Tag: unequally yoked

The people of God are meant to be uncompromisingly holy and distinct

We are susceptible to faulty thinking when we begin to align with our culture over the message of God’s kingdom.

We are susceptible to faulty thinking when we begin to align with our culture over the message of God’s kingdom.

2 Corinthians 6:14-16 – Do not try to work together as equals with unbelievers, for it cannot be done. How can right and wrong be partners? How can light and darkness live together? How can Messiah and the worthless one agree? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? How can God’s temple come to terms with pagan idols?

In this writing to the Corinthian congregation, the apostle Paul fires off a rapid-fire set of questions to illustrate the incompatibility of believers with non-believers. This is not meant to be a statement of withdrawing from all worldly interactions, but to avoid being, quite literally, “unequally yoked” together with those who are not in agreement with the biblical worldview.

In ancient agriculture, yoking two animals together to do the necessary work, whether pulling a cart or a plowing implement, would have the potential to double the output or ease the burden of just a single animal. However, if the animals were of different sizes or temperaments the unequal pairing became difficult to manage and the animals would not work in unison as anticipated. Even today in sled dog teams in the far north, it is important for each dog to be compatible with all of the others so that they work together to successfully pull the sled and obey the commands of the owner.

To further make his point, the apostle then quotes from some of the prophets to illustrate his point further.

  • Jeremiah 31:1 – “At that time, says Yahweh, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.”
  • Isaiah 52:10-11 – Yahweh has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. Depart, depart, go out thence, touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her, purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of Yahweh.
  • Isaiah 43:5-7 – Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you; I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, every one who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”
  • Hosea 1:10-11 – Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered; and in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Sons of the living God.” And the people of Judah and the people of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head; and they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

Interestingly, all of these passages refer to the great regathering of Israel from among the nations prophetically in the future (from the standpoint of the prophets). These prophecies were written at a time of dispersion of God’s people from the physical land of Israel. They are urging separation and cleansing from the cultures to which they have been dispersed in order to demonstrate the glory of God.

Paul is using this emphasis on the uniqueness of the calling of God’s people as a substantiation of the encouragement to the holiness and separation of the believers in his day. He is equating the corruption of the worldly cultures where Israel had been scattered as a spiritual equivalent of the corruption to which the believers in Messiah were being exposed in his own day. The contrasts are stark: right and wrong, light and darkness, temple of God and temples of idols. Messiah is contrasted with the worthless one, sometimes associated with a popular deity at the time, the “Lord of the Forest,” or sometimes the Accuser (Satan). These would have been recognizable contrasts to his first century audience and would underscore the necessity to maintain spiritual purity in a world of wickedness.

In like fashion, we today would do well to heed the apostle’s advice. As God’s people scattered around the world, we are exposed to all kinds of cultural distractions and potentially spiritually harmful activities that are every bit as corrupting. We need to ensure that we are not trying to fit in to our culture or to somehow appear “culturally relevant” when our worldviews are complete opposites. For us to compromise who we are as the people of God for the sake of notoriety or trying not to “rock the boat” is a strategy that is doomed to failure, and ultimately dishonors the name of the holy God whom we serve and represent as his people in this world.

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The promises of holiness require active separation from unrighteous practices

Believers are not to join in any effort or activity where the Name or character of God would be maligned or disdained.

Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God.

2 Corinthians 7:1

Paul’s admonition here is for cleansing our ourselves from everything that can defile our body and spirit. This, he says, is working toward complete holiness; that is, with holiness as the fulfillment, the end goal, of this cleansing.

However, the motivation for this goal comes from some promises he has just mentioned. Since this is the first verse in chapter 7 in our Bibles, this must mean he mentioned some promises at the end of chapter 6. What promises is he referring to?

Well, the direct answer comes when we review verses 17 and 18: “I will receive you,” and “I will be your father and you will be unto me for sons and daughters.”

These are, indeed, amazing promises. But these promises are contingent on this cleansing, a setting apart of some sort. Let’s review the passage in full to see the context:

Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What agreement has Christ with Belial? Or what portion has a believer with an unbeliever? What agreement has a temple of God with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Therefore, “‘Come out from among them, and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you. I will be to you a Father. You will be to me sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.”

2 Corinthians 6:14-18

I know this passage has classically been used for the purpose of warning believers not to marry non-believers, and while that is certainly a commendable ideal, that is not the context of this passage; marriage is no where in Paul’s sights here.

The real message is that separation from non-believers is required in any type of joint-effort where a compromise of God’s principles would become involved. Believers are not to join in any effort or activity where the Name or character of God would be maligned or disdained.

As an example, in Paul’s day, it was customary to invite friends to go out to dinner, so to speak, in a temple of a local deity. A fellowship meal in an idol’s temple was the equivalent of going out to eat in a restaurant today. It was also an accepted practice to purchase meat in the local market that had first been offered to an idol. These were such serious issues that Paul devotes a whole chapter (chapter 8) in his first letter to the Corinthians to these practices.

It is also mentioned as a primary restriction required of new believers from the Jerusalem Council decision:

Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood.

Acts 15:20

To remind the believers of the severity of this command, Paul, as he is known to do, quotes from several selections of torah, or God’s instruction, to make his point:

  • Leviticus 7:21 – If you touch anything that is unclean (whether it is human defilement or an unclean animal or any other unclean, detestable thing) and then eat meat from a peace offering presented to the LORD, you will be cut off from the community.”
  • Leviticus 11:8 – You may not eat the meat of these animals or even touch their carcasses. They are ceremonially unclean for you.
  • Leviticus 26:11-12 – I will live among you, and I will not despise you. I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people.
  • Ezekiel 37:27 – I will make my home among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

He pulls together principles rooted in the holiness of God; avoiding ceremonial uncleanness is the model, the example, of how believers were to ensure they were continuing to pattern their lives in the assemblies of Messiah. If they did so, God would be among them.

Uncleanness went beyond just animals to other sanitary practices among the people of God, from bodily fluids to accidentally touching dead bodies. But the principle was the same: separating oneself from these things was an act of holiness, which by its very definition means to be set apart.

Paul is using that same established torah logic among the believers in Corinth to remind them of their unique position among their generation, and that they should not forfeit their standing with God on the accepted conventions and customs of the day. According to Yeshua’s admonition of Matthew 5:8, believers were to have a pure and blameless heart at all times. Separation from unclean practices was necessary to achieve this.

How can we apply this same principle in our day? What types of accepted conventions in social discourse today compromise the principles of God and his character? What activities demean and denigrate God’s glory, yet are considered “ok” by the rest of our society?

These are the things we are to avoid being “yoked” together (i.e., going along with) non-believers for the sake of fellowship. We cannot be united with them in those things because they compromise God’s integrity and honor.

However, Paul’s admonition is that when we do actively separate ourselves, when we cleanse ourselves from these things, then we are truly behaving like God’s sons and daughters, and only then will he will be present among us. This is the fulfillment of the promises when we take decisive actions to maintain our holiness out of godly respect and honoring of him.