Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 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.”
“Therefore come out from them
and be separate, says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing
and I will receive you.”
(verses 14-17)
-
It seems the Corinthians tended to live with one foot in the world and the other in the Kingdom of Light. Their previous pagan lifestyle (including temple worship) may have pulled them back, or they may have been led astray by false teachers who opposed Paul’s authority. Or, perhaps most likely, it was some combination of the two. Whatever the cause, these Corinthian believers were straddling the fence.
Paul says, “Stop!” Don’t engage with thinking and perspectives and practices that are contrary to the gospel of Jesus. Indeed, don’t enter into a binding partnership with those whose orientation of life is not based on commitment to Christ. How can you possibly have fellowship of heart if that’s the case? How can you be in deep-seated agreement together?
The image Paul uses is that of two animals yoked together for the purpose of pulling a farm-plough. Side by side, bound together, they’re meant to pull evenly in the same direction, cutting a straight furrow. But if the animals are of different size and strength and temperament, they will be “unequally yoked.” The resulting furrow will be anything but straight and true.
Don’t have one foot in and one foot out, Paul says. it can’t work. Indeed, the contrasts make it obvious. Righteousness and wickedness pull in different directions. Light and darkness are antithetical. Christ and Belial (Satan) are in complete opposition. Similarly, believers and unbelievers, the temple of God and idols.
It's not that we’re to avoid the people of this world. Not at all. As Paul said in his previous letter to the Corinthians, “In that case you would have to leave this world” (1 Cor 5:10). No, we live among them and are to love them as our neighbours, just as Jesus taught. But we’re not to bind our orientation of life to theirs. We’re not to adopt their perspective. We’re to keep eyes on Jesus.
This wasn’t just an issue for the Corinthians. It’s also one for us. Indeed, living out Paul’s instruction is more challenging than it first appears. In seeking to “be separate,” as the Lord commands, Christians have sometimes focused on incidental externals (clothes and makeup and card-playing come to mind from a previous generation). But the issues of heart and life are more subtle and deeply rooted – consumerism and prestige and permissiveness and love of money.
Don’t be bound together with the perspectives of this world. Or, as JB Phillips translates Paul’s words elsewhere: “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould”(Romans 12:2).
Instead, “let God re-mould your minds from within.” Be unyoked from all that binds. Be separate, yes, by the renewing work of the Spirit.
-
Lord, give me eyes to see where my own thinking has been shaped by the world around me. Where attitudes and behaviour have become bound, set me free. I hear your voice, “Come out from them and be separate” – this I choose to do. Strengthen me by your Spirit. Amen.
-
Reflect:
The Lord says, “Come out from them and be separate.” Is he bringing anything to mind from which you need to be “unyoked”? If so, what steps do you need to take?
Comments