Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
Therefore come out from them and be separate,says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. (2 Co 6:14–18).
To some of us, this section of scripture sounds like the Old Testament injunctions for the Israelites to keep themselves separate from Gentiles and all their practices. They were not to marry Gentiles (non-Jews), they were not to eat with them and certainly not to worship their gods or participate in activities that honored those gods. There were, of course, foods that were considered unclean and numerous circumstances that would render a Jew unclean for a season, such as coming into contact with anything dead or diseased.
Although those laws were suspended under the New Covenant (bacon is back on the menu!), the principle of separation for the sake of holiness has not set aside. God is a holy God and his Spirit that lives in us is the Holy Spirit. In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, he emphasizes this principle. In a city known for its idol worship and temples to false gods, this reminder was necessary. A great number of those in the church at Corinth were Gentiles who had placed their faith in Jesus but who also had families, friends, and employers who were still unbelievers. Contact with unbelievers was not forbidden, but certain kinds of relationships were forbidden for believers.
Paul describes these relationships as relationships in which two people are “yoked” together. In an agricultural society, everyone understood the concept of “yoking.” Two animals were bound together by a yoke. Where one went, the other was forced to go. When one stood still, the other was greatly hindered from moving. Under the Law of Moses, it was forbidden to yoke different kinds of animals together, such as a horse and an ox. That was to picture the principle of separation between God’s people and others. A relationship in which yoking occurs is a relationship in which two people are bound together by covenants, oaths, and/or influence such as a marriage. It may also extend to business partners or other relationships in which people are tied together by oaths such as in Free Masonry.
In a culture that emphasizes inclusion and the tolerance of all kinds of lifestyles, the church has begun to compromise and has allowed the culture to reach into the church. Many believers think nothing of marrying an unbeliever or an individual from another culture who worships other gods. Many believers never connect their faith with their business practices or associations they belong to.
But Paul was clear. If a person does not belong to Jesus, he belongs to Satan. He is part of darkness not light, wickedness not righteousness. He has the spirit of disobedience in him, rather than the Spirit of the Living God. If we enter into a covenant with that person we, be default, are entering into a covenant with Satan and he has full access to the believer through his or her relationship with the unbeliever. Paul’s injunction is not a recommendation for who you should or should not marry, but is a command. God is a jealous God and does not willingly share his people with those outside our covenant with him.
As a covenant people living in the midst of a depraved culture, we need to love the lost but avoid being yoked with them. Of course, I have known Christians who married unbelievers who later came to Christ. That does not suspend the command. I have known drug dealers and Satanists who have come to Christ, but that doesn’t commend drug dealing and Satanism. We always think we can win those people to Christ, but what we are doing is giving Satan open access to us if we enter into a covenant through some formal act, some oath, some promise or some intimate association with unbelievers.
Of course, we will be accused of bigotry and intolerance if aren’t willing to accept and engage with every person around us, but God knows his children and those that belong at his table. He is quite willing to adopt more children and give them a seat, but those who do not have his Spirit within them, are not his. Part of our problem is that we fail to see ourselves as different from the world and set apart in Christ. Being sons and daughters of God with his Holy Spirit living in us can seem abstract if we simply know about God without experiencing him. Since we “feel” the same as others, we assume being “yoked” with them isn’t problematic.
Perhaps; we need to spend some time asking God to show us who we truly are in Christ and how we need to “come out from among them,” so we can experience the Father in his fullness. This not bigotry or hating, it is reality. If I point out that a child is not mine because he belongs to other parents, would that be an act of hate toward the child or simply a recognition of who belongs to whom? So it is in the kingdom of God.
Let me encourage you to spend some time this week reading over the passage above, asking the Spirit to give you an understanding of it, and asking him to give you a clearer sense of who you are in Christ. Jesus challenged us to be Holy, even as our Father in heaven is holy. Knowing that we are set apart from the world and seeing ourselves through than lens is the first step in being what God has called his to be.
