28 Aug. Good and bad do not belong together
"We are workers together with God, so we beg you: do not let the grace that you received from God be for nothing. God says, 'At the right time I will hear your prayers. On the day of salvation I will help you'." [Isaiah 49:8]
"I tell you that the 'right time' is now, and the 'day of salvation' is now..."
"You are not the same as those who do not believe. So do not join yourselves to them. Good and bad do not belong together. Light and darkness cannot share together."
"How can Christ and Belial, the devil, have any agreement? What can a believer have together with a non-believer?"
"The temple of God cannot have any agreement with idols, and we are the temple of the living God. As God said: 'I will live with them and walk with them. And I will be their God, and they will be my people'..." [Leviticus 26:11-12]
"Dear friends, we have these promises from God, so we should make ourselves pure - free from anything that makes body or soul unclean. We should try to become holy in the way we live, because we respect God."
(2 Corinthians 6:1-18, 7:1)
Paul has just urged his readers to make a clean break with the past and to become 'new creations' at peace with God. He now begs them not to delay this life-changing commitment. “I tell you that the “right time” is now; and the “day of salvation” is now!” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
Paul then warns the new believers not to slip back into their old ways by mixing with the wrong sort of people. He tells the Corinthians not to compromise their Christian lifestyle because of the ungodly influence of their contemporary society. “You are not the same as those who do not believe. So do not join yourselves to them. Good and bad do not belong together. Light and darkness cannot share together. How can Christ and Belial, the devil, have any agreement?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-15).
He reminds them that God lives within them - they are "temples of the living God" - and as such, they should have nothing to do with anything that is impure or unclean.
In our own 21st century society, it's very easy to get carried along by the crowds, and sometimes it's necessary to pick and choose our friends very carefully. Paul's advice holds true today, and "we should try to become holy in the way we live, because we respect God." (2 Corinthians 7:1)
The photo shows the High Street in Solihull, UK.
You can read more from Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians @ https://www.thebiblejourney.org/…/14…/how-god-changes-lives/