“Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever?”
2 Corinthians 6:14-15 NLT
Paul wrote that believers and unbelievers should not be in a partnership. Seems like good sense because Jesus Himself said, “The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you” (John 15:19). Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4:7, “God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives”. Christians are to be holy, but what does that mean? “Holiness” is commonly defined as being separate or set apart. God is holy in that he is set apart from everything that is not God, and God’s people must be holy by being set apart from sin. Holiness, according to this definition, is separateness that entails moral purity.
For us pilgrims, being in partnership with an unbeliever will obviously introduce strains in the relationship. There are a number of different types of partnerships, though. The obvious one is in marriage. Occasionally, a believer meets an unbeliever, and the relationship starts, eventually reaching a point where marriage is discussed. What should the believer do (assuming, of course, that their relationship with God is alive and well)? Many go ahead, only to live in regret afterwards. Another type of partnership occurs in the business world, and the same principles apply. The unbelieving partner may attempt to introduce business practices unacceptable to the believer, perhaps even illegal. Or perhaps one partner, the unbelieving one, wants to introduce trading in products that are unethical.
There is always the temptation for a believer to say they might be able to persuade their partner to become a believer in Christ. Although such an outcome is possible (such was the case with my daughter and her husband), in most cases, the opposite occurs. I can remember a speaker in church demonstrating how difficult this might be. He took a chair and asked a young man to stand on it. He then asked the young man to try to pull another man up onto the chair next to him. It turned out to be a very difficult task, possible but needing much cooperation between them. The speaker then demonstrated the opposite: the man on the ground found it quite easy to pull the other off the chair. A visual display that effectively showed the danger of entering into a relationship with an unrealistic expectation. The moral of his story was that it is difficult to pull someone toward righteousness, but very easy to drag them down toward sin.
Of course, there are marriages in place between a believer and an unbeliever. Paul addressed that situation when he wrote, “Now, I will speak to the rest of you, though I do not have a direct command from the Lord. If a fellow believer has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to continue living with him, he must not leave her. And if a believing woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to continue living with her, she must not leave him. For the believing wife brings holiness to her marriage, and the believing husband brings holiness to his marriage. Otherwise, your children would not be holy, but now they are holy. … Don’t you wives realise that your husbands might be saved because of you? And don’t you husbands realise that your wives might be saved because of you?” (1 Corinthians 7:12-14, 16). Nothing is ever impossible for God, however, and the believing partner may see a miracle happen in their relationship with the unbeliever.
In the ESV we read for 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” The word “yoke” is a good choice because it evokes the rigid harness used to keep livestock locked together and pulling in a consistent direction. With that word, we can find an illustration from the husbandry of the Israelite farmers. Deuteronomy 22:10, “You must not plough with an ox, and a donkey harnessed together”. That picture, which instantly formed in our minds, indicates the inadvisability of trying to do something with partners unequally yoked.
A Christian’s relationship with God through Jesus must be protected and nurtured above all else. Paul compared righteousness and wickedness, attributes that are obviously incompatible. When we read verses like, “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:21), we get the message. Of course, a Christian believer cannot separate themselves from the world in which we live. Jesus said in His High Priestly prayer, and about His disciples, “I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to this world any more than I do” (John 17:15-16). Paul wrote, “When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that” (1 Corinthians 5:9-10).
“Do not be unequally
yoked with unbelievers”.
We imagine the analogy of darkness and light, and realise that both states cannot coexist. The kingdom of darkness is under the jurisdiction of the devil, and the Kingdom of Light is God’s Kingdom. We pilgrims do our best to bring our light, God’s light, into the relationships we have, and we share the Good News about Jesus at every opportunity, but being in partnership with an unbeliever is not recommended.
Dear Father God. We are so grateful that someone had the courage and persistence to share the Good News about Jesus with us, transforming us from darkness into light. Thank You for Jesus, who made it all possible. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 