“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.””
2 Corinthians 6:14-18 ESV
What about being unequally yoked? Yet another monster line is dropped in a book replete with them. Oh, how this means so much more than we dare believe. The Scripture is deeper than any ocean, the depths of it too vast for man’s mind and certainly his heart.
Let’s move beyond the superficial meaning of this critical verse because it means so much more than simply the avoidance of opening a business with a flaming atheist. Although that’s certainly not a good idea, nor is marrying a non-believer, being unequally yoked speaks to our total approach to life.
How is it that we seek success?
What is it that we desire for happiness?
What is it that we yearn for in our dreams?
Is it the world? Then, yes, we are unequally yoked! For the world is passing away and to want anything more than to please Him is to fail on this count.
We can be at work or school, we can own a business, we can be retired, unemployed…wherever we are the question meets us. What do we truly want?
He asks us this. Yes, the Lord tests us and we do well to evaluate ourselves as the Scripture recommends (2 Corinthians 13:5). Presenting ourselves to the Lord in prayer is the ultimate act of humility and, not surprisingly, the surest path to true and lasting success. Until we know ourselves in the Lord we know only the dark shadows that this world illuminates, not our true face. He wants us to know and we don’t know, nor will we ever, until we truly pursue Him (Psalm 37:4). Once more: the path to self is through the God who made us, died for us, and lives for us.
What life do you imagine as your best? If anything is conjured up quickly, some contrivance, some great or even small success, and the Lord is not there, then you are most unequally yoked. Indeed, you’re connected to the world in a spiritual way that either means great spiritual immaturity or worse. We want what we truly love and the thing every Christian must know is that we violate the first and great commandment by “flirting” with this world (James 4:4). Thus, being unequally yoked in the main is to be more in love with anything or anyone than the Lord (Matthew 10:37-39). To love the things of the world as our highest pursuit, our vindication, our identity, our validation, our purpose or meaning, is actually idolatry (Colossians 3:5).
Idolatry is a most invisible killer! We think because we aren’t bowing down to a statue that we’re free from this sin, but this is exactly why false worship is so deadly. Idolatry is the elevation of created things over and above the Creator; it’s when a thing is more important than His will. The carbon monoxide detector that detects the deadly gas of false worship is the question of what can’t we live without. Who or what will you abandon to “do your thing? Is your happiness and purpose yours alone? Hear what the Lord says:
“Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.””
Luke 12:13-21 ESV
The issue of Christian living, the goal of it, is to be more and more conformed to the mind of Christ. We do this by progressively applying sound doctrine to every area of our lives. Lest we do this we’ll succumb to seeking to gain the world and the things in it at the expense of our spiritual health. Thus, being unequally yoked is first, before it’s an action, a basic heart-commitment. We act from what we love. And what we love is either the Lord more and more, self less and less, or indeed, ourselves. This self-love is what leads to the issue of being unequally yoked and is a symptom of idolatry.
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