The Unequal Yoke

‘Be ye holy; for I am holy.’ 1 Peter 1 v16

Holiness of life has always been what God has asked of His people. The word Holy really means to be separate. God of course is Holy in His very nature that means He is separate, set apart form everything and everyone that is sinful.

As a consequence he calls upon His children to lead holy lives or separate lives. In other words we should strive every day to live apart from sinful activities that would displease our heavenly father. We cannot of course do this perfectly because we are sinful beings but we must strive to be holy.

In order to get us into heaven we have had to have had the imputed righteousness (holiness) of Christ put to our account and once we are there we shall be made like Him and be in essence perfect and holy. But what of the here and now, how can we be separate.

One way that we can strive to be holy is to avoid become entangled in alliances with the world. These alliances could be in business partnerships or even alliances with churches where one of the parties is not wholly committed to the fundamentals of the faith. However, there is another alliance that we are more likely to be tempted to have that is as equally dangerous to the child of God, that is, in relationships which could lead to the marriage of a believer and an unbeliever.

When God choose the nation of Israel in the Old Testament to be His peculiar people he wanted them to be different, to be separate, to be holy. The devil sought to corrupt the Children of Israel in many ways and one of his favourite tactics was to unite them in marriages with the pagan nations around them. The Lord’s servant Nehemiah tackled this problem in his day and Chapter 13 of his book records:-

‘In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab: And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people. And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves. Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin. Nehemiah 13 v 23-26

Nehemiah reminded the people that bad choices in marriage had caused the wise King Solomon to sin and he warned that the same thing would happen to them. At this point you might say, well that does not apply to me, I’m not a Jew. Well, Paul the Apostle teaches the exact same principle in 2nd Corinthians chapter 6.

‘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?’

Clearly Christians are not be yoked together with the unsaved. This language that Paul uses is borrowed from the Law of Moses where God had forbidden the Israelites to yoke an Ox and an Ass together unto the same plow.

‘Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together.’ Deuteronomy 22 v10

If a man was to plough his field, he must use two oxen or two donkeys but he was never to yoke together an ox and a donkey. Paul borrows this principle to illustrate the truth that Christians should not yoke themselves with the unconverted.

This teaching is clear and plain for everyone to see and yet sometimes when a Christian guy or girl takes a fancy to and unsaved person of the opposite sex they shelve this principle. If challenged they will often use the excuse that they would hope to influence the person for good and lead them to Christ. The history of such relationships often shows the opposite to be true and it is usually the unsaved partner that influences the Christian to lower their standards.

Perhaps you have used this rationale to help justify your disobedience to God’s revealed will for your life. If you have think about this, what you are actually saying in effect is this, ‘I know what your word say’s God but actually I know better that you’.

God’s loves His children and knows what is best for them. In Paul’s teaching above he asks ‘what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?’ We need to realise that the unsaved around us are infidels as Paul said in Ephesians 2 concerning the unsaved they are ‘the children of disobedience:’ why would a Child of God want to be yoked with a child of the devil? This may seem harsh language but this is how God’s sees it. May we have a godly perspective in these days!