purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness

2 Corinthians 6:11-7:1

We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us.  As a fair exchange—I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts also.

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 

Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing,  and I will receive you.”

Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

Paul's feelings are deeply stirred. He longs for the Corinthians to match his own complete open-heartedness towards them. The change of tone at 6:14 is abrupt - but there is no evidence that this section has been misplaced, as some argue. Paul's love for his churches always holds them to the highest standard. he has warned them before of the dangers of compromise with the pagan world. Now he stresses the utter incongruity of permanent relationships between Christians and heathens. The issue here is the same as in 1 Corinthians 8-10. Verse 16 is the key: Paul makes it clear that there is no common ground between God's Temple and a temple that honors false gods. Clearly, his earlier letter has not resolved some of these issues: the Corinthians still clung to their old ideas and social patterns.

Why?

It is not the problem of withholding our affection from you, but it is the problem that we can't yoke together with unbelievers. There is no commonality between righteousness and wickedness.

We are the temple of the living God, so we have to purify ourselves from everything and keep perfecting holiness.

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與神和好，就可以與人和好。

勸哥林多教會對保羅敞開如同保羅也向他們敞開、坦誠、直言不諱。主要問題是缺乏愛，有競爭的心，互相防衛，憑外貌看人，豈不與世界一樣。

良人屬我，我也屬他，丈夫屬於妻子，妻子屬於丈夫，孩子屬於父母，父母屬於孩子。這是保羅與哥林多教會關係。我們和教會也是如此彼此敞開、彼此接納。

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How?

Let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.