by Herman Wang

Attending Single Life Ministry Bible Study on Wednesday nights is always a joy and blessing for me. Gathering together with fellow believers to worship God and hear his Word preached in the middle of the week and being able to apply what I have learned the very next day at work are tremendous blessings. Recently, Elder Johnny Kim spoke about what it means to separate ourselves from non-believers, the reason why we should separate ourselves from non-believers, and the blessings that come from obeying this command in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18:

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.”

I’m glad that Johnny reminded me that what this command doesn’t mean is to be totally disengaged with non-believers. As Christians, we are to evangelize to non-believers (Matthew 28:18-20) which require talking to and engaging with non-believers. If that were not so, then there is no reason for us to remain on earth after being born again. As Johnny explained, we would be better off in Heaven where we can perfectly worship God. But the truth is God keeps us here on earth to do the ministry of evangelism, which requires engaging with the lost.

So what does it mean to be unequally yoked with a non-believer? A yoke is a wooden frame that is placed over the necks of two animals for the purpose of achieving a common goal. In Deuteronomy 22:10, God forbade an ox and a donkey to be yoked together because two animals of different kinds have incompatible natures. 2 Corinthians 6 alludes to this but is specifically directed towards spiritual activities. A believer and non-believer are not to partner together in spiritual activities and pursuits. The reason is that a believer and a non-believer are complete polar opposites when it comes to spiritual nature. Paul compared a believer and non-believer with righteousness and lawlessness, light and darkness, Jesus and Satan.

I remember growing up watching “Super Friends” on Saturday mornings, and there was this super villain named Bizarro. He was created when Superman was subjected to a “duplicate ray” and was a mirror image of Superman with all of Superman’s powers, but was Superman’s exact opposite: Superman was good, and Bizarro was evil. I imagine what would happen if a similar thing happened to me where the person that I was before I was born again were to appear before me and asked me to hang out and do all of the things that I used to do. If I were to comply, then I would be going back to my old ways of life. But as Paul stated in Colossians 3:3, I have died to my old self and my life is now in Christ. So if I were to have any fellowship with that old self, an unbeliever, then that is how I would see myself being unequally yoked.

This is a good reminder of being mindful of who we are, that we have taken the yoke of Christ (Matthew 11:28-30), that we are united with Him. And for us to be yoked with an unbeliever, whether it be in marriage or some other spiritual enterprise, would be as if Christ were united with an unbeliever in that same spiritual enterprise, and that would be sin.