“Please explain the uequal yoke of 2 Corinthians 6:14.”

QUESTION:Please explain the “unequal yoke” of 2 Corinthians 6:14.

“Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?”

ANSWER: In his epistles Paul often applied principles God laid down in the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy 22:10 God said, “You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.” These two animals had different status before God and different natures. The ox was the largest clean animal, strong and steady. It is one of the many Old Testament types of Christ. The donkey by contrast was unclean, never used in sacrifices nor as a picture of Christ. It is known for its stubbornness. A firstborn donkey, just like a firstborn son, had to be redeemed (Ex. 13:13) or else its neck was to be broken.

God detests mixtures. We see this in Genesis 1:4 where God saw the light as good and then divided the light from the darkness. Second Corinthians 6:14 alludes to this fact that light and darkness have nothing in common. On subsequent days of creation God divided the waters above the firmament from those below it and made every creature after its kind.

As human beings we possess and are dominated by a fallen, sinful nature, often referred to as the flesh. But when a person is saved he is given a new nature. Indeed, he is made a partaker of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). These two natures have nothing in common. While the believer still contends with the flesh in himself, he owes nothing to it. Essentially, Scripture views the Christian as a person with the new nature, and even more than that, as indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

We see then that an unsaved person, having only the old nature, intrinsically has nothing in common with the Christian and his new nature. The thinking and motivation of the two are incompatible. The unbeliever cannot please God (Rom. 8:8), while the Christian desires to please Him. Their goals and methods are not the same either. For the Christian to be joined together with the non-Christian as equals pulling together in a common purpose is really a practical impossibility as well as being forbidden by God.

This is true, not only in marriage, where these verses are generally applied, but also in other areas of life. Business partnerships, social and political organizations, church membership – all these things come under the heading of the unequal yoke if open to believers and unbelievers alike. The Christian is not a joiner with this wicked world. He has been joined to Christ who said, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me” (Mt. 11:29).

What is true for the Christian individually is also true collectively. God tells His own to separate from that which is incompatible with Him and His holiness. We should not even touch the unclean thing. Under the Law merely touching something unclean defiled a person (Hag. 2:11-13). We are not under the Law, but we are to learn from its principles.

We are in this world and have many contacts with people. So was our Lord when He was on earth. He reached out in many ways to sinners of all descriptions but never joined Himself with their sin. Though “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” (Heb. 7:25), He always reached out in love. And just as He enjoyed sweet fellowship with His Father, so God wants us to enjoy Him as Father too, delighting in fellowship with Him as sons and daughters.

By Eugene P. Vedder, Jr.