2 Corinthians 6:17

Contextual Overview

¹¹We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. ¹¹ We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. ¹¹ Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart is opened wide. ¹¹Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart is opened wide. ¹¹Won't all you cowboys in Corinth listen? I have spoken plainly with an open heart. ¹¹ Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians, our heart is wide. ¹¹ Our mouth is opened to you, Corinthians, our heart is expanded. ¹¹ We have spoken openly to you, Corinthians; our heart has been opened wide. ¹¹ Our mouth is open to you, Corinthians. Our heart is enlarged. ¹¹ O ye Corinthians, our mouth is opened toward you, our heart is inlarged.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

come: 2 Corinthians 7:1, Numbers 16:21, Numbers 16:26, Numbers 16:45, Ezra 6:21, Ezra 10:11, Psalms 1:1-3, Proverbs 9:6, Isaiah 52:11, Jeremiah 51:6, Acts 2:40, Revelation 18:4

and I: John 6:37, John 6:38, Romans 15:7

Reciprocal: Genesis 3:3 - touch Genesis 12:1 - Get Genesis 20:6 - to touch Exodus 33:16 - separated Leviticus 5:2 - touch Leviticus 7:19 - General Leviticus 11:3 - parteth Leviticus 11:8 - they are unclean Leviticus 11:24 - General Leviticus 20:24 - which Numbers 5:3 - without Numbers 6:8 - General Numbers 19:11 - toucheth the dead Numbers 23:9 - dwell alone Numbers 25:2 - they called Numbers 35:34 - I dwell Deuteronomy 10:8 - time the Lord Deuteronomy 14:6 - General Deuteronomy 20:18 - General Joshua 6:18 - in any wise 1 Samuel 8:20 - General 1 Samuel 15:6 - depart 1 Samuel 27:5 - some town 1 Kings 22:4 - I am as thou 2 Kings 9:27 - Ahaziah Psalms 26:4 - General Psalms 45:10 - Hearken Psalms 114:2 - General Psalms 139:19 - depart from Psalms 141:4 - to practice Proverbs 1:15 - walk Proverbs 2:12 - deliver Proverbs 18:1 - Through Proverbs 24:19 - Fret Song of Solomon 2:10 - Rise Isaiah 43:6 - bring Jeremiah 3:19 - put thee Jeremiah 15:17 - sat not Jeremiah 50:8 - out of the midst Jeremiah 51:45 - deliver Ezekiel 42:20 - a separation Zechariah 2:6 - and flee Matthew 7:13 - at John 1:12 - to them Acts 7:3 - Get Acts 17:4 - some 1 Corinthians 5:9 - not 1 Corinthians 10:14 - flee Philippians 2:15 - sons Colossians 1:13 - and Colossians 2:21 - General 1 Thessalonians 1:9 - the living Hebrews 10:21 - the house Hebrews 12:14 - and holiness 1 Peter 2:24 - being 2 Peter 1:4 - are given 1 John 5:21 - keep Revelation 21:4 - the former

Cross-References

Genesis 2:7
the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Genesis 2:7
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Genesis 2:7
Then Yahweh God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and so the man became a living being.

Genesis 2:7
Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Genesis 2:7
The Lorde God also dyd shape man, [euen] dust fro of the grounde, & breathed into his nosethrylles the breath of lyfe, and man was a lyuyng soule.

Genesis 2:7
Then the Lord God took dust from the ground and made a man. He breathed the breath of life into the man's nose, and the man became a living thing.

Genesis 2:7
then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Genesis 2:7
Therfor the Lord God formede man of the sliym of erthe, and brethide in to his face the brething of lijf; and man was maad in to a lyuynge soule.

Genesis 2:7
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, & breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a liuing soule.

Genesis 2:7
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Wherefore come out from among them,.... Since they were the temple of the living God, built up an habitation for the Most High; since he resided among them, took his walks in the midst of them, was their God, and they were his people. These words are taken out of Isaiah 52:11 where the several phrases here used may be observed. They seem to be directed to the Israelites, and particularly to the priests and Levites, who bore the vessels of the Lord; and are fitly applied to believers under the Gospel dispensation, who are by Christ made priests unto God. They are usually interpreted by the Jewish writers, as a call to the Jews to come out of captivity, to quit Babylon and Persia, and the several cities and countries where they were; and are applied in Revelation 18:4 to mystical Babylon, the church of Rome, as a call to God's people, to leave the superstitions and idolatries of that church, lest they be partakers of her plagues; and here, by the apostle, as an exhortation to believers in general, to forsake the company and conversation of the men of the world: who may be said to come out from among them at first conversion, when they are called to forsake their own people, and their Father's house, to leave their native country, and seek an heavenly one; and when, in consequence of effectual calling grace, their conversations are different from what they were before, and from other Gentiles; when they dislike their former companions, abhor their sinful conversation, abstain from it, keep out of it, as being infectious, hurtful, and detrimental to them; when they have no fellowship with the workers of iniquity, but reprove them both by words and deeds, which is their incumbent duty: the phrase in Isaiah is, "go ye out from the midst of her"; which Kimchi interprets, "out of the midst of every city in which thou art"; that is, in which idolaters lived; and well agrees with

εκ μεσου αυτων here, "out of the midst of them":

and be ye separate, saith the Lord; this phrase is not to be met with expressly in our version of the above text in Isaiah, but is signified by several expressions in it; the words rendered "depart ye, depart ye", are by the Targum, or Chaldee paraphrase on the place, expressed by אתפרשו אתפרשו, "be ye separate, be ye separate", which are the very words of the apostle here; and the phrase, "touch no unclean thing", is explained by R. Aben Ezra, מאומות העולם

שיבדלו, "that they might be separate from the nations of the world" and another word, הברו, "be ye clean", signifies such a purgation as is made by separation, by removing the clean from the unclean, by separating the wheat from the chaff. The people of God are a separate people in election, redemption, and the effectual calling, and ought to be so in their conduct and conversation; they ought to separate themselves from all superstition and will worship in religious matters, and from the evil customs and manners of the world, though they are sure to become a prey, and to expose themselves to the contempt and rage of it:

and touch not the unclean thing. The allusion is to several laws under the former dispensation, which forbid touching many things which were accounted unclean, whereby pollution was contracted, and the persons were obliged to a ceremonial cleansing; see Leviticus 5:2

Numbers 19:11. It has no regard to touching, tasting, and eating any sort of food, which was forbid as unclean by the ceremonial law; for the difference between meats clean and unclean was now removed; but if anything is particularly designed by the unclean thing, it seems to be idolatry, and to be a prohibition of joining with worshippers of idols in their idolatrous practices, whereby a moral pollution is contracted; since in the beginning of the former verse it is said, "what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" though it is rather intended in general, to forbid all communion and fellowship with unclean persons and things, not to touch them, to come nigh them, or have anything to do with them:

and I will receive you; this, and what follows in the next verse, are said to encourage believers to keep at a distance from wicked and immoral persons, whose company and conversation are dishonourable, ensnaring, and defiling. These persons had been already received into the love of God, his best and strongest affections, from which there can be no separation; and in the covenant of grace, which as it cannot be removed, so neither could they be removed out of that; they were received into the church of Christ, and had a place and a name in it, better than that of sons and daughters; and as they had been received by Christ, when they came to him as poor perishing sinners without him, so they were still received graciously, notwithstanding their many backslidings: neither of these therefore is the sense of this passage: but, that whereas by quitting society with carnal men, they would expose themselves to their resentments; the Lord here promises, that he would take them under the wings of his protection; he would take care of them and preserve them, keep them as the apple of his eye, and be a wall of fire round about them, whilst in this world; and when he had guided them by his counsel here, would "receive" them "to glory": this clause seems to be taken from the latter part of

Isaiah 52:12 which may be rendered, "the God of Israel will gather you"; i.e. to himself, and protect them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Wherefore - Since you are a special people. Since God, the holy and blessed God, dwells with you and among you.

Come out from among them - That is, from among idolaters and unbelievers; from a frivolous and vicious world. These words are taken, by a slight change, from Isaiah 3:11. They are there applied to the Jews in Babylon, and are a solemn call which God makes on them to leave the place of their exile, to come out from among the idolaters of that city and return to their own land; see my note on that place. Babylon, in the Scriptures, is the emblem of whatever is proud, arrogant, wicked, and opposed to God; and Paul, therefore, applies the words here with great beauty and force to illustrate the duty of Christians in separating themselves from a vain, idolatrous, and wicked world.

And be ye separate - Separate from the world, and all its corrupting influences.

Saith the Lord - see Isaiah 3:11. Paul does not use this language as if it had original reference to Christians, but he applies it as containing an important principle that was applicable to the case which he was considering, or as language that would appropriately express the idea which he wished to convey. The language of the Old Testament is often used in this manner by the writers of the New.

And touch not the unclean thing - In Isaiah, “touch no unclean thing;” that is, they were to be pure, and to have no connection with idolatry in any of its forms. So Christians were to avoid all unholy contact with a vain and polluted world. The sense is, “Have no close connection with an idolater, or an unholy person. Be pure; and feel that you belong to a community that is under its own laws, and that is to be distinguished in moral purity from all the rest of the world.”

And I will receive you - That is, I will receive and recognize you as my friends and my adopted children. This could not be done until they were separated from an idolatrous and wicked world. The fact of their being received by God, and recognized as his children, depended on their coming out from the world. These words with the verses following, though used evidently somewhat in the form of a quotation, yet are not to be found in any single place in the Old Testament In 2 Samuel 7:14, God says of Solomon, “I will be his Father, and he shall be my son.” In Jeremiah 31:9, God says, “For I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born.” It is probable that Paul had such passages in his eye, yet he doubtless designed rather to express the general sense of the promises of the Old Testament than to quote any single passage. Or why may it not be that we should regard Paul here himself as speaking as an inspired man directly, and making a promise then first communicated immediately from the Lord? Paul was inspired as well as the prophets; and it may be that he meant to communicate a promise directly from God. Grotius supposes that it was not taken from any particular place in the Old Testament, but was a part of a hymn that was in use among the Hebrews.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 17. Wherefore come out from among them — Is it not plain from this and the following verse that God would be their God only on the ground of their taking him for such, and that this depended on their being separated from the works and workers of iniquity? for God could not inhabit in them if they had concord with Belial, a portion with infidels; c. Those who will have the promises of God fulfilled to them must come under the conditions of these promises: if they are not separate-if they touch the unclean thing, God will not receive them and therefore will not be their God, nor shall they be his people.