Verse 18 continues, “And I will be a Father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me, says the Lord Almighty.” Literally the Greek word rendered by the indefinite article before Father means into, unto, for. To be a Father and to be sons and daughters are matters of life. This is deeper than for God to be our God and for us to be His people, as mentioned in verse 16. God is the Creator, and the Father is the generator. He has regenerated us and made us sons and daughters to Him.
Verse 18 is the only instance in which the New Testament indicates that God has daughters. For the most part it tells us that the believers are sons of God. The reason this verse speaks of both sons and daughters is deeply personal. To many parents, sons are precious. I have learned that in the Orient and in the Western world as well, parents who have only daughters long to have at least one son. Although sons are precious, daughters are dear. Suppose a father has three sons and no daughters. Surely he would like to have a daughter, and she would be very dear to him. Many parents who have both sons and daughters will tell you that the daughters are dear and the sons are precious.
I believe that in verse 18 Paul wants us to see that we are not only precious to God as sons, but we are also dear to Him as daughters. Do you want to be a son of God or a daughter of God? I am a son of God, but I am also happy to be a daughter of God. I like to be precious and dear to Him. Realizing that we can be precious and dear to the Father, Paul indicates that we are both sons and daughters to Him.
According to the Bible, God does not place a great deal of emphasis on whether we are male or female. In a very real and positive sense, we all are females in the sight of God. In 11:2 Paul declares, “For I am jealous over you with a jealousy of God; for I betrothed you to one husband, to present a pure virgin to Christ.” Does this not indicate that all believers are females to God? If we were not females in His sight, how could we be part of a pure virgin presented to Christ? Christ is to be our Husband, and we are to become His wife. In this sense, we all are females. We may even use a very unusual term and say that, to God, we are female sons. In bearing responsibility and carrying out spiritual warfare, we are sons. We should be strong sons for responsibility and for warfare. But at the same time we should be daughters very dear and precious to the Father. Therefore, on the one hand, we are precious sons; on the other hand, we are dear daughters.
In 7:1 Paul says, “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” Paul’s use of “therefore” at the beginning of this verse indicates that it is a conclusion to the last part of chapter six, in particular to verses 14 through 18. The promises are those mentioned in 6:16-18. The defilement of flesh refers to material things; defilement of spirit, to things in the spiritual world such as idols. To cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit means to turn away from all distractions in order to be fully reconciled into God.
In 7:1 Paul speaks of perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Holiness is separation unto God from all things other than Him. Perfecting holiness is to make this separation full and perfect, to have our entire being—spirit, soul, and body—fully and perfectly separated, sanctified, unto God (1 Thes. 5:23). This is to be fully reconciled to God.
Holy means not only sanctified, separated, unto God; it also means different, distinct, from everything that is common. Only God is different, distinct, from all other things. Hence, He is holy; holiness is His nature. According to Ephesians 1:4, He chose us so that we should be holy. The way He makes us holy is to impart Himself, the holy One, into us so that our whole being may be permeated and saturated with His holy nature. For us, God’s chosen ones, to be holy is to partake of His divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4) and to have our entire being permeated with God Himself. This is different from mere sinless perfection or sinless purity. True holiness makes our being holy, like God Himself, in His nature and character.
In 7:1 Paul mentions the fear of God. This fear is related to not daring to touch things not belonging to God or related to Him (6:17).
We have pointed out that the believers are righteousness, light, Christ, and the temple. When we are unequally yoked with unbelievers, this means we bring the righteousness of God into lawlessness, the light of God into darkness, and Christ to the Devil, and that we associate the temple of God with idols. Idols defile our spirit. Hence, both in the spiritual world and the physical world there is defilement. To be separated from defilement, from unclean things, is actually to be reconciled to God.
In chapter six Paul truly is carrying out the ministry of reconciliation. He urges the Corinthians to be separated from unclean things. To be separated from what is unclean is to be reconciled to God and sanctified unto Him; it is also to be fully saved. Thus, being fully saved includes separation from what is unclean, sanctification unto God, and reconciliation into God. This is the reason that toward the beginning of this chapter Paul speaks about salvation and at the end of the chapter, about separation. Salvation is separation, separation is sanctification, and sanctification is reconciliation.