This Is No Yoking Matter! (A Study of 2 Corinthians 6:14-18)

Friends: If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know that my friend Frank (in New Jersey) and I have been doing an email Bible study for over a year. We read the same chapter every day for a week — and then send a brief email of encouragement to each other. We’ve completed most of the epistles of the New Testament — and it’s been a great discipline for both of us.

We’re now working our way through 2 Corinthians. Here’s my outline for several verses in chapter six:

This Is No Yoking Matter! (A Study of 2 Corinthians 6:14-18)

This is a very famous passage of 2 Corinthians. I remember verse 14 being wielded against me as a teenager when I would even entertain the thought of dating an unsaved person (good advice)! My elders would say, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers” (KJV)! Their intention — and their advice — were well-grounded in God’s Word. If a Christian dates a non-Christian, they will likely marry a non-Christian! Sometimes they would add the verse from Amos 3:3- “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”

The immediate context of this verse has to do with spiritual fellowship. Notice the contrasts:These opposites are well-chosen. The opposite of righteousness is wickedness, the opposite of light darkness. The devil is the opposite of Christ. There is a present (and will be an eternal) difference between a believer and an unbeliever. And the temple of the true God has nothing in common with idols!

When it comes to spiritual fellowship, the believer has nothing in common with those who don’t know Christ! One commentator writes, “Christians should be separate from the wicked world, as Christ was separate from all the feelings, purposes, and plans of Satan.” The term “Belial” (“Satan” in the Syriac; used only here in the New Testament) is the god of this world. The term is used very often in the Old Testament to express men notoriously wicked and scandalous, Deu 13:13 Judges 19:22 1 Samuel 1:16 2:12 25:17 2 Samuel 16:7 2 Chronicles 13:7.

Granted, we are not to cast our lot with the wicked (Psalm 1), but this does not mean that we can’t be a friend of sinners like the Lord Jesus! This passage does not mean that we are to become monks who live in caves and have nothing to do with the world. But we are not to yoke ourselves, bind ourselves, with those who oppose God and the things of God.This would include marriage as well as business ventures.

True, when it comes to spiritual fellowship, we have nothing in common with unbelievers. But when it comes to being human, we have much in common with those not yet in God’s family. And we can befriend them for Christ’s sake!

Today’s Challenge: Don’t seek your spiritual fellowship with those who don’t know Christ! There’s nothing there. Find your spiritual nourishment among the people of God so you can reach those who aren’t yet the people of God!