Wherefore come out from the midst of them, and be separated, saith [the] Lord, and touch not [what is] unclean, and *I* will receive you;
This verse closes a run of questions about what a believer can share with an unbeliever. It lands as a direct command from God. Two things need answering: what God tells us to come out of, and what His promise to welcome us adds to the demand.
The command is not new. It comes from a passage where God calls His people out of Babylon.
Believers are marked by righteousness and light. They are under the leadership of Christ, and they are the temple of God. So there is a binding obligation to come out from the world and to be separate from evil. The Apostle presses his call home by pointing to Isaiah 52:11: "Depart, depart, go out from there; touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the LORD."
Some read the call to "go out from their midst" as a demand to withdraw from ordinary human contact. That reading breaks down at once.
We come into contact with all sorts of people in our daily business or employment. If we had to be separate in that sense, then we would "need to go out of the world" (1 Cor. 5:10). We are not, however, to be unequally yoked with them. It is the "yoke" we have to beware of, because it is almost impossible to be equally yoked with an unbeliever.
One writer tests that limit where the yoke already exists:
It is bad for a believer to marry an unbeliever. Even then God does not say: Come out of the relationship; leave your wife; part from your husband. Apply the command where it belongs — to fellowship with unbelievers in the things of God — and you have a principle of deep and urgent importance. I am not to unite with the world in any one thing that concerns the service and worship of God. This is the true meaning of being unequally yoked.
The demand is not arbitrary. It rests on God's own character.
God must have His own holy, for He is holy. This must be true inwardly, or it would all be hypocrisy. It must be true in outward ways too, to His own glory. Otherwise He would be a partner with us in His own dishonour. He will have us clear of associations that are worldly and defiling. The man of the world cannot rise to the level of Christ, so the Christian must come down to the level of fallen Adam and the world.
Obeying costs something. The same "says the Lord" covers both the command and the promise that follows.
Someone will object that obedience is sure to bring suffering and loss. Exactly. That is why those gracious words are also covered by the "says the Lord": "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." These words are not a declaration of relationship, as the words in John 20:17 are. They are our Father saying that if men refuse us, He will receive us; if they oppose us, He will fulfil a Father's part to us. He will truly "father" us.
If believers are already God's children, why is the promise tied to a condition? One writer answers by pointing back to Abraham, whom this same God once called out.
The Lord who revealed Himself to Abraham called him to separation: "Go from your country." And now the same Lord declares a new relationship: He will be a Father, and we His sons and daughters. In Christ we know God as our Father. But we can only enjoy this relationship in practice if we walk in separation. Real communion with God as Father, without separating from evil, is an impossibility.
Obey this verse and people will call you narrow. One writer meets that charge head on:
It is as plain as it is pointed. It calls on all God's people to come out and be separate, and not to touch the unclean thing. Some of us are very afraid of being thought narrow and bigoted. But how little it matters to a truly devoted heart what men think of us! Human thoughts perish in an hour. When we stand in the full blaze of the glory, what will it matter whether men considered us narrow or broad, bigoted or liberal?
- Called — the words are God's own, taken from Isaiah's call to leave Babylon and touch nothing unclean. This is God's command, not one man's preference.
- Clarified — the call is out of the yoke, not out of the world. We cannot avoid contact with all sorts of people. We can avoid the yoke.
- Grounded — God asks it because He is holy. He will not become a partner in His own dishonour. The yoke pulls the believer down; it never lifts the unbeliever up.
- Compensated — the same "says the Lord" both commands and promises. If men refuse us, He receives us and acts a Father's part toward us.
- Enjoyed — the relationship is already ours in Christ. But we cannot hold on to evil and enjoy real communion with God as Father.
and I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters, saith [the] Lord Almighty.
This is the closing line of a call to come out from the world. It is not a threat but a promise. God puts His own name, and a family bond, on those who separate. Two questions follow. Why does God sign this promise as Lord Almighty? And do "sons and daughters" describe how we are born, or how we live?
The words of this promise come from several Old Testament passages. One writer names them:
Here again the Holy Spirit led the apostle to borrow words from various parts of the Old Testament, especially Isaiah 52:11, Ezekiel 20:34, 2 Samuel 7:8, 14, Isaiah 43:6… This promise is here to encourage each believer to obey His word. The earlier promise was about enjoying His presence together. In that earlier promise they were His temple, because He lived and walked among them. Here He says, "I will receive you, and I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters." This is our new relationship in positive blessing, and it assumes that God has given us the divine nature.
The two titles that close the verse are names God used long before. The new name is Father.
In revealing Himself, God has taken three great characters across the ages: first Almighty, then Jehovah, then Father. In 2 Corinthians 6 the apostle speaks of the church's place as separate from the world. He says, "Come out from among them, and be separate… and I will be a Father to you… says the Lord Almighty." Almighty was the first character in which God showed Himself. But at that time God Almighty did not say, I am your Father. The very principle and essence of this present time is that God is revealed in the character of Father.
One writer sets the Greek word behind Almighty beside the word for the powers a Christian fights:
In Ephesians 6:12 the devil and his hosts are called "the rulers of the darkness of this world." The Greek word for ruler there is kosmokrator, literally "world-ruler." They rule this kosmos, this ordered world system. But in 2 Corinthians 6:18 God speaks of Himself as "the Almighty." The Greek word here is Pantokrator, the ruler of "all things" — the whole universe. He does not rule this little kosmos alone, where we move and suffer.
Does this mean we earn the relationship by separating? One writer draws a line between what makes us God's children and what shows it in public.
Here it is not a question of the secret relationship of children, formed by a divine work. It is the public acknowledgment of the position of sons (huious), and it comes as the result of our separation from evil.
Every name God has taken has come with a call to come out:
To Abraham God spoke as El Shaddai, the Almighty, and called him to separation: "Go from your country." To Israel God spoke as Jehovah, and they became His people, separated by Him and to Him. The same Lord Almighty now declares a new relationship: He will be a Father, and we His sons and daughters. In Christ we know God as our Father. But we can only enjoy this relationship in practice if we walk in separation. Real communion with God as Father without separating from evil is an impossibility.
Coming out from the world costs something. Often it costs people. The promise answers that loss.
Someone will object that obedience is certain to bring suffering and loss. Exactly. That is why those gracious words also stand under the "says the Lord": "I will be a Father to you… says the Lord Almighty." These words are not a declaration of relationship, as the words in John 20:17 are. They are the One who is our Father saying that if men refuse us, He will receive us. If they set themselves against us, He will fulfil the Father's part to us. He will "father" us indeed.
The same promise meets those who lose material comfort:
Commit your whole case to Him. He knows and sympathises, and He will not let you be overburdened. He will not put on you a feather's weight more than you can bear with joy. You may have fewer material comforts. But you will know much more of Him who is the Lord Almighty, and who has said: "I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters."
- Come out — The promise is the second half of a command. It answers the believer who has just come out from the world.
- Father — God was Almighty to Abraham and Jehovah to Israel. The name that marks this present time, and belongs to us, is Father.
- Almighty — The name signing the promise is the ruler of all things, not just of this small world where hostile powers work.
- Owned — Birth into God's family is settled and secret. Being owned in public as sons and daughters, and enjoying that bond, follows separation from evil.
- Fathered — Whatever obedience costs you in people or comforts, He takes the Father's part: if men refuse you, He receives you.