The Nugget:
2 Corinthians 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
My Comment:
The yoke, of course, was a device used in agriculture in ancient times that permitted two oxen, for example, to pull the same plow. Being unequally yoked in the agricultural world would have reference to teaming two animals of differing size, or two different kinds of animals. Such a practice did not work well. Paul compares the cooperation and close relationship of believers with unbelievers to that unequal yoke. This principle may be hard to apply today in some circumstances. It could be applied to the marriage of a believer with an unbeliever. That ought not be done. Sometimes the believing wife has married an unbelieving husband in the hope that she can influence him to become a believer. That sometimes happens, but often does not. The principle can be applied to cooperation between churches of differing denominations. If both denominations are sound doctrinally, cooperation can be a good thing. But sometimes the denominations are doctrinally incompatible, one holding true to the Bible, the other following false doctrine, where cooperation would be inadvisable or actually wrong. I think, to address an even “hotter topic,” that the principle Paul enunciates can be applied to deciding, as a Christian, about who to vote for at election time. Candidates who support causes contrary to the teaching of the Bible probably should not usually be voted for by those who claim to believe the Bible. Certainly if a successful candidate holds an office and fails to keep the promises that won him or her the election, or who turns much for the worse during office, when such candidate runs again for that office, no informed Christian should support that candidate again. No doubt you can think of other examples where the principles stated in this verse apply.
For those who desire to DIG DEEPER into this subject:
(1) Consult the cross references given in Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible on pages 1336-1337 for 2 Corinthians 6:14.
(2) Consult the cross references given in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge on page 1358 or in Logos 5 Bible software for 2 Corinthians 6:14.
(3) Lacking access to those two resources, consult the cross references for this passage as I have developed them as given below:
2 Corinthians 6:14. Be ye not unequally yoked. Ge 6:2. 24:3. 28:1. 38:2. Ex 20:23. 34:16. Le *19:2, 19. Nu 36:6. Dt *7:2, 3. 22:9-11. Jsh 23:12. Jg 2:2. +3:6. Ru 3:10n. 1 K 8:53. 22:4. Ezr 9:1, 2, 11, 12. 10:3n, 19. Ne 13:1-3, 23-26. Ps 94:20. 106:35. +**119:63. Pr 22:24. Am 3:3. Ml 2:11, 15. Ro *12:2. 1 C *+5:9. **7:39. 15:33. Ja *4:4. with unbelievers. Gr. apistos (S#571g, Ac 26:8). Jsh 23:7, 12. 1 K 11:2. 22:44. 2 K 8:27. 2 Ch 18:1. Ps 101:4. Pr 13:20. Mt 18:17. what fellowship. Ge 49:6. Ex 8:26. Jsh 9:14. 1 S 5:2, 3. 1 K 18:21. 2 Ch +**19:2. Ne 10:28. Ps 16:3. 26:4, 5, 9, 10. 44:20, 21. 101:3-5. +**119:63. 139:21, 22. Pr 13:20. 29:27. Jn 7:7. 15:18, 19. Ac 4:23. 1 C 5:11. +9:10. 10:21. Ep *5:6-10, +*11. 2 T 2:19, 21. 1 J 1:6. 3:12-14. 2 J +*11. hath. or, is there to. righteousness. ver. 7. with unrighteousness. or, lawlessness. Gr. anomia (S#458g). Mt 7:23g (iniquity). 13:41g. 23:28g. 24:12g. Ro 4:7g. 6:19g. 2 Th 2:7g. T 2:14g. He 1:9g. 8:12g. 1 J 3:4g (transgression of the law). and what communion. Pr 4:18, 19. Ac *+26:18. Ro 13:12-14. Ep 4:17-20. **5:8-14. Ph 2:15. 1 Th 5:4-8. 1 P *2:9, 10. 4:2-4. 1 J 1:5-7. hath light. Mt 5:14. Ac 26:18. darkness. Is +*9:2. Mt +*15:14. Ep **5:11.
11 co 6.14 be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship
hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with
darkness?
several encouraging cross refs on 11 co 6.14
1.jas 4.4 ye adulterers and adultresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world
is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the
enemy of God.
2. 1 co 5.9 i wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicatiors:
vs 10 yet not altogether with fornicators of this world, or with covetous, or
extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
3. jn 15.18-19 if the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated
you. vs 19 if ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because
ye are not of the world, but i have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hateth you.
4. 1 co 10.21 ye cannot drink the cup of the lord, and the cup of devils: ye
cannot be partakers of the lords table, and of the table of devils.
5. eph 5.7 be not ye therefore partakers with them vs 8 for ye were sometimes darkness
but now are ye light in the lord; walk as children of light: vs 9 for the fruit of
the spirit is all goodness and righteousness and truth. vs 10 proving what is
acceptable unto the lord. vs 11 and have not fellowhisp with unfruitful works of
darkness, but rather reprove them.
6. rom 13.-12-14 the night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast
off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
vs 13 let us walk honestly, as in the day; not rioting and drunkenness,
not in chambering and wantonness, not strife and envying. vs but put ye on
the lord jesus christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.
7. eph 4.17-20 this is say therefore, and testify in the lord, that ye henceforth walk
not as other gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, vs 18 having alienated from the
life of god through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;
vs 19 who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work
all uncleaness with greediness. vs 20 but ye have not so learned christ;
8. 1 thess 5.4-8 but ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake
you as a thief. vs 5 ye are all the children of light, and children of the day; we are
not of the night, nor of darkness. vs 6 therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but
let us watch and be sober. vs 7 for they that sleep sleep in the night: and they be drunken are drunken in the night. vs 8 but let us, who are of the day, be sober,
putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and and for an helmet, the hope of
salvation.