2Co 6:14 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?
2Co 6:15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?
2Co 6:16 Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, "I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.
2Co 6:17 "Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE," says the Lord. "AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you.
2Co 6:18 "And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me," Says the Lord Almighty.
John MacArthur continues to note (these are excerpts) in his commentary on 2 Cor. 6:
Metochē (partnership) appears only here in the New Testament and is a synonym for the word koinonia (fellowship), which appears in the next question. A related word is used to speak of Peter’s partners in the fishing business (Luke 5:7), of believers’ sharing in a heavenly calling (Heb. 3:1), and of their union with Christ (Heb. 3:14). It thus describes being involved in a relationship of common life and effort.
Obviously, righteousness and lawlessness are opposites. Righteousness is obedience to the law of God; lawlessness is rebellion against His holy law. Righteousness characterizes believers (Rom. 4:7; Eph. 2:10; Titus 2:14; Heb. 8:12; 10:17), because Christ’s righteousness has been imputed to them (2 Cor. 5:21; cf. Rom. 5:19; 1 Cor. 1:30; Phil. 3:9) and because they are born of God and therefore possess a new nature, which is made righteous (Rom. 6:19). Unbelievers, on the other hand, are characterized by lawlessness, since that is the nature of unredeemed sinners....
Ultimately, those who are lawless face eternal punishment in hell. In one of the most sobering passages in Scripture, Jesus warned of what His judgmental response to such people will be: “Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’ ” (Matt. 7:23)....
The righteous and the rebellious cannot partner in any common spiritual enterprise because of this absolute contrast between them. They are as separated as sin is from virtue.
It is self-evident that light and darkness are mutually exclusive; thus, this contrast is a common biblical metaphor (cf. Isa. 5:20; John 1:5; 3:19; 8:12; 12:35, 46; Acts 26:18; Rom. 13:12; Eph. 5:8, 11; Col. 1:12–14; 1 Thess. 5:5; 1 Peter 2:9; 1 John 1:5; 2:8–9). Intellectually, light refers to truth, darkness to error; morally light refers to holiness, darkness to evil. Those who are righteous in Christ walk in the light (John 8:12; 12:35; Eph. 5:8; 1 John 1:7); those who are unrighteous are part of Satan’s kingdom of darkness (Luke 22:53; Eph. 6:12; Col. 1:13). The ultimate destination of the righteous is the eternal light of heaven (Col. 1:12; 1 Peter 2:9; Rev. 22:5), that of the unrighteous the eternal darkness of hell (Matt. 8:12; 22:13; 25:30; 2 Peter 2:17). To expect the children of light to work together with the children of darkness is as foolish as to expect it to be both light and dark in the same place at the same time.
To assume that Christ and Satan could cooperate in any common spiritual effort is utterly absurd.
Since harmony (sumphōnēsis [“to agree with”], from which the English word symphony derives) between Christ and Satan is impossible, so also is cooperation in spiritual matters between his children and God’s. Believers, who “do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31), cannot join forces with the sons of disobedience, who walk “according to the prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2). The children of God have nothing in common with the children of the devil (John 8:44; 1 John 3:10).
End quote.
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2003). 2 Corinthians (p. 250). Chicago: Moody Publishers.
Part 3 here.
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