Unequally Yoked

2017-12-30

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)

Being “unequally yoked” means being connected in some way to someone who is unsaved. This may include a business contract, or dating and marriage, or other religious groups that have rejected Christ. There are many applications you could make here. Paul gives us a list of dichotomies to show us the both the absurdity and danger of such relationships.

  1. Light and darkness. As soon as you put on a light, the darkness is gone.
  2. Christ and Belial. Christ has defeated Satan; they have nothing to do with one another.
  3. Believer and infidel. We as believers do not share a lot of the interests with the unbeliever. We want to live for God, while the unbeliever wants to continue in sin.
  4. Temple of God and idols. There is no idol in the temple of God, as God cannot be likened to anything that we have seen. On the contrary, the idol likens God to a created thing, and is a cheap imitation of who God really is.

Ye Are the Temple of the Living God

As saved people, God dwells in us. The local church is the body that has superseded the Old Testament temple, and we are the ones who worship God in spirit and truth. If we really take this at face value, we do not want to take what was sanctified unto God, and join it with something that is profane. We must put away the relationships with unbelievers that cause us to compromise our purity and our message of the Gospel.