In his second letter to the church at Corinth, Paul wrote:
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 temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling 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. (2 Cor. 6:14-18).
Many people see this passage as primarily a directive for marriage. Certainly, in the Old Testament, God was very clear that his people were not to marry Gentiles because they would inevitably be drawn into the idolatry and pagan culture of the unbeliever. In fact, that very thing happened on numerous occasions and Israel always suffered for turning their back on Yahweh end embracing other Gods. Often, they still maintained their temple worship, but intermingled their worship and their sacrifices with pagan Gods. In Deuteronomy 32:14, the writer clearly says that behind each of these idols and these “false gods” were demons who personally desired worship but also worked night and day to draw God’s people away from Him.
God also commanded his people to avoid making treaties or entering into other kinds of covenants with unbelievers. Moses wrote. “Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same” (Ex.34:15-16).
Paul warned the church at Corinth against the same kind of yoking. Corinth was a city full of idolatry. It housed numerous temples for the worship of Apollo, Aphrodite, Asklepieion, etc. Many of the believers had grown up immersed in idolatry and many still had friends and family that worshipped the pagan gods. In response to that circumstance, Paul wrote, “Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he” (1 Cor. 10:18-23)?
The principal is that we are not to enter into covenants, agreements, treaties or, remain in relationships that influence us with those who belong to Satan. That agreement opens us up not only to his influence but his presence. We tend to think that the people who belong to Satan are the witches, warlocks, and satanists who actively pursue and serve the enemy. But according to 2 Corinthians 6, whoever does not have the Spirit of God in them, belongs to the enemy and Satan’s spirit operates in them. “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature” (Eph. 2:1-3).
We think in terms of behaviors to determine whether a person is good person or evil. Behaviors are important, but the best we can offer God still leaves us as wretched sinners when we are compared to his righteousness. Our righteousness falls far short of any merited salvation (See Isa. 64:6). Only the righteousness of Christ allows us to stand before God. The seal of that righteousness is the Holy Spirit living in us. When that happens, a great gulf is created between us and those who are not in Christ.
Paul compares that difference as light and darkness, Christ and Belial (Satan), the temple of God or the temple of idols, and believers versus unbelievers. His point is that because of Jesus, we are essentially and vastly different from those who have not named Jesus as Lord. We see the differences in people as a matter of degree, but in the spiritual realm there is a marked, black and white, difference between the two. You are either a child of God or a child of the devil. You are either a citizen of the kingdom of God or you belong to the kingdom of darkness. You are either alive in Christ or dead in your trespasses. You are saved or lost, forgiven or unforgiven. You have the Spirit of Christ or the spirit of disobedience.
Because of that, God commands us to come out from among them. He is not saying we should isolate ourselves like monks in the desert, or we could never bring people to Jesus or be salt and light in the world. But we are not to be yoked, tied, or bound to unbelievers. Moses commanded, “Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard; if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled. Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together. Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together” (Dt. 22:9-11).
In our culture, Christians frequently marry unbelievers. Sometimes those unbelievers present themselves as Christians because they attend church once in a while, but they have not truly made Jesus Lord of their lives and do not have the Spirit of God in them. In addition, believers often go into business with those who don’t belong to the Lord. They spend more time with friends of the world than with Christian friends. These binding relationships can not only influence us and draw us away from the Lord but give Satan a legal right to afflict us because we have tied ourselves to those who belong to him. Because God takes unequal yoking seriously so should we.
Jesus declared we should be in the world but not of the world. We should influence the world for good, but not join with the world in its sinful ways. Too many times, believers join with unbelievers or casual believers as they partake in the things the world values and promotes. Amos 3:3 says that when we walk together with someone, we have come into agreement with them. Agreement with the enemy also gives him a legal right to afflict us. When Adam and Eve came into agreement with the serpent, they fell under his authority.
This is a serious enough issue that we need to pray and seek God before entering into covenants, contracts, agreements or influential friendships with others. The fruit of their lives should clearly display their active relationship with the Lord. On a practical level, we should also be aware of their maturity in the Lord. Unequal yoking, even among believers, can also hinder spiritual life. So often I see mature Christian women marry men who are believers, but whose spiritual maturity is far behind theirs and a hunger for God is not really evident. When married, she is forced to be the spiritual leader, not him. That is not God’s design for marriage. Or a spiritually mature man might marry a lukewarm woman. If he continues to grow and she does not, they will grow apart and the marriage will suffer.
Satan attacks us through these unequally yoked relationships so be prayerful and wise before tying yourself to someone else. Even when our heart is to bring an unbeliever to Jesus, be sure you are evangelizing them, rather than them evangelizing you.
