The challenge this week took me in a bit of a different direction. I thought of weddings, but decided not to go there. In the Bible, it talks about being unequally yoked, a yoke being biblical way to hitch a team of oxen to a wagon. Some people use this to refer to marriage between believers and unbelievers and there is some truth to that, after all it’s hard enough to pull off marriage when both spouses are pulling in the same direction but I didn’t want to go there.
Instead I wanted to talk about our other relationships. The friendships and the partnerships. This is the other, and possibly more correct, application of the passage. “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 Corinthians 6:14) What does this mean? Should we avoid unbelievers? Only if we want to totally ignore the great commission and all of Jesus’ teachings on loving friends, neighbors, even enemies. No, I think what it means is we are careful how we’re influenced. That we run with a good crowd. 1 Corinthians 15:33 says “Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.” We have to be influencers who are not easily influenced. We need to be able to pull in the right direction and not pulled in the wrong direction.
Ultimately, the best way to do this is to hitch your yoke to Jesus. He will never steer you wrong.
The Bible even makes a point of talking about a believer married to an unbeliever and it says
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