The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the Second Epistle to the Corinthians
Others more properly take the latter meaning, and understand the warning to be against such an alliance as that of an ox and an ass would be in the same yoke (Deut. xxii. 10). This interpretation is rendered more probable from the words that follow — “what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?”
Theophylact again thinks that the warning is against accommodating one’s principles to those of our partner in wedlock. He says that the allusion here is not to a yoke but to the beam of a balance, and one especially that is unequally weighted, so that one side is lower than the other. We are not to be like such a balance, and lean towards an unrighteous or unbelieving partner.
For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness ? The unjust with the unjust, believers with unbelievers.
It was hard for the Corinthians, while Christians were so few, to be forbidden to have commerce and intermarriage with unbelievers. Many amongst them would find a difficulty in obtaining partners of equal rank, or wealth, or position ; and hence they would either be obliged to abstain from marriage, or else marry an inferior. Moreover, by natural and Divine law there was nothing simply and absolutely to prohibit them from allying themselves with unbelievers ; still such alliance would be unbecoming and full of danger, and hence it is forbidden by the Apostle. But to reconcile them to so severe a precept he puts before them five contrasts drawn from the inherent opposition between Christianity and heathenism.
(1.) Unequal wedlock is a heavy yoke, burdensome to both parties, even as it would be if a horse and an ox were yoked together. (2.) Light and darkness cannot cohere in the same subject or be in the same place at once ; therefore one of the faithful, who has the light of faith, cannot well enter into the same yoke with one who is full of the darkness of unbelief. (3.) There is no concord between Christ and Belial : believers belong to Christ, unbelievers to Belial ; therefore they cannot agree. (4.) The believer has no part or communion with the unbeliever, but differs from him as widely as belief from unbelief, heaven from hell ; therefore they cannot be joined together. (5.) The temple of God cannot be associated with the idols and temples of devils; neither, therefore, can a believer with an unbeliever . For each of the faithful is a temple of God, and the unbeliever is a temple and image of the devil.
Ver. 15. — What concord hath Christ with Belial ? What harmony can there be between Him who is the Author of all knowledge, obedience, and righteousness and the devil with his followers ? The Hebrew Belial denotes (1.) disobedience, rebellion, ungodliness ; (2.) those who have these qualities; and (3.) the devil, as the first apostate, the first to shake off the yoke of obedience to God and His law. Hence apostates are called “ sons of Belial,” i.e., children of the devil, or children of disobedience, rebellion ungodliness.
What part hath he that believeth with an infidel ? What is there common to both, to be shared by both? So, in 1 Kings xii. 16, we find : “ What portion have we in David ? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse.” This antithesis explains the three preceding ones. It is not right for a believer to be joined with an unbeliever , even as it is not possible for righteousness to be joined to unrighteousness, light to darkness, Christ to Belial, the temple of
God with idols.
Ver. 16. — Ye are the temple of the living God. By faith, grace, and holiness. S. Cyprian (de Orat . Domini) says beautifully : “ Let us show ourselves in our lives as the temples of God, that all may see that God indwells within us , so that we who have begun to be heavenly and spiritual, may think and do nothing but what is spiritual and heavenly .” The Hebrew word for “temple” connotes power and majesty. Hence Chrysostom (Horn. 17 in Ep. ad Heb.) says that God ordered Solomon’s Temple to be made exceeding magnifical, that the Jews, who were naturally attracted by outward things, might be led to know something of the majesty of God. Why, then, should not Christians ornament their temples, as the houses of God, and show honour to God, and especially to the body of Christ present with them, and so excite others to reverence and love God ? Such a temple, such a royal, nay, such a Divine palace, is the Church allegorically, and each faithful soul tropologically, as the Apostle here declares. In this temple God shows His great glory and majesty, by His exceeding great grace, by magnificent and glorious works of virtue, and by the power of His sacraments.
Villalpando (in Ezek . vol. ii. p. 256) sees a further reference in the Hebrew word for temple to motion or walking. The tabernacle was a movable temple in which God dwelt and walked with the Hebrews through the wilderness into their promised land. It is to this that S. Paul alludes in the words that follow.
I will walk in them. I will be their guardian, and will spiritually walk in them through the powers and virtues of the soul.
Anselm points out that S. Paul quotes Ezek. xxxvii. 27 literally, and Lev. xxvi. 12 tropologically. What is said in the latter passage of the literal tabernacle of witness is to be understood of God’s protecting presence in each one of the faithful.
Allegorically this tabernacle signified the Church of Christ, as is explained in Ezek. xxxvii. 27, and tropologically each holy soul, which is a temple of God moving through the wilderness of this world to its resting-place in heaven.
(1.) God walks in the soul as in His tabernacle when, through acts of faith, hope, and charity, He passes from the memory to the understanding, and thence to the will. For the faithful soul is as the temple of heaven : its sun is the understanding, or zeal for righteousness ; its moon is faith and continence ; its stars the other virtues, as S. Bernard says (Serm. 27 in Cantic.). (2.) God walks in the soul, inasmuch as He makes it by His grace go from virtue to virtue (Anselm and Theophylact). In the same way that in the tabernacle the way to the Holy of Holies through the Holy Place was by the altar of incense, the table of shew-bread, and the candlestick , does God enable us to pass into heaven through holiness of life , almsgiving, chastity, and purity of soul. The altar of incense was a symbol of prayer, the table of almsgiving, the candlestick of purity and brightness of life. (3.) God walks in the soul by way of contemplation. He causes us to follow in our minds His temples, as He passed from the temple of heaven to that of the Virgin’s womb, thence to that of Calvary, thence to hell, and finally back again to heaven. (4.) God walks in us corporally, says S. Ambrose, for the Word was made flesh and dwelt and walked amongst us, and daily by Holy Communion He dwells in us and walks with us.
Ver. 17 . — Come out from among them , . Isa. lii. 11, which is here quoted, taken literally ordered the Apostles and the faithful generally to come out, not from the unbelieving and unclean city of Babylon, but from Jerusalem, to be laid waste by Titus. But the Apostle, either tropologically or by parity of reasoning, applies it as an injunction to the faithful to avoid too great intimacy with unbelievers, and not to touch the unclean thing, that is unclean unbelievers ; not to live with them, lest they stain themselves with their uncleannesses, such as drunkenness, lust, pride, ungodliness , and unrighteousness (Jerome, Cyril in Isa. lii., Chrysostom, Ambrose, Anselm).