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| | From:  Serarae (Original Message) | Sent: 1/31/2004 6:09 AM |
By Steve M.
Chances are, many of you have heard the term "equally-yoked" already. However, while most understand what it generally means in putting it into a relationship context, I have found that most do not realize that the concept is easier to understand with a literal interpretation rather than as symbolism. Those of you who have not heard of the equally-yoked concept, the scripture from 2nd Corinthians is given below. My commentary continues below the passage.
2 Corinthians 6:14 - 7:1 (NIV)
14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
16 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."
17 "Therefore come out from them
and be separate, says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
and I will receive you."
18 "I will be a Father to you,
and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."
7:1 Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
Let's break this out verse-by-verse because there are some interesting things here. Verse 14 is where the concept of being equally-yoked comes from. For those of you who didn't grow up in the first century, a yoke is an implement used to harness two oxen together. Yokes were common in the United States until the invention of the tractor made tedious field work with oxen unnecessary. However, oxen and yokes are still used in many undeveloped areas in the world today.
A yoke looks like the above picture - the loops fit around the necks of the oxen, then a plow or other heavy implement is attached to the yoke via a strong wooden plank. If you are envisioning a picture of this in your mind, you should be getting the idea that yokes and oxen are used for carrying a burden (oxen and other large animals are often called, "Beasts of burden") or for pulling something heavy.
Now envision what it would be like if you had one strong oxen and one puny, weak oxen. If they were yoked together, what would be the result? The strong oxen would be pulling well, but the weak one would not be able to apply the same amount of strength to pulling the plow. You would be plowing in circles! Any farmer can tell you that you need to have straight lines for planting in the field, so two oxen of differing strengths would defeat the purpose of planting an efficient, straight line of crops.
Now, if you translate this into relationship terms, if your goal is to plow a straight line toward a relationship with Jesus, a weaker "oxen-mate" will only pull you to the side - if not in circles. Therefore, it is wise to restrict your dating prospects to fellow Christians because you marry who you date. Also, you don't want to end up married to someone who won't be pulling his/her weight in the spiritual aspect of your relationship. If you talk to Christian marriage counsellors, they will be able to tell you many stories of Christians whom have non-Christian spouces. They generally aren't happy stories.
In verses 14 through 16, Paul uses contrasts to drive home the point he made about not being in relationships with non-Christians. Righteous vs. wicked, light vs. darkness, Christ vs. Belial, and temple of God vs. temple of idols are all used to show how Christians and non-Christians are truly different. Christians have accepted Christ as their Lord, while non-Christians are ruled by Satan. Belial is the name of one of the chief demons, but is probably used as a replacement for Satan in this passage. As a Christian who worships Jesus, I can't imagine what it would be like to be married to someone controlled by Satan. There would be too much of a spiritual disconnect in that relationship, not to mention entirely different views of life, death, money, sex, and other life situations.
The second half of verse 16 is taken from the Old Testament - Leviticus 26:12. It reads:
12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.
Since we're talking about being yoked, I thought you would also like to see verse 13:
13 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.
The heading given for verses 1-13 of Leviticus 26 is, "Reward for Obedience" (or Blessings of Obedience). If you read this passage, you will get the idea that the reward for obeying God is peace, prosperity, and security rather than the yoke of bondage the Israelites suffered while slaves in Egypt. In transfering this idea to relationships, finding an equally-yoked Christian mate will bring peace, prosperity, and security to your marriage because the Lord is there, walking with you.
Verse 17 is taken directly from Isaiah 52:11, where Isaiah is prophecying that the Lord will deliver the Israelites from the bondage of slavery by the Assyrians (52:4). The Assyrians are blaspheming God's name and God is clearly unhappy (52:5). So verse 11 means that when God does deliver the Israelites from the Assyrians, they are to completely disassociate themselves with such a wicked culture. When we become Christians, we are redeemed from a similar wicked culture (not necessarily American culture, per se, but from a culture - or lifestyle - of unsaved sinfulness). Therefore, Paul is urging us to disassociate ourselves from a relationship with someone who is like the Assyrians.
Verse 18 comes from 2 Samuel:14, where God promised that He would always be with David and would make him a mighty ruler. However, God also promised that David would be punished when he did wrong. This message is included in 2 Corinthians to show that God is with us and desires to make us great; however, if we break the rules of men, we will be punished by men just like David. This could mean that if we would break the godly rules of marriage such as committing adultery, Christians are still subject to a worldly penalty and are not above reproach.
Lastly, 2 Corinthians 7:1 sums up these verses about purity in avoiding relationships with non-Christians because it is for our own good as well as a way to show reverence for God.
Hopefully you didn't need convincing that a relationship with a non-Christian is a blueprint for disaster. It drags you off-course, makes life more difficult, and just plain isn't what God wants for you.
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