Knowing The Word in 2 Corinthians 6:17-18, Separate

17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, 18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”

This string of quotations from Isaiah 52, Ezekiel 20, and 2 Samuel 7 exhorts the Corinthians to sever ties with pagans and to come out of pagan associations that spiritually endanger their salvation. They are to be separate and set apart, which means “holy.” Also of note, Paul, the feminist, changes the 2 Samuel quote to read “sons and daughters” where in the original Hebrew it only referred to “sons.”

While faith is with me, I am blest;

It turns my darkest night to day;

But, while I clasp it to my breast,

I often feel it slide away.

What shall I do if all my love,

My hopes, my toil, are cast away?

And if there be no God above

To hear and bless me when I pray?

Oh, help me, God! For thou alone

Canst my distracted soul relieve.

Forsake it no: it is thine own,

Though weak, yet longing to believe.

Anne Brontë, 1820-1849