Mixture

God is Holy and Commands Against Mixture

Isaiah 6:3 (ESV)
³ And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”

Malachi 3:6 (ESV)
⁶ “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.

1 John 1:5 (ESV)
⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

James 1:17 (ESV)
¹⁷ Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

1 Peter 1:16 (ESV)
You shall be holy, for I am holy.

Key Words in the Scripture

Holy, Pure, Purify, Whole, Refiner, Clean, Separate

versus

Mix, Mixed, Leaven, Impure, Impurity, Dross, Common, Unclean

Things We Mix

Truth & Error

Grace & Law

Love of God & Love of the World

Spirit & Flesh

God's Way & Our Way

Examples of Mixture

Deuteronomy 22:9-11 (ESV)
⁹ “You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited [holy], the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard. ¹⁰ You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. ¹¹ You shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together.

Leviticus 19:19 (ESV)
¹⁹ “You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material.

Joshua 23:6-8 (ESV)
⁶ Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, ⁷ that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, ⁸ but you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day.

Psalm 106:34-36 (ESV)
³⁴ They did not destroy the peoples,
    as the Lord commanded them,
³⁵ but they mixed with the nations
    and learned to do as they did.
³⁶ They served their idols,
    which became a snare to them.

Proverbs 25:4 (ESV)
⁴ Take away the dross from the silver,
    and the smith has material for a vessel;

Daniel 2:40-43 (ESV)
⁴⁰ And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. ⁴¹ And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay. ⁴² And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. ⁴³ As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay.

Mixture - Partly Spiritual and Partly Worldly/Fleshly

Romans 8:3-6 (ESV)
³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

Galatians 3:2-3 (ESV)
² Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? ³ Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Galatians 5:15-17 (ESV)
¹⁵ But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. ¹⁶ But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

1 Corinthians 5:6-8 (ESV)
⁶ Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? ⁷ Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. ⁸ Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Galatians 5:9 (ESV)
A little leaven leavens the whole lump.

Double-mindedness is Mixture in the Mind

Psalm 119:113 (ESV)
¹¹³ I hate the double-minded,
    but I love your law.

James 1:6-8 (ESV)
⁶ But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷ For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸ he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

James 4:8 (ESV)
⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Half-heartedness is Mixture of the Heart

2 Chronicles 25:1-2 (ESV)
¹ Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. ² And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not with a whole heart.

Spiritual Mixture - God Ways vs Satan Ways

2 Corinthians 11:4 (ESV)
⁴ For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

1 Corinthians 15:33 (ESV)
³³ Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

God's People Must Distinguish Between the Holy and the Common, the Clean and Unclean/Profane/Impure

Ezekiel 22:26 (ESV)
²⁶ Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.

Romans 6:19 (ESV)
¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

1 Thessalonians 4:7 (ESV)
⁷ For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.

God is the One Who Purifies and Cleanses Us

Malachi 3:2 (ESV)
² But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire [purify] and like fullers' soap [clean].

Titus 2:11-14 (ESV)
¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹² training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³ waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

1 John 1:7-9 (ESV)
⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸ If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Why We Don't Want Mixture in Our Lives

Matthew 5:8 (ESV)
⁸ “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

2 Corinthians 6:17-18 (ESV)
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.”