Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has
righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with
an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the
temples of the living God; as God said,
‘I will make my dwelling place among them and walk among them, and I
will be their God, and they shall be my people.’
‘Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the
Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,’
‘and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to
me, says the Lord Almighty.’”
Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from
every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the
fear of God.
2nd
Corinthians 6:14-18, 7:1
What does it mean to be unequally yoked? When I was a new
believer (and a teenager) what I was taught that this verse meant (primarily)
that I couldn’t date a non-Christian girl. Given my general dating status as a
teenager this was a bit of a moot point but it was hard enough for a guy like
me to get any attention from a girl
let alone the tiny minority of them who were living for Christ. In short, this
verse was a bummer. So the question is: is that what this verse is solely
referring to? As I looked into this verse, I wanted to try and understand it as
much as I could about what Paul was saying without the personal baggage I would
otherwise bring into it.
The first thing that stands out is the use of the word
‘yoked’. The image this word choice conjures up is that of two oxen, yoked
together, with one of the two bearing too much of the burden. One could
probably get by with this scenario in a pinch, but the ultimate result would be
injury to one or both of the oxen. The stronger ox might collapse under the
strain. The weaker ox might become injured from pulling in an attempt to keep
up.
Moving from this analogy, Paul begins a series of binary contrasts
that serve to further illustrate the starkness of his point:
-
Righteous vs lawless
-
Light vs dark
-
Christ vs Belial (another name for Satan)
-
Believer vs unbeliever
-
Temple of God vs idols
Paul clearly intended these illustrations to clarify his
request. The first thing to note is that these contrasts are absolute. Paul
does not give us grey scenarios to try and understand. Instead, he gives us
very clear cut examples. There can only be darkness in the absence of light.
The believer has a clearly defined difference from unbelievers. Christ cannot associate
with Satan. What the decisiveness of these examples should illustrate is that
there is no middle ground in being yoked with unbelievers. The Corinthians (and
us) cannot stand in-between and claim some degree of ambiguity. There is no
synchronization.
Paul’s last illustration opens another avenue into
illustrating the stark contrast that should be seen between the believer and
the unbeliever. “What agreement has the
temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God,” To the
Jewish Christian hearing this letter, this suggestion of defilement within the
temple of God would call up images of God’s punishment and of the exile. The
Temple of God was where the Spirit of the Lord resided. The purity of the
Temple served as the symbol of the entire nation of Judah during the times of
the Prophets. Its defilement and destruction spoke to God’s punishment of His
people. The later rebuilding spoke to the lovingkindness and faithfulness of
the Lord. All of these images are conjured.
To further illustrate this, Paul quotes a series of
scriptures:
“I will make my
dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people.” This quotation is both from Leviticus AND Ezekiel. The
context in Leviticus is the promise of the Lord’s blessing over the Israelites
who had just been called out to be His people. The context in Ezekiel is the
promise of the reconciliation of Israel and Judah—the reunion and rebirth of
the promise. This quote establishes the Lord’s ownership of His people.
“Therefore go out from
their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean
thing; then I will welcome you,” This quote comes from Isaiah in the
context of warning the people to quickly return to Jerusalem for the time is
coming when the Lord will return and reestablish his reign. They were to leave
the foreign lands they had been scattered into during the Exile and the habits
and traditions and idols they had come to know in those disparate places. This
was a call to repentance with the understanding that the Lord’s return was imminent.
Interestingly, immediately after this, Isaiah tells of the suffering servant
who would to come and be lifted us.
“and I will be a
father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord
Almighty.” This last quotation comes from 2nd Samuel where the
Lord speaks of the relationship He would have with David and his line.
Each of these illustrations shows both the intensity with
which the believer should not be yoked with the unbeliever and also emphasizes
that the believer, like his spiritual progenitors, the people of Israel, is
called out of this world and into the Kingdom of God.
So What?
So what are we to do with this section of 2nd
Corinthians? We cannot escape the severity to which Paul deals with this
subject.
First off, I have bad news for my 15 year old self because I
believe that this verse does apply to dating and marriage. Considering that the
state of the Corinthian church when Paul wrote his first letter to them was a
motley mix of synchronism, illicit sex, and idolatry and that the city of
Corinth itself was known for these things, it seems very likely that this was
at least one of Paul’s implications in writing this. Consider also that he
follows this portion up with another section speaking of his concern that his
last letter had grieved them (hopefully into repenting). And what did he grieve
them by saying? Things such as: “Flee
from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body,
but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” It is very
likely that Paul is referring to inappropriate relationships between believers
and unbelievers.
Even on a practical level, though, this makes sense. Just as
in the analogy of the unequally yoked oxen, the ox pulling the heavier weight
might weary and become injured. The believer, married to the unbeliever, may
weary and lose heart without someone to shoulder some of the burden of the
spiritual health of the marriage. Since marriage and sexual intimacy so closely
knits two people together it only makes practical sense that the man and the
woman should agree on some of the their deepest held beliefs.
However, Paul’s wording as he addresses this issue is so
strong that it speaks to a more broad implication of this teaching. He never
explicitly says that this concept only applies
to marriage. In fact, his examples seem to imply that it is something that we
all need to be concerned with. On that note we must ask ourselves two
questions:
1.
What is drawing you away from God?
a.
We need to take a careful inspection of our own
lives to determine what things are drawing us away from God and what things are
drawing us towards God. Paul calls believers to recognize that they are called
out of their former way of life and indeed out of the patterns of this world.
We are not taken out of this world, of course, but our thinking should be
instead focused on the spiritual and the eternal. Being that we are still
physically located here on earth, it is easy to become distracted with the
temporal and fleeting. Just as an unbelieving spouse exerts pressure (intended
or not) upon the believer, so the other things we ‘yoke’ ourselves to also tug
gently (or not so gently) at our souls. So we must ask:
i.
What relationships (of all types) are drawing me
from God?
ii.
What entertainment is drawing me from God?
iii.
What business or job concerns are drawing me
away from God?
iv.
What political affiliations or beliefs are
drawing me away from God?
2.
Who are we being fed by?
a.
In a similar way, it is a well-known adage that
we become like those we surround ourselves with. It is very hard to remain
unaffected by those who live around you day in day out. Since we know this to
be true, we must ask hard questions about those people we spend the most time
with. Note, that I’m not saying that we necessarily stop spending time with
nonbelievers. Our concern should rather be looking upon our own soul and
looking at those individuals we let into the deepest areas of our confidence
and lives. Who are we feeding from? What type of people do we draw our energy
from and tend to emulate? Even among fellow believers, this question may lead
us to spend less time (or less deep interaction) with those who don’t focus
upon the Word or whom consistently display ungodly characteristics (even the
‘socially acceptable’ ones like complaining).
A good place to end is Paul’s summary exhortation in 7:1. “Since we have these promises, beloved, let
us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing
holiness to completion in the fear of God.” I know of no better way to
conclude this section than by repenting of those things or people whom we have
yoked ourselves to instead of the Lord.
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