At the conclusion of this verse is a curious set of words that reads, “unclean thing.” To get to the point of understanding those words, we must look further up the chapter for the key thoughts that Paul is trying to get across. From verse 14 to 16 the admonition is for believers not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. This is often taken as advice, but truly it is a warning. If Christians are supposed to be distinct and made as a new creation in God, then how can such a person interact with those who have not been touched by the redemption of Christ? Paul sees that as an impossibility and impractical for the growth of our spirit life. He speaks as a father or big brother who knows what he is talking about.
The text draws a difference between those who had righteousness and those who do not; those who have communion with light and those who have communion with darkness. The Scripture draws a comparison or a challenge to ask what Christ has with Belial? We could draw the simpler terms by asking what does someone who lives in 2026 America have with a cannibal living on a forbidden Island? The obvious answer is there is no logical reason for such association. Yet we do it far too often.
It is not a suggestion that we are to come out from among them. It is a command. God says, “be separate.” This is not unreasonable. There was much to do made in our lifetime over COVID- 19. We were to wash our hands regularly. We were told not to be in a group of more than 10 people. We were told that if anyone had a symptom not to be around that person. There were those who objected to such restrictions, but many obeyed them. Supposedly, we did it so that we would not be contaminated. What is the difference between physical contamination and spiritual contamination?
We live in a close society. We cannot avoid family interactions. Our business dealings are often with unbelievers. It is quite easy to be on a bowling team where there are unbelievers. Even though these things are true, we still can abide by the Scriptures. In short, we will have these contacts and are to be civil with these people. In the long haul, they are not to be part of our inner circle. The answer is simple. They will affect how we think, the choices we make, the families we develop, the successes we experience and they do it unconsciously, unapologetically.
A single person who is a believer should not be dating an unbeliever! They could too easily lead to love and marriage. Some people think they can reach down and pull people up to a higher plane by close relationships. The opposite is true. Those believers who are on a higher plane will be brought down by unbelievers.
To answer the question that’s relative to our text must take us back to the Old Testament. In Leviticus 5:2 where it gives a list of unclean things by saying, “… The soul that touches any unclean thing, whether it be a carcass of an unclean beast, or carcass of an unclean cattle, or the carcass of an unclean creeping thing, and if it be hidden from him, he also shall be unclean, and guilty.”
Today we don’t have those kinds of contacts. But we can look to the generalities of what it means. That Scripture dictated by God to Moses was to emphasize a loftiness from what is unclean, what can be harmful. Without definition, we can take it back to Paul’s Scripture. We are to come out and be separate from the world not as hermits but to sever ourselves from worldliness while answering the question to ourselves, “can we see God currently in this interaction, in this association, in this potential future while under the anointing of the Holy Spirit? We may be friends with those in the world while not being friends with the world.
Christian Writer 