Communion Message by Jay Wegter
Worship is Communion with the Holy One, 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1
I. In order to commune with God, we must know the Father’s holy character
True believers have the desire to experience God, to have their hearts stirred, to feel His presence, to have their affections moved, and to have their souls rejoice. Those longings are cords of love from the divine to draw you into worship. For, it is through worship that we enjoy God and experience Him. The Lord calls us to commune with Him by means of His precious and magnificent promises. These wonderful promises are an inducement to draw near and commune with God.
v.14-15 – “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?” To be unequally yoked is to enter a close association which will produce disharmony. This is pictured in the Old Testament as placing an ox or a donkey in the same yoke. It would be two different species of animals, one clean and unclean. Forming close relationships with unbelievers is forbidden in Scripture.
What’s the chief reason to stay away from compromised relationships? The answer is that the true believer belongs to exclusively to God. And he must live in such a way that all of life demonstrates he belongs to God. Close, ‘bosom friendships’ with unbelievers produce an incompatible mixture. This commandment is enforced by a series of questions which follow. These rhetorical questions are designed to graphically show the incongruity of such mixed unions.
In this context, righteousness means moral excellence, that which conforms to God’s Law. Thus, what partnership do the righteous and the wicked have? What do they have in common? What bond of union or sympathy is between them? Consequently, what communion exists between them? Two parties are said to be in communion when they are so united that what belongs to one belongs to the other. Believers are in communion or have fellowship with one another when they recognize each other as having a joint interest in the benefits of redemption. The unity they enjoy is because they have life in Christ is common. There is no greater source of mutuality than shared life in Christ. Their fellowship flows from the consciousness that they possess the same inward experience as the other, peace with God, forgiveness of sins, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Unlike elements cannot be united. Any attempt to combine them will destroy the character of the one or the other. The second question is, “What communion hath light with darkness?” Light is the common scriptural emblem of knowledge, holiness, and blessedness. Hence, Christians are said to be the children of light (1 Thess 5:5). Paul was sent to turn the Gentiles from darkness to light (Acts 26:18). Darkness on the other hand is the emblem of error, sin, and misery. The impenitent wicked are children of darkness headed for the final state of perdition, or ‘outer darkness’. The unbeliever is not neutral toward the light, he or she is not just lacking information, but has a deep-seated hatred of the light (Jn 3:19-21). Christ and Satan are irreconcilable—they head up two opposing kingdoms locked in mortal combat. It’s two kingdoms, two masters, two worldviews clashing.
“What accord or harmony does Christ have with the devil, or what has a believer have in common with an unbeliever?” (v. 15). How can the discordant and opposite agree? Christ is holy and pure. Belial is worthless and wicked. It is impossible to unite the service of Christ with the service of Satan. The unbeliever and the mere professor of Christianity may agree well enough in tastes, hobbies, and worldly pursuits, but there is antipathy and incompatibility between a believer and an unbeliever. For, saving faith changes the entire character of a person. It makes a man move in an entirely different sphere. There are new feelings, new objects of affection, and new principles which unbelievers do not possess. So massive is the change a believer is described as a ‘new creation’ (2 Cor 5:17).
Those who are spiritually dead are not capable of intimate union and communion with the Son of God and believers. It is as impossible as fellowship between light and darkness. The interior life a believer and an unbeliever are entirely different, not just incompatible, but opposed to one another. To the believer, Christ Jesus is God the Son worthy of supreme love and reverence. To the unbeliever, Christ is but a good man. To the believer, the Lord is the great object and life worthy of our utmost. The Christian promotes the glory of Christ and counts himself infinitely rich because he has His favor. To the unbeliever, these blessings evoke no sense of treasure, only indifference. There is no possibility of uniting such discording elements. We’ve seen that God’s holiness means that He is altogether separate from sin. He dwells in light, righteousness, justice, and love—those who will live with Him forever must be characterized by these virtues. For God will not dwell with sinners in eternity anymore than you’d be willing to share your bedroom with the carcass of a decaying animal.
II. In order to commune with God, we must reckon our Father’s loving promises
v. 16 -- “What agreement has the temple of God with idols?” For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, ‘I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.’” The Apostle has a crucial reason for citing this disharmony. It is because the believers are the temple of God. A building consecrated to the true God is no place for idols. Man cannot combine the worship of God with the worship of devils. In Scripture idolatry always represented the greatest insult the creature can cast at the Creator. The worst idolatry is to set up idols in God’s own temple—you Christian are the temple of the living God. God’s temple is not merely a structure dedicated to Him, but one in which He dwells. Therefore, heaven as God’s dwelling place is called His temple (Ps 11:4). Christ’s body is called a temple because in Him the godhead dwells bodily (Col 2:8). Believers are collectively God’s temple because they are inhabited by His Spirit (Eph 2:19-22).
Next, Paul gives the scriptural proof that we are His temples by indicating that God will ‘dwell in them and walk among them’. The idea in mind here is that the presence of God is made known by His Spirit. These promises of the divine presence contain more than that which our hearts can conceive. Our conceptions of God literally dwelling among His people are so low and inadequate. For God to pledge His power, provision, and protection to defiled creatures of dust is a remarkable thing. To have God for you, is to have an infinite Protector and Benefactor who is your portion and object of your love. This is the relationship for which we were created, it is why we were made in His own image and likeness. This is what God designed us to be—that we might be His people; those whom He recognizes as His peculiar property, objects of His love, and recipients of His eternal favor. The maintenance and enjoyment of this relationship is the heart of communion with the Lord.
III. In order to commune with God, we must separate ourselves from wickedness
v.17-18 – “Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says the Lord. ‘AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; and 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.’” Because God is most intimately related to His people, it places upon us the primacy of our relationship with Him. We are His temple; therefore, He desires to have a people for His dwelling place with whom He communes. He dwells with the redeemed, therefore, they are bound to keep themselves unspotted from the world (Jas 1:27; 2 Pet 3:14). For believers to successfully live as God’s devoted dwelling place, they must separate themselves from the world. “For if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 Jn 2:15). They can use it but not be of it. They are not fortressed from it but are a light in it. The burden of this text addresses the weightiness of the divine promises. We must feel the weightiness of this unspeakable privilege of communing with the Holy One. Thus, at the communion table we are testifying of His dwelling with us, and of our separation unto Him who has brought us into the relationship.
God declares that He will not only receive into favor those who regard themselves as His temple and who keep themselves from contamination, but that He will be a Father to them (v. 18). How much more favor does a father have for his child than a master does for his servant? Our Heavenly Father relates to us as His sons and daughters. The concept of sonship is incredibly rich. It embraces the manifold spiritual blessings of the heavenlies outlined in Ephesians chapter one. This is the language of the Lord God Almighty declaring our membership in His forever family. To be sons of God is a dignity and blessedness before which all earthly honors disappear by comparison.
APPLICATION: Every divinely bestowed privilege comes with obligations that shape the way you will live. Every encounter with God by means of His truth is a “crossroad” in your life, a “turning point,” a “moment of faith and obedience.” The demand flowing from His covenant promise to be your God (giving Himself to you forever and allowing you to abide in His presence) requires that you live a separated life as God’s own possession (Titus 2:14). Therefore the command is, come out from among them and be separate says the Lord. Jesus warned about the tendency to live for the approval of others (Jn 5:40-44). He said that it can keep you from receiving Him and from living for the approval and glory of your Heavenly Father (see James 4:4). God has set apart believers for Himself to be pure and to be enthusiastic about serving Him (Titus 2:14). We are set apart for the spiritual worship of God. We are to steer clear of that which would pollute the sanctuary of God.
“I Will be a Father” (v. 18). There is no greater dignity than to have God as one’s Father. It is such a high privilege to be adopted by God, to have His Spirit seal us (Eph 1:13-14). There is no greater happiness than to be God’s possession—to have a clear conscience, to know you are loved by God and walking with Him in the light (Acts 24:15-16; 1 Tim 1:18-19; Heb 9:14).
IV. In order to commune with God, we must search, and cleanse our hearts
2 Corinthians 7:1 – “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” The exhortation in this verse commands us to live in such a way that is becoming and consistent for those to whom such promises have been given. Reader, can you say, “the indwelling of God, His favor, and sonship are my greatest treasure?” If so, these promises and assurances of infinite association with the Holy One will evoke a response of cherishing and guarding communion with Him. The imperative, “Let us cleanse ourselves” is not merely avoiding contamination from the outside but involves seeking to mortify what remains of indwelling sin. God is the author of our sanctification (1 Cor 1:30; Heb 10:10). He is at work in the true believer to ‘will and to do His good pleasure’ (Phil 2:12-13). His dwelling in you is intended to promote your sanctification by arousing and directing your will to desire holiness. Where this desire is present, believers will stretch themselves and persevere to attain that holiness. God will not leave His true child undisturbed in his sins.
Two classes of sin are recognized, those of the flesh and those of the spirit. Sins of the flesh defile the body. Sins of the spirit are attitudes which affect the soul. The Apostle urges his readers to perfect holiness. This is not merely an assiduous effort to abstain from sin, but a positive cultivation of moral excellence (2 Pet 1:5-8). We must press forward in virtue in the fear of God (7:1b; Mt 10:28). Our endeavor to purify ourselves ought to out of reverence and worship of God. Our separation from the world unto God involves guarding and caring for our communion with Him.
Sins of the flesh generate shame, the guilt spun off by sins of the flesh is degrading. In response we tend to retreat into the grey castle of self, we lose our courage that God desires fellowship with creatures as polluted as we are. As the shame keeps us in the dankness of the castle, we keep judging ourselves to be ineligible for God’s love and favor. The desire for comfort pulls us back again to carnal objects of lust. Sins of the flesh have their own inherent dangers. Sustained unbelief is hardened by indulging in sins of the flesh (1 Cor 10:6-13; Heb 3:13). If we doubt God’s goodness, then indulge in sins of the flesh, it fixes a certain kind of bondage upon us; we lose our tenderness toward God (Heb 3:15). As the unbelief deepens the passing pleasures of sin can re-enslave. When caught in that vortex of the flesh, walking in the sunlit meadow of God’s favor seems only a memory. We need an exit strategy to get out of the grasp of the sins of the flesh vortex.
By the grace of God, the recoveries we experience are tokens of Christ’s sovereign love. He rescues us over and over again. By His Holy Spirit He emboldens us to believe the Gospel again— that Christ is given for guilty sinners and that the provision of His cleansing blood cannot be exhausted. We find that He who began a good work in us will keep us and continue to forgive us. We repent, and declare war on the sins of the flesh that we had tolerated. For repentance is not merely a passing remorse, it is a proactive change in our thinking—a renewed hatred of the sin and a rekindling of our affections for things above. We’ve found the exit door to the grey castle of self! It is fresh reliance upon Christ our qualifier as our life and righteousness. We leave the dank castle and consent again to be loved for no good reason in us. We find again that fellowship with God issues forth in joy and peace and confidence. As we reckon His love to us and feed upon all that God is toward us in Christ we find a new strength to resist the sins of the flesh. Communing with our Father and walking with Him has become a treasure too precious to forsake—we do not wish to stoop to the sins of the flesh. For, they are beneath our dignity as His child and possessor of our Father’s promises.
Sins of the spirit are a different sort than sins of the flesh. Sins of the spirit, states Charles Hodge entail the following: arrogance, slander, hatred, resentment, malice, spiritual pride, anger, rage, unbelief—these are sinful postures and attitudes of the heart. Sins of the spirit hold us in their vortex in a different way than sins of the flesh. Sins of the spirit hold us through self-pity, through self-deception, and through a hunger for personal value. When under the influence of sins of the spirit, the believer is commonly in a mode controlled by entitlement and demanding-ness. There is an accompanying lack of gratitude and contentment. The attitude is, “I don’t deserve this, why is this being withheld from me!” A sense of entitlement churns inside the heart. There is an ensuing contest with God as if He must give in to the believer’s demands. While under the influence of sins of the spirit, the believer tends to hold God’s goodness and glory ‘hostage’.
Many believers ‘sentence’ themselves to an extended period of joylessness because they refuse to repent of this condition in a timely manner. If it becomes habitual, they eventually become complainers and faultfinders (Jude 16). Sins of the spirit are subtle in their ability to hide. Very often the pride associated with sins of the spirit is bound up in a desire to be perfect, whole, and complete in the self. The “lukewarm” church of Laodicea sought completeness in self. The exit strategy from sins of the spirit is not an easy one. For spiritual pride and self-pity comprise Satan’s own sin and he knows how to sustain their grip. The only way to be delivered is to bring one’s heart down, way down by contemplating one’s ill desert and depravity (see Ps 39; 51; 90:7ff.; Ps 139; Is 57:15; 66:1-2).
When the believer is willing to think upon what he deserves and what he is in himself, it will help bring the heart back to a proper consideration of depraved creaturehood. But more is needed— the saint spinning in the vortex of sins of the spirit needs to come to a full stop at the base of the cross and meditate upon the depths of Christ’s humiliation. “It was MY reproach, defilement, separation, hellishness, and enmity that was being exposed to nails, jeering, wrath, and torture in the body of my Substitute.” This must be allowed to sink deeply into the inner man so that the believer can recover from the insanity of spiritual pride. This is the only way to recover from the gross forgetfulness and neglect of what it means to be a trophy of God’s grace.
Demandingness, loss of contentment, and rage only give way when self is judged severely (Ps 51:17; Joel 2:12). There must be a renewed submission to the authority of Christ as Lord of all, and a resignation to His providence. This entails the confidence that He sees hidden caverns of depravity in our nature that if left alone will cause soul-destroying trouble—thus He engages them in a series of preemptive strikes. He chooses our trials with perfect wisdom and love. It is because of His discipline that we survive without which we’d be condemned along with the world (1 Cor 11:31-32; Heb 12:10). Our exit strategy from sins of the spirit must encompass these spiritual truths. The reality of the Lord’s dealings with us must enter the depths of our soul—for He is subduing us to Himself. The exit strategy from sins of the spirit involves falling on our faces at the base of the cross before our Savior and consenting to be the objects of His Gethsemene love, a love that consented to betrayal for our sakes.
Spiritual pride grows during long seasons of neglect. Beg God to allow tears to replace your anger. Plead with God to grant you repentance at the bottom of your rebellion. The noxious plants of spiritual pride are not removed with a little bit of weed spray, they will have to be pulled up by the roots. It will take sweat to excavate them. Christ will assume His proper place in your thoughts and affections ONLY if this work is undertaken. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God that He will exalt you at the proper time” (1 Pet 5:6). God’s precious promises are an inducement to put to death lust and corruptions of body and mind. We must endeavor to be partakers of His holiness. To strive for holiness is evidence that we truly fear God. For He reserves His promises of nearness and the sense of His presence to those who take holiness seriously (Is 66:1-2; 57:15).
CONCLUSION: With his chain of O.T. quotes in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, the apostle Paul has stressed the privilege of being the temple of God and the child of God, and he has highlighted the benefits of complying with God’s will of living a separated life. Thus, if we live “dead to sin and alive to God,” (Rom 6:11) we will know the infinite blessing of Him dwelling with us. He will manifest His presence in your life, and He will deepen your awareness of your sonship. He will make you know His covenant pledge to be your Heavenly Father (Ps 25:14). We are to bring these promises to the Lord’s table when we partake in communion.
The preciousness of His promises must control us. His promises must take up residence in your heart and affections; you must identify whatever idols seek to crowd out God’s promises. It is the nature of God’s gracious promises to urge us on to sanctification and holiness. Redemption has a specific goal. It is to prepare us to live with God and enjoy Him forever. God is working from and for the perspective of eternity. Puritan pastors such as Richard Baxter used to ask their parishioners, “Do you believe that all of life is preparation for the next life?” What a barometer of spiritual health! We take only one thing with us into the eternal state, our relationship with God. Paul has shown us that we are called to purity. And it must be a purity evident in body and soul—in both the outward and the inward life. There must be a clear conscience regarding both the outward and the inward life (1 Tim 1:18-19). We must consecrate ourselves to God—all the members of your being devoted to Him— that is a commitment which we renew each day to not live with impurity in His sight.
We live in the age of the moral disconnect. Professing Christians put confidence in their convictions and then live without dedicating the members of their body to God. What they say they believe is radically different from how they live; there is a huge disconnect, a huge gap. We could call it the ‘hypocrisy gap’. The wider the gap between what we say we believe and how we live, the more serious the hypocrisy. Our passage (2 Cor 6:14-7:1), is about getting rid of the disconnect. It’s about applying deadly serious ongoing repentance to close that gap that has allowed hypocrisy to grow like a spiritual cancer. And we are to do so by ‘cleansing ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit.’ That refers to the whole personality, the whole man, the inner and outer man. God wants the whole person. He wants you to draw close enough to Him to commune with Him as your lifestyle—close enough to share your thought life with Him throughout the day. God told Abraham to walk before Him with an awareness that He was always in God’s presence, under God’s eye (Gen 17:1).
“Cleanse yourselves,”—this involves ongoing repentance. That’s the only way to close the gap and eliminate the disconnect between what you say you believe and how you live. Live set apart, consecrated to God. The inestimable blessing of intimate fellowship with God as objects of His eternal favor and adopting love ought to cast bright light upon the precepts connected with our communion with Him. For, the more you see your calling as His temple and His child, the more you will prize holiness, and the sweeter will be your experience of God.
Those who pant after God will pant after purity. Holiness prized will make us prize our holy God, for He has designated the redeemed to be His temples for the purpose of communing with Him. To be an heir of salvation is to have the life of God in yourselves. There is no room for complacency about your sins. Partaking of the communion table is a proclamation of the death of Christ which brought us into fellowship with God (1 Cor 11:25-26). The giving of Christ was the priceless sacrifice necessary for us to become the Father’s sons, temples, and dwelling places.
Aspects of our communion with God which relate directly to the Lord’s Table.
- God’s devotion to His people, and their devotion to Him is captured in the phrase, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God and they shall be My people” (2 Cor 6:16). This promise of mutuality originally given in Leviticus 26:11-12 is fulfilled for us in the New Covenant in Christ’s blood (Heb 8:10b), and only inaugurated fully in glory (Rev 21:3).
- The Lord’s Table is a corporate testimony of this new covenant reality. He who partakes of the elements proclaims the Lord’s death, namely that the believer bears this covenant relationship to God because of the blood and body of Christ.
- The Lord’s Table is intended to deepen our appreciation of God’s promises to commune with us. Those who treasure His promises of fellowship will stir themselves to separate from sin.
- Thus, the Lord’s Table has a purifying effect upon the church because the participants are declaring by partaking of the elements that they are walking consistent with the requirements of new covenant fellowship with God and the saints.
- Thus, the Lord’s Table is the regular consummation and commemoration of the Lord’s blood bought covenant with His people. For God’s purpose for the world is to call out a people for Himself through Christ who will be His purified possession, enthusiastic for good works.
Questions for further study and discussion:
- Why do close relationships with unbelievers more often than not, harm the character of the believer? (1 Cor 15:33).
- Though God has a nearly limitless universe, why does He desire to make His abode in living temples?
- If we truly saw that holiness is the end goal of our calling, how would it affect our priorities and our relationships?
- Why is it that communing with God changes us into His likeness?
- Why is it that we cannot love God without loving holiness, and having holy longings?
- Why is it that only the Christian can see God’s attributes of love and holiness (mercy and justice) reconciled to one another?
- Why do Reformed theologians refer to the Lord’s Table as a ‘means of grace’? What do they mean by ‘means of grace’?