Morally Distinct or Morally Compromised? (Chantilly)

1 Peter 5:8 CSB – Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.

Understand the Challenge: Be Distinct

2 Corinthians 6:14 CSB – Do not be yoked together with those who do not believe.

Equally Yoked

Unequally Yoked

2 Corinthians 5:17 CSB – …if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

2 Corinthians 6:14 CSB – Do not be yoked together with those who do not believe. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?

What agreement does Christ have with Belial (Satan)? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

To modern westerners, binary language sounds so unsophisticated!

Being Distinct Today Demands Courage (and wisdom)

Leviticus 19:2 CSB – Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.

Matthew 5:48 CSB – Jesus said Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

2 Corinthians 6:16-17 CSB – We are the temple of the living God, as God said:

I will dwell
and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
¹⁷ Therefore, come out from among them
and be separate, says the Lord;

Romans 12:9 CSB – Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

1 John 1:5 CSB – God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

John 3:19-21 CSB – This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. ²¹ But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light.

1 Kings 11:1-3,11 CSB – King Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh’s daughter: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women ² from the nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, and they must not intermarry with you, because they will turn your heart away to follow their gods.” To these women Solomon was deeply attached in love. ³ He had seven hundred wives who were princesses and three hundred who were concubines, and they turned his heart away.

When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods. He was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his God

Then the Lord said to Solomon, “Since you have done this and did not keep my covenant and my statutes, which I commanded you, I will tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.

Consider the Consequences of Tight Ties with Unbelievers

2 Corinthians 6:17 CSB – Therefore, come out from among them
and be separate, says the Lord;
do not touch any unclean thing,

2 Corinthians 6:14 CSB – “Stop forming inappropriate relationships with unbelievers. Can right and wrong be partners? Can light have anything in common with darkness?”

Leviticus 7:3-6 CSB – You must not intermarry with them, and you must not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, ⁴ because they will turn your sons away from me to worship other gods. Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you,…. ⁵ Instead, ….tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their carved images. ⁶ For you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God.

Jesus says,

            Seek first the kingdom of God… Matthew 6:33

            Take up your cross and follow Me.  Matthew 16:24

            No one can serve two masters… Matthew 6:24

1 Corinthians 15:33 CSB – “Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”

Mark 10:29 CSB – “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said, “there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, who will not receive a hundred times more, now at this time —houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions —and eternal life in the age to come.

2 Corinthians 6:14 CSB – For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness?

2 Corinthians 6:15 CSB – What agreement does Christ have with Belial

John 2:23 CSB – Jesus, however, would not entrust himself to them, since he knew them all

Proverbs 13:20 CSB – The one who walks with the wise will become wise, but a companion of fools will suffer harm.

2 Corinthians 6:16 CSB – And what agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God

Action: Fill Your Life with Good, Godly Things

2 Corinthians 7:1 CSB – So then, dear friends, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from every impurity of the flesh and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

Luke 11:24-26 CSB – “When an unclean spirit comes out of a person, it roams through waterless places looking for rest, and not finding rest, it then says, ‘I’ll go back to my house that I came from.’²⁵ Returning, it finds the house swept and put in order. ²⁶ Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and settle down there. As a result, that person’s last condition is worse than the first.”

Ephesians 5:18 CSB – And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit….

2 Corinthians 5:17 CSB – if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

2 Chronicles 7:14 CSB – [when] my people…. humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land

• Humble Yourself. Seek God’s Face

Job: “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a woman.” (Job 31:1)

Psalm 119:11 CSB – I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

• If you are married, take action to improve your marriage

1 Corinthians 7:2-3,5 CSB – But because sexual immorality is so common, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman should have sexual relations with her own husband. ³ A husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise a wife to her husband.

Do not deprive one another—except when you agree for a time, to devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again; otherwise, Satan may tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

• Walk in “newness of life”

1 Thessalonians 5:23 CSB – Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.

Ephesians 5:18 CSB – And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit….

James 5:16 CSB – Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.

• Serve
• Accept God’s forgiveness of your past

Isaiah 1:16-18 CSB – “Wash yourselves. Cleanse yourselves.
Remove your evil deeds from my sight.
Stop doing evil.
¹⁷ Learn to do what is good..

¹⁸ “Come, let’s settle this,”
says the Lord.
“Though your sins are scarlet,
they will be as white as snow;
though they are crimson red,
they will be like wool.