God’s children are warned not to be “unequally yoked together with unbelievers” (2 Cor 6:14). This refers them back to the Old Testament command: “Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together” (Deut 22:10). It would be unreasonable and unkind to the ass to yoke these two very different animals together, one much stronger than the other. So it is unwise, and it is likely to cause damage to the spiritual well-being of the believer, to be in too close a relationship with anyone who rejects the authority of God’s Word.
Paul asks, by way of showing the unreasonableness of the unequal yoking of two people: “What part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” (2 Cor 6:15). An obvious example of such a yoking together would be in marriage. How can someone who respects the authority of God speaking in Scripture enter into that closest of human relationships with someone who rejects that authority, who wants to live life as he or she sees fit – between, in other words, someone who fears God and someone who totally lacks that holy respect for Him and His commandments? But, as Charles Hodge points out in his Commentary on 2 Corinthians, marriage “is only one application of the principle here laid down . . . that intimate associations ought not to be formed by the people of God with those who are not His people. . . . It is to be remembered that it is the union of incongruous elements, of the devout and undevout, of the spiritual and the worldly, of the children of God and the children of the evil one, that the Apostle exhorts Christians to avoid.” Believers and unbelievers have fundamentally different desires, and major difficulties will arise if they are yoked too closely together.
Of course, there is no suggestion in the Scriptures that believers are to cut themselves off from all contact with unbelievers; as Paul himself states in a slightly different context: “Then must ye needs go out of the world” (1 Cor 5:10). The point is that such contact should not be unnecessarily close. Certainly when one partner in a marriage, but not the other, is brought into God’s kingdom there may be difficulties for both of them, but that is no argument for separation.
Among the other questions Paul asks to justify his warning against unequal yoking is: “What concord hath Christ with Belial?” The Greek word translated concord has given English the word symphony, which Hodge explains as “harmony of voice”. He then asks, “How discordant or opposite are Christ and Belial?” Belial is a Hebrew word which he explains as “worthlessness, then wickedness. Hence the wicked are called ‘sons of Belial’, that is worthless. . . . Christ is God manifest in the flesh; Satan is the prince of darkness. How can they or their followers agree?”
For someone who hears the warning against being unequally yoked with unbelievers and then the subsequent call, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord”, the difficulties in doing so may loom very large. But not only is the call wise and right – for it is made by the infinitely wise and righteous God – it is also given in kindness. This is clear when we see that the call is immediately followed by the promise: “I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty”. God is promising those who recognise the danger of entering into an unequal yoke, and heed His warning, that He will care for them like a human father cares for his children; only He will do so in perfect wisdom, perfect kindness and perfect faithfulness. He will never break His promises; He will never act towards His children in any way that is not absolutely consistent with His attributes of wisdom, goodness and truth – and every statement He has made about Himself.
A human father understands, at least to some extent, the weaknesses of his children and sympathises with them. God too understands His children’s weaknesses, but He understands them perfectly: “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust” (Ps 103:13,14). So, when one of God’s children, not thinking the matter through scripturally, is attracted to an unequal yoke, the Lord understands the situation. He knows what has to be done; He can apply the Word, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to this mistaken child, give this person an obedient spirit and bring him or her to a better mind – to be willing not to become unequally yoked with an unbeliever.
The Lord may see that His children require to be chastised, to bring them to a greater hatred for sin, so that they will be more willing to walk in all the paths of new obedience. He knows that “no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Heb 12:11). God uses chastisement wisely and effectively, in His pity for His children, as an instrument to subdue rebellion and worldliness, which are so damaging to their spiritual well-being, and to bring them closer to Himself.
See how Samuel Rutherford acknowledges God’s fatherly care of him: “I am but a shortsighted creature, and my candle casteth not light afar off. He knoweth all that is done to me; how that when I had but one joy, and no more, and one green flower that I esteemed to be my garland, He came in one hour and dried up my flower at the root, and took away mine only eye, and my one and only crown and garland. What can I say? Surely my guiltiness has been remembered before Him, and He was seeking to take down my sails, and to land the flower of my delights, and to let it lie on the coast, like an old broken ship that is no more for the sea. But I praise Him for this waled [chosen] stroke. I welcome this furnace; God’s wisdom made choice of it for me, and it must be best, because it was His choice.”1
Here was a man who understood the Lord’s gracious dealings with His children, and with himself as a child of that heavenly Father – even when he was in exile in far-away Aberdeen and unable to carry out the delightful duty to which the Lord had called him: to preach the gospel of the grace of God in his beloved Anwoth. Rutherford trusted in Him to do what was best. Recognising, in particular, his sin and guilt, he trusted in the Lord to deal with him in the way that would most effectively subdue his sin and he well knew how much he needed that subduing.
How much God’s children today need to recognise such things! We should not underestimate the skill with which Satan tried to entangle God’s children, and others, in previous generations so that he might lead them away from the paths of new obedience. Yet modern technology has provided Satan with many new opportunities to lead believers astray and induce them to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. A few decades ago radio and television were probably the main means of bringing ungodly thinking to bear on the outlook of professing Christians; now social media, and the internet generally, may be most influential. At the very least, these are great wasters of time, distracting people from what would be much more beneficial to them spiritually. There is a real danger that believers will yoke themselves unequally to those who reject God’s revelation in the Bible and make every effort to spread ungodly principles.
We should be clear that the God who directs us not to allow ourselves to be influenced by ungodly thinking is a good God; He is One who undertakes to care as a Father for all who, by His grace, put their trust in Him for time and for eternity. He looks on them with a pitying eye and He is able to deliver them from all the ungodly influences of our time. His care for them will never end; He says to each of His children, whatever their circumstances, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb 13:5).
1Letters of Samuel Rutherford, Banner of Truth reprint, 1984, p 362.