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.

Over sixty years and sixty pounds ago, I was typically the fastest guy in my school.  In the city, there was only one other sprinter my age that was competitive with me in the hundred.  We ran against each other frequently and it was always close.  We began to develop a friendship because we knew we were the best.  One spring afternoon we had a track meet that was open to some of the smaller rural schools in the Texas panhandle.  I still remember lining up with eight of us in the blocks.  My friend was two lanes to my left.  The only question would be which of us would win that day as we showed the country boys how we ran in the city.  

The gun sounded, we leaped from the starting blocks and as we crossed the finish line we both looked each other in the eyes as we humbly tied for last place.  The country boys had smoked us…not by inches but by feet.  We both recognized at the same time what had happened and could only laugh.  We spent the rest of the afternoon in the stands licking our wounds.  Here was the thing…we had measured ourselves against the track teams in our city and grade level and assumed every other track team in the country was like those we competed against each week.  We had a false measure of comparison.  It cost us a race.

From time to time, I visit with people who have a problem with God.  They get how he might send really wicked people to hell, but cannot accept a God who would send “good people” to torment simply because they had not accepted Jesus.  I think that issue is worth a response.

In the first place, God is not sending them to hell, but is feverishly trying to rescue them from the hell they are sending themselves to.  Our problem is, like my friend and I, a false measure of comparison.  We measure the righteousness of men against the righteousness of men rather than the righteousness of God.

We look at an Adolph Hitler or a Jeffrey Dahmer and determine that they were evil and deserve some form of extreme punishment.  But then we look at our neighbors who work hard, pay their bills, go to the lake every weekend with their family, and volunteer to coach little league.  These are “good people.”  They give little thought to God and do not follow Jesus, but they are “good people.”  We make that comparison on the basis of the other people we know who live in   this very perverse world.

In doing so, we assume God grades on the curve and if you are in the top 30-40 %, you get in.  But that is not how it works.  The standard for righteousness is God’s holiness not ours and he is a God who dwells in unapproachable light.  The judgment of heaven is that all have fallen short of the glory of God and that there is none righteous, no not one (Romans 3:10).  In fact, Isaiah declares, “How then can we be saved? All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isa. 64:5-6).

Isaiah is pointing out, that based on our own righteous acts none of us can come into the presence of God because the best that the best of us can do is like filthy rags (the rags women sat on during their menstrual cycle in the days of Isaiah) compared to God’s holiness. Isaiah should know because, even though he was a great man of God, he was overwhelmed with is own sense of sinfulness when he received a vision of God. He cried out, “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty” (Isa. 6:4-5).  The word translated as “ruined” here means destroyed, devastated, or to cease.   When Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, he thought he was going to die because of his own sense of unworthiness and sinfulness compared to the holiness of God. Likewise, Ezekiel, Daniel and other prophets found themselves face down, unable to move or even breath when they encountered the holiness of God or even his representatives.  

The point is that none of us are “good people” by the standards of heaven.  We have just lived in the swamp so long we no longer smell or notice the decay all around us. Some parts stink less than others, but every part stinks. Even people who look good on the outside have all kinds of ungodliness on the inside and God judges not only our actions but our hearts and thoughts as well.  Even the best of us have pockets of pride, lustful thoughts, judgmental hearts, selfish ambitions, jealousy, envy, unforgiveness, lies, and self-justifications.  It is our fallen nature.  So, by heaven’s standards of goodness and righteousness, none of us are “good people.”  

But God, knowing that none of us could stand in his presence on the basis of our own righteousness, provided a righteousness by faith through Jesus Christ who became sin for us that we might be the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:21).   By our own sin we condemned ourselves to hell, but God in his righteousness and love provided a way of escape, a rescue plan for those who would acknowledge that at their best they fall short, but who trust God to make a way through his Son.

Our own rebellion has condemned us.  God has gone to extreme lengths to save us from our own wickedness.  Our problem is we don’t know wickedness when we see it because we have never seen true holiness.  And yet the grace of God is abundant and he has no desire to see anyone cast into hell.  He declares, “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? (Ezek.18:23).  God is not the bad guy in this equation…Satan is.  We need to remember the extent to which God has gone to save us from ourselves.  For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son (Jn.3:16).  There are no “good people” by heaven’s standards, but there is certainly a good God.


 

 

Our God is a covenant God. He loves to enter into committed relationships in which both parties are true to their promises as a way of deepening and protecting that relationship. He wants us to be the same. When he enters into a covenant with us, our status changes. Sometimes even our name changes. By the blood of Christ, we are transferred from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of light…the kingdom of the Son he loves (Col. 11:13). Not only are we suddenly citizens of heaven, but also sons and daughters of the King. Not only does our position change, but our very nature changes. We are new creations. God deposits his Holy Spirit within us as a seal of the covenant through which we have been joined to the Maker of Heaven and Earth. His Spirit then changes our nature and enables us to communicate with God, understand his word, and receive power to extend the kingdom of God on earth. The day we entered into a covenant with God, things changed for us not only on earth but also in heaven.

Covenants made on earth can have implications for us in the spiritual realm. Marriage is one of those. Speaking of the marriage covenant, Jesus said, “What God has joined together, let no man separate.” Notice that God joins the couple together. He is involved in the covenant as a witness and a supporter of the promises made in that covenant. God joins the two in a spiritual bond. There is a record of that marriage on the books in heaven. For believers, marriage is much more than a civil contract. It is a spiritual covenant that goes far beyond what the courts of men might say. I have counseled many, many believers who were going though divorce. Typically, the person I counseled did not desire the divorce. But even when there had been adultery or abuse, the divorce was extremely painful.

We often act as if marriage is simply two people who, like two sheets of paper, were stapled at the corner when they said “I do.” When separated, we expect a little tearing to occur, but why all the pain? When God joins us, he doesn’t staple us, but glues or bonds us together so that we become one. When you separate two sheets of paper glued together, there is an infinite amount of tearing and pain. That is because something happens in the spiritual realm that is far more significant than a courthouse record in the natural realm.

This “covenant effect” goes beyond marriage. In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul says, “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 Cor. 6:14-18).

The word translated as “yoked” is better translated “unequally yoked.” It means to tie or yoke two things together that are different, mismatched, or wrongly matched. The idea would be not to yoke a horse and an ox together….two animals with different natures because they would constantly pull against each other rather than with each other. The Old Testament makes it clear that God’s people were not to marry outside of their faith. They were not to enter into treaties with pagan kings and they were definitely not to worship other gods in addition to Yaweh.

In this text, Paul is using the language of the Old Testament for believers living under the New Covenant. We often apply this section only to marriage, but marriage it is not mentioned in the context of being yoked together. That does not mean that this passage does not apply to marriage but that it does not apply only to marriage. It applies to all kinds of covenants, contracts, promises, and other binding or influential agreements. These are relationships that tie us together in some way that obligates us to another person or organization.

Paul’s admonition is not a suggestion or a statement of “best practices.” The verb tenses are in the imperative mode which denotes a command. Here is the reason. We belong to God and his Holy Spirit lives in us. We are citizens of the Kingdom of God and are his children. We are set apart from the world in a covenant with God. Because of his Spirit, we have a different nature, different values, different goals, and a different God from the rest of mankind.

Those who are not in Christ and who do not have the Holy Spirit within them are under the dominion of darkness…whether they know it or not. They may be active members or passive members of that dominion, but they belong to that kingdom all the same. There is no neutral ground in the spiritual realm. They live under Satan’s authority. If you enter into a promise, a contract, or a covenant with those who are in the kingdom of darkness, you create an association with the one they serve. Through them, he can begin to have significant influence in your life. That is why God says to be separate.

Jesus said that we are to be “in the world but not of the world.” We must maintain a separate identity from the world at all times. We must remember who we belong to and who we serve. We must remember that we are holy and the divine presence lives in us. If possible, it would be best to always work for and with believers. There are times when we cannot. Daniel served Nebuchadnezzar but never compromised his faith. In fact, his faith made him stand out as a man of excellence and integrity. Even if we work for a company that is not owned and operated by believers, we must represent the Kingdom of God there. We cannot come into agreement with policies or practices that violate the mandates of our faith.

There are times we must even be physically separate from the world. If individuals or organizations actively and openly oppose the righteous standards of the kingdom, we must not be part of that at any level. When we apply the standards of 2 Corinthians 6 to marriage, we cannot marry an unbeliever. The primary reason for that is who we are, who we represent, and the holiness we are to walk in as hosts of the Holy Spirit. Secondly, it takes an exceptional believer to rub shoulders with unbelievers day after day and not compromise our faith. If you put a good apple in a barrel with rotten apples, it will soon rot. If you put a rotten apple in a barrel with good apples, it does not become good, but will negatively affect the good apples it touches.

The point is that we are to be careful about our associations, our covenants, and our careers. It is not just about money and upward mobility. We are to remember at all times who we are and not find ourselves unequally yoked with the world. So how can we navigate these waters in our world? The key is that we are not to come into agreement with the ways of the world or be legally tied to those who would cause us to compromise our faith by that agreement. First off all, we should always ask God to connect us with other believers for friendships, business matters, jobs, finances, and, without exception, for marriage. We should always seek to know where those with whom we are about to enter an agreement stand spiritually and ethically. They should also know where we stand in terms of “ground rules” for relationships and business practices and they must know that we will not compromise.

In addition, we must stay anchored to our spiritual family so that their influence always exceeds the influence of unbelievers in our lives. Our primary goal when interacting with unbelievers should always be to represent our Father and to be leaven for righteousness in those relationships. If we find ourselves loosing ground spiritually, we may need to find another job, another career, or another group to associate with. Satan will work through those relationship with unbelievers. Even Solomon became an idolater because of his relationships with foreign wives. Remember you are a child of God and the temple of the Holy Spirit set apart from the world by the blood of Christ. That knowledge should govern every relationship and every agreement we enter into.

Blessings