Wherefore come out from among them
Since they were the temple of the living God, built up an
habitation for the Most High; since he resided among them, took
his walks in the midst of them, was their God, and they were his
people. These words are taken out of ( Isaiah 52:11
) where the several phrases here used may be observed. They seem
to be directed to the Israelites, and particularly to the priests
and Levites, who bore the vessels of the Lord; and are fitly
applied to believers under the Gospel dispensation, who are by
Christ made priests unto God. They are usually interpreted by the
Jewish writers, as a call to the Jews to come out of captivity,
to quit Babylon and Persia, and the several cities and countries
where they were; and are applied in ( Revelation
18:4 ) to mystical Babylon, the church of Rome, as a call to
God's people, to leave the superstitions and idolatries of that
church, lest they be partakers of her plagues; and here, by the
apostle, as an exhortation to believers in general, to forsake
the company and conversation of the men of the world: who may be
said to come out from among them at first conversion, when they
are called to forsake their own people, and their Father's house,
to leave their native country, and seek an heavenly one; and
when, in consequence of effectual calling grace, their
conversations are different from what they were before, and from
other Gentiles; when they dislike their former companions, abhor
their sinful conversation, abstain from it, keep out of it, as
being infectious, hurtful, and detrimental to them; when they
have no fellowship with the workers of iniquity, but reprove them
both by words and deeds, which is their incumbent duty: the
phrase in Isaiah is, "go ye out from the midst of her"; which
Kimchi interprets, "out of the midst of every city in which thou
art"; that is, in which idolaters lived; and well agrees with
(ek mesou autwn) here, "out
of the midst of them":
and be ye separate, saith the Lord;
this phrase is not to be met with expressly in our version of the
above text in Isaiah, but is signified by several expressions in
it; the words rendered "depart ye, depart ye", are by the Targum,
or Chaldee paraphrase on the place, expressed by (wvrpta wvrpta) , "be ye separate, be
ye separate", which are the very words of the apostle here; and
the phrase, "touch no unclean thing", is explained by R. Aben
Ezra, (Mlweh twmwam)
(wldbyv) , "that they
might be separate from the nations of the world" and another
word, (wrbh) , "be ye
clean", signifies such a purgation as is made by separation, by
removing the clean from the unclean, by separating the wheat from
the chaff. The people of God are a separate people in election,
redemption, and the effectual calling, and ought to be so in
their conduct and conversation; they ought to separate themselves
from all superstition and will worship in religious matters, and
from the evil customs and manners of the world, though they are
sure to become a prey, and to expose themselves to the contempt
and rage of it:
and touch not the unclean thing.
The allusion is to several laws under the former dispensation,
which forbid touching many things which were accounted unclean,
whereby pollution was contracted, and the persons were obliged to
a ceremonial cleansing; see ( Leviticus
5:2 Leviticus
5:3 ) ( Numbers
19:11 Numbers
19:16 ) . It has no regard to touching, tasting, and eating
any sort of food, which was forbid as unclean by the ceremonial
law; for the difference between meats clean and unclean was now
removed; but if anything is particularly designed by the unclean
thing, it seems to be idolatry, and to be a prohibition of
joining with worshippers of idols in their idolatrous practices,
whereby a moral pollution is contracted; since in the beginning
of the former verse it is said, "what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols?" though it is rather intended in general, to
forbid all communion and fellowship with unclean persons and
things, not to touch them, to come nigh them, or have anything to
do with them:
and I will receive you;
this, and what follows in the next verse, are said to encourage
believers to keep at a distance from wicked and immoral persons,
whose company and conversation are dishonourable, ensnaring, and
defiling. These persons had been already received into the love
of God, his best and strongest affections, from which there can
be no separation; and in the covenant of grace, which as it
cannot be removed, so neither could they be removed out of that;
they were received into the church of Christ, and had a place and
a name in it, better than that of sons and daughters; and as they
had been received by Christ, when they came to him as poor
perishing sinners without him, so they were still received
graciously, notwithstanding their many backslidings: neither of
these therefore is the sense of this passage: but, that whereas
by quitting society with carnal men, they would expose themselves
to their resentments; the Lord here promises, that he would take
them under the wings of his protection; he would take care of
them and preserve them, keep them as the apple of his eye, and be
a wall of fire round about them, whilst in this world; and when
he had guided them by his counsel here, would "receive" them "to
glory": this clause seems to be taken from the latter part of (
Isaiah
52:12 ) which may be rendered, "the God of Israel will gather
you"; i.e. to himself, and protect them.