DO NOT BE YOKED TOGETHER WITH UNBELIEVERS

2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1

Key Verse 6:14a 

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.”

In today’s passage the Apostle Paul encourages the flock of God at Corinth to understand the freedom God purchased for us through the blood of Jesus.  To fully know and experience this freedom of God, requires us to make the spiritual journey to God’s kingdom – similar to an astronaut taking a trip through space in a space-shuttle.  The Kennedy Space Center is located in Orlando, Florida.  Each time NASA sends people into orbit, the crew members undergo strict training to prepare them for travel.  In making a spiritual journey to God’s kingdom, we also need to make necessary preparations. What preparations are needed? What are the things we need to know? 

First, we must know the existence of two opposites

In making a journey the first thing we need to know is the two points (or stations) that are involved in the journey: the point of departure and the point of arrival. Where do we start the journey? Where will we finish the journey? Once we have decided the two points we can determine the rest of the details of the journey: the distance, the time, the cost involved, the means to finish the travel, etc. 

What is our departure point? What is our arrival point? Look at verses 14-16: “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’”

Here the Apostle Paul identifies the starting point and the finishing point of our journey. Paul describes the starting point with five words: wickedness, darkness, Belial, unbeliever (or unbelief), and idols. The finishing point is described with five words: righteousness, light, Christ, believers (or belief), and the living God. 

Wickedness, darkness, Belial, unbelief, and idols are all connected together. They all belong to the same camp. We can easily understand this concept when we think about what happened to the first man Adam. The Devil tempted the first couple to not believe in God, to do what is wicked, to fall into darkness, and thereby caused man to lose all that are valuable, making an otherwise richest family to go bankrupt, physically and spiritually. Thus, wickedness, darkness, Belial, unbelief, and idols all work together to send man to the kingdom of hell.  

Righteousness, light, Christ, faith, and the living God also work together. They all belong to the same camp, that is, the kingdom of God. Just as Belial tempts man to worship worthless idols and thereby become a child of wickedness so that he should be locked up in eternal darkness, so also God the Father works to encourage his children to grow in faith, so that through faith in Jesus Christ the Son they would come out of darkness into God’s light, and become children of God’s righteousness. 

What is important here is for us to clearly recognize the two points of our journey. In the book The Pilgrim’s Progress, Pastor John Bunyan calls the two points the City of Destruction and the Celestial City. The City of Destruction is the city of wickedness and darkness. It is also the city of Belial, the city of unbelievers, and the city where people worship idols. But the Celestial City is the opposite: it is the city of righteousness. It is the city of light, the city of Jesus Christ, the city inhabited by the believers. And guess who the mayor of the city is: the living God.  

Second, we must know that the two opposites are at odds with one another

The next thing we need to remember is that the two camps are the two opposites, and therefore are constantly at war with each other. Look at verses 14-16a: “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?” Paul asks five questions. The answers to them are all, “No”: there is nothing in common, there can be no fellowship, no harmony, no agreement whatsoever between the two.  

Righteousness and wickedness have nothing in common. We can better understand this truth from reading Psalm 1:1-6. In this Psalm King David says that the righteous and the wicked have nothing in common: their walk is different, their stand is different, the place they sit in is different, their likes and dislikes are different, and what they think about all the time is different, and of course their fruit is different. As a result, the wicked cannot stand judgment; the wicked perish, but the righteous prosper. 

There is no fellowship between light and darkness. In fact, the two cancel each other. Where there is light there is no darkness. Where there is darkness there is no light. You go into a room at night. You turn on the light. As soon as you turn on the switch, darkness disappears. You turn off the light, darkness comes back. 

What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? There is no harmony between Jesus Christ and Belial. In fact, the two are at war against each other. Speaking of the same truth, it is written that God sent Jesus Christ to destroy the work of the devil. (cf. John 12:31; Hebrews 12:14; 1 John 3:8) 

What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? A believer believes in God who is good. He believes that God is the source of all that are good. But an unbeliever does not believe in God who is good. Rather they believe in something else like bananas or potato chips. But God is more than bananas or potato chips. This is but one example that a believer has nothing in common with an unbeliever.  

There is no agreement between the living God and idols. The first two commandments of Moses’ Ten Commandments make this point crystal clear. “You shall have no other gods but me. You shall not make for yourself any idol, nor bow down to it or worship it.” 

Third, we must know what we are called to be

One of the reasons NASA continues to send space shuttles into orbit is to build a space station. But God sent Jesus Christ to this world in order to build a temple inside of a believer. Look at verse 16b, “For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’” The space station is physical. But the temple of the Living God is spiritual. The Apostle Paul calls this temple, “the temple of the living God.” Notice two words: “temple” and “living”. The Temple suggests a system. Man’s body is a system. The word “living” connotes the nature of God housed in the temple, that is, God is the God of the “living”. He is the living God. He wants to reside in a man, not for his own sake, but for the sake of his child, that is, to let his child have “life” and have it to the full. Practically, when we believe in Jesus who died for our sins and rose again for our justification, God sends his Holy Spirit. Then literally through the Spirit the living God lives with us and walks among us. He then becomes our God and we become his people. Then each of us can become a living chariot. All of us live as walking temples of the living God. This is what we are called to be. 

Fourth, we must know the errors that we are making

The errors we are constantly making come from our forgetting three things: 

We so easily forget that the world is wicked and filled with darkness, and this makes man to be beastly and entices him to worship that which does not give life and is, therefore, altogether worthless. 

We forget that there is another camp which is the kingdom of righteousness, light, Jesus Christ, and God the Father. 

We also so easily forget that there is no fellowship, no commonality, no harmony, and no agreement between the two camps. 

In our ignorance or in our indifference we so easily lose sight of the constant truth that what counts in this constant battle between the two camps is all or nothing. In order for a complete peace to emerge in one’s mind, for example, one must be fully on God’s side. And fully means fully, that is, one hundred percent. This tells us that it is a very stupid idea for one to put one foot in this world and another in God. It sounds like a good idea for one to compromise here and there, with 1% of you enjoying the pleasures of sin, and 99% of you enjoying the joy of salvation. No. That will not work at all. In order for the joy of salvation to be complete, one must fully repent of any hint of sin. Otherwise it is impossible for one to experience the joy of salvation. 

Some people think about this truth, and so try to compromise here and there. As they try to live as a part-time Christian rather than as a full-time Christian, they try to enjoy the best of both worlds, but sooner or later they suffer from all kinds of ill consequences. 

Mr. Lot, in the book of Genesis, is a good example. Unlike Abraham, he tried to enjoy the best of both worlds. So he departed from Abraham’s camp and moved closer to the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. He soon moved into the city. What was the outcome of his life of compromise? We know the answer. 

The Apostle Paul saw that some of the brothers and sisters attending the church of Corinth also had the same problem. They started compromising here and there. They tried to get along with unbelievers. Then they began associating themselves with the unbelievers in town and doing what unbelievers do. In order to fit in, some of them started dating unbelievers. Then they started hanging out at a mall and then at the Temple of Aphrodite located at the City Center. Aphrodite is called the goddess of love, but, in fact, it is the goddess of lust. No wonder that at the temple of Aphrodite were maintained 1,000 prostitutes, male prostitutes and female prostitutes. In this way believing brothers and sisters started sleeping together with unbelievers. They began to be yoked together with unbelievers.  

But we must understand this for sure: what counts in God for complete peace and joy is all or nothing. Until we love the Lord fully there is no peace whatsoever; until there is total surrender of our life to the Lord, the joy of salvation remains illusory. Why? It is because the two camps are two opposites, working to cancel one another. 

Fifth, we must know the remedies that must be made

What, then, is the remedy for the disorderliness coming from such division? What is the solution to the problem of a man compromising? Look at verse 17. "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." This passage says that the remedy is to come out from unbelievers, be separate and touch no unclean thing. The expressions sound rather drastic and too extreme. But the meaning is clear, that is, completely rooting oneself out of the City of Destruction and rooting oneself fully in the Lord. It is to un-divide the divided, so that the divided would no longer be divided but united. Coming out is to get out of the yoke one is in; separating is to nullify what has been joined together unwisely; and touching no unclean thing is to no longer practice what unbelievers are doing. When you have done this, there is no more connection between the two opposites.

This complete turn must take place on all different levels: a physical level and a spiritual level, an external and an internal level. Man exists on a physical level and on a spiritual level. Man is body, mind, soul and spirit. One must root out all wickedness, darkness, Belial, unbelief, and idols from his body, mind, soul, and spirit, so that his body, mind, soul, and spirit would be fully devoted to the Lord. 

In so doing we need to remember that every thought, idea, philosophy, ism, concept or lifestyle is rooted in either of the two opposites. So purification must take place first in our thought world, then in our external lives, such as in our relationship with others. 

Sixth, we must know the promises we have been given

Let us read 6:17-7:1. “‘Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.’ Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.” This passage minds us of Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son in Luke’s gospel. In the story a father had two sons. The younger son, in his ignorance, left his father’s house for a distant country where he contaminated his body and spirit. When he was stuck in a pig farm he came back to his senses. He remembered that in his father’s house there was a lot of food to spare. So he wanted to go back home. But there was a problem. In the back of his mind there was a lingering doubt: “If I go back, will my father accept me as a son?” So he made a plan to go back to his father and beg him to accept him as one of his servants. Armed with this plan, taking one step after another, he made it all the way back home. Then what did the father do? Surprisingly, the father accepted him as a son, not as a slave. 

In a way all sinners living in the Gentile world without the gospel are like the prodigal son. Having lived a sinful life without God in this dark world, we have contaminated our body and spirit. But when we make a decision to purify ourselves and go back home, God will surely accept us as his children. In order to motivate us to come back home, God sent Jesus to die on a tree. For those who believe in Jesus, the Lord not only forgives them of their sins but also through the inner working of the Spirit purifies them of everything that contaminates their body and spirit. 

Seventh, we must know the fruit of our life’s journey

“Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out ff reverence for God.” The fruit, or the reward, we receive at the end our life’s journey is described as perfect holiness. Characteristically, holiness refers to the freedom we have in the Lord. No human being can call himself or herself as holy, for holiness is attributable only to God. By definition God is prefect, and he alone is free and therefore is different from everyone and everything. No one can say, “I am free,” for in order for one to be free he must not be dependent on anyone for anything. But God can say, “I am free,” for God is not dependent upon anyone. How then can a human being say, “Now I have perfected my holiness?” Only when one is fully united with God the Father can he say, “I have perfected holiness,” for his perfection stems not from him but God himself. When we live in total trust in God, we can say, “I am free.” 

In conclusion, in a vision to lead the flock of God from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God, the Apostle Paul exhorts the Corinthians not to be yoked with unbelievers, but rather to come out from them, be separate, and touch no unclean thing. He then encourages them to purify themselves of everything that contaminates man’s body and spirit. Then God will accept them as his children, so that they can live as members of a holy nation belonging to God. 

One word: do not be yoked with unbelievers 

 In Hebrew Belial means “worthless” or “without profit”. As used here Belial refers to Satan not in the sense of Satan being an adversary but in the sense of Satan being the source of “loss”, for Satan tempts man to lose everything. for in Hebrew the word “Belial” consists of two words, that is, “without” and “profit”, so that it means “worthlessness” or “profitless”, or simply “total loss” 

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