...."by purity....knowledge....patience....kindness....the Holy Spirit....genuine love.....by truthful speech....and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left....through glory and dishonor......slander and praise......we were treated as imposters, and yet are true....as unknown, and yet well-known; as dying, and yet behold, we live....as punished and yet not killed.....as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing, yet possessing all."
This short chapter six should have a solemn effect on all of us. It is almost a reset moment....to use that word that we hear so often today. The following verses....concluding the chapter....fourteen through eighteen....are what I wanted to focus on in this post.....
"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 has 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. 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"
Note: The title also uses the more recognizable NKJV
