Key Verse: Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? (2 Cor. 6:14)
I once saw a picture of an ox and a donkey yoked to the same plow. I laughed; it was funny. Then I realized this is a biblical image. Deut. 22:10 says, “Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.” If a farmer wants to plow straight furrows, he needs an equally matched pair. I doubt that an ox and a donkey yoked to the same plow can plow a straight furrow.
Our text says if you are going to be partnered with someone in an enterprise, you need to be moving in the same direction. You need to be spiritually compatible. In the context here, Paul is possibly referring to the Jewish troublemakers who had come to the church at Corinth to stir up the church against the apostle. It’s also possible that he is referring to the Corinthians’ participation in idolatrous feasts he dealt with in 1 Cor. 8 and 10. In fact, one of the points Paul makes in our text is, “What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?” (v. 16)
Whatever Paul’s reference was, we can take his point. There is a fundamental incompatibility between believers and unbelievers. If they are yoked to the same cause, they will not plow a straight furrow. Now, being yoked with an unbeliever is not the same as associating with an unbeliever. In Luke 5:27-32, the Pharisees challenged Jesus about the fact He was eating with tax collectors and sinners. His response was, “Who needs a doctor, the healthy or the sick?” so that is not the issue. If you are going to minister to unbelievers, you need to associate with them.
The issue here is clearly the idea of partnership. It is pulling together to plow a straight furrow. It is walking in step with each other. It is pulling a load together. In spite of the fact that Paul does not mention either marriage or business partnerships here, these are well within the scope of the principle. Both of these require the partners to be pulling with the same goal in mind.
Where is your heart in these things? Do you have a decision to make that involves either a business partnership or marriage with an unequal partner? The warning here is that this is a bad idea. Unless there can be ‘fellowship’ in the union, there can be no harmony. James was quite upset when he wrote, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (Jas. 4:4).
Prayer: Father, let my heart be so aligned with yours that I avoid yoking myself in any way with an unbeliever. May my heart always be warm toward unbelievers, and may I influence them in your direction, but guard me from being unequally yoked with them, for your glory.
Author: Lindsay Hislop was raised in southern Scotland and southern Ontario and now lives in the southern United States. He worked in the engineering field for 15 years (mostly in Canada) before pursuing an academic career. He has taught for over thirty years at Columbia International University. He also serves as an elder in his church, where he teaches and preaches regularly. He is married to a wonderful wife Pam and has two terrific children, Holly, who lives in Canada, and Doug, who lives in Columbia. His four grandchildren, Isaac, Madeline, Lindsay, and Dolan, are also pretty special. He likes doing carpentry and odd jobs around the house.
