What Does 'Unequally Yoked' Really Mean? 2 Corinthians 6 Explained

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, good to see everybody again, and we're going to pick right up where we left off at the end of our last program, which was, of course, the 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 7. We're going to go on into verse 8. But again, we like to invite our television audience, and nothing thrills us more when so many people write and say, I feel like I'm right there in the studio. And I told one fellow on the phone, I said, well, I hope you feel like you're sitting on the back row. And he says, are you kidding? He says, I'm on the front row. So we like that, that we at least have that kind of a response. And I'll be making comment on that when we get into chapter 7, because the Apostle Paul felt the same way. But anyway, we're just an informal Bible class. I guess we've got people here from umpteen different denominations, and after all, there are no denominations in glory. There are not 25 different books, there's only one Bible. And as we'll see when we get into Ephesians, there's only one Lord, one faith, and one so and so, and on and on. And so there is not much room for all these differences of opinion when we come down to the truth of Scripture. And again, we like to always remind our audience that everything is available on tapes and audios and the printed page. And now we like to let people know that we are putting out a quarterly newsletter. We're getting a lot of good response from that. And so if you have never contacted us, you've never written or anything, and you'd like to get the newsletter, you just send us your name and address and we'll get you on the mailing list. Okay, I think that's it for now. Let's come right back. We're here to study, and we want people to get as much out of this 30 minutes as we possibly can. 2 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 7 is where we ended up. The word truth, and how that Paul came only in the name of truth, which we said was also in the name of Christ. But now you come into verse 8, he came with honor and dishonor. There were those who were constantly besmirching his name by evil report and good report, declared to be a deceiver of course by some, and yet true. Now as you read a verse like that, and I was just telling Dr. Bellamy at break time, you know I guess I miss so much of these Corinthian letters over the years, but getting it ready for television and everything, my I never knew that these little letters were so loaded. If you just get in and dig, see. Alright, now look at this verse a minute. As deceivers, and yet true. Who else came up against this very same attitude of his peers? Well Christ did. Isn't that exactly what the Lord had to put up with? Come back with me to John's Gospel, chapter 7 again. In our last program we saw how that, I think we did, maybe I didn't, that they declared that he was a demon, no maybe we didn't. We just looked at the truth aspect. But we're going to look at chapter 8 as well. But look at John's Gospel, chapter 7. And the Lord went up against the same thing that the Apostle Paul and you and I do yet today. Human nature has not changed one iota. Just because it's 2,000 years ago doesn't mean that it's changed. The human nature is still the same. Alright, look what Jesus had to put up with in John's Gospel, chapter 7, and oh we can jump in at verse 10. John 7, verse 10. But when his brethren were gone up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. Then the Jews sought him at the feast, and said, Where is he? And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him. For some said, He's a good man. Others said, No, he deceiveth the people. That's what he was being accused of. And here he was as truth personified, and they even accused him of being deceptive. Alright, come on over to the next chapter in John's Gospel, chapter 8, where we were in our last program concerning the word truth in verse 44. But let's come on up to verse 52. John's Gospel, chapter 8, verse 52. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know thou hast a demon. Abraham is dead, the prophets, and thou sayest, A man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead, and the prophets who are dead? Whom makest thou thyself? And then they come down to verse 57, how they doubt everything he says. And then said the Jews unto him, And can't you just sense the scorn? Who do you think you are? And look what they said, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham scorn, ridicule, and accused him, of course, of being a master deceiver. Alright, now the apostle Paul, of course, was up against that same thing, that everywhere he went there were his detractors who would ridicule him, they would scorn him, and yet he had to continue on. Alright, back to II Corinthians, chapter 6, then, if you will, verse 9. Well, now there again, if you just stop and think about it. Here he was, one of the top Pharisees in Judaism. Oh, he was well known amongst the Jewish religious leaders, but outside of Palestine, who had ever heard of Saul of Tarsus? Well, no one. And so he was well known, and yet unknown. And so he comes into these areas of Asia Minor, and Greece, and Athens, and Corinth as a relative unknown. As dying, and behold, we live as chastened and not killed. He was always being threatened with his life. Verse 10, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, poor, yet making many rich. Now again, stop and think. What had happened? He had been rich, he says in Galatians, that he profited more than his equals in the Jewish religion. I think Saul of Tarsus was wealthy. He probably had one of the better homes in Jerusalem. And yet Philippians tells us that he cast all that aside and counted it as dung for the sake of the Gospel. Alright, and as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. Well, now let's just look at the total opposite of most of Christendom tonight by going back to Revelation chapter 3, to that last of the seven letters, the letter to the Laodiceans. And my goodness, how this just tells it like it is. Revelation chapter 3, and come down to verse 17. What a condemnation the Lord Jesus puts on this congregation, because thou sayest, I am what, rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing materially. And knowest not, Jesus said, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. That's most of Christendom tonight, isn't it? That's most of Christendom. They're so wealthy, they've got these tremendous plants, as they like to call them, the huge sanctuary, huge fellowship halls, gymnasiums, swimming pools, tennis courts, you name it. Oh, there's wealth, till who laid the rail? But where are they spiritually for the most part? Now, I don't want to make anything a blanket thing, but for the most part, these same congregations are spiritually dead. And now you come back to the apostle Paul, he had the opposite. He came from that wealth, he came from that high religious experience, and for the sake of the gospel, he became poor as a church mouse. All right? Moving on in chapter 6 of 2 Corinthians, and now we're going to come to an area that, again, I wish I had more time, that we could just chase it all the way up from Genesis. We're going to try, and we'll come as far as we can. But now in verse 11, he says, 2 Corinthians 6 Now don't lose sight of the spiritual level of the Corinthian church. Where was it? Babes in Christ. They were carnal. They were not Paul's pride and joy of spiritual growth like the Ephesians or the Philippians. But, in spite of that, I want you to see the man's love for these carnal believers. All right? And he says, Oh, you Corinthians, verse 11, our mouth is open unto you. Or in other words, I've been able to speak to you. You hear everything I say. Our heart is enlarged. In other words, his love for these people was just enveloping them in spite of their failures. And he says, You are not straightened in us, but you are straightened in your own bowels. Now the word bowels in the King James, and even in the literal translation, it is bowels. I've looked it up more than once. But it's a Hebraism that really means the innermost being. And you've heard me translate it that way more than once. And the innermost being really boils down to the heart. To the heart of man. To the soul. And so he says, You are not straightened in us, but you are straightened in your own heart. In other words, the gospel had taken hold of these Corinthians enough to bring them out of their paganism. They had separated themselves from their pagan background to a degree. But they were still carnal, and they had a long ways to go. All right? All right. Now then, verse 14. Now I'm not going to skip verse 13. But, For a recompense in the same I speak as unto my children, Be ye also enlarged. In other words, be ready to just open yourselves to the truths that this man was bringing. Now here we come to kind of a touchy situation. People don't like to talk about this anymore. We're living in a time when this is almost blasé. But you know what he's talking about? Separation. Separation. Be ye not unequally yoked together with, what kind of people? Unbelievers. Now that doesn't mean they're awful. That doesn't mean they're bad. You know, it's the word ungodly. I always have to define the word ungodly. A lot of people think they see the word ungodly. They're talking about somebody that's down on skid row or maybe in prostitution. No. To be ungodly is to take the first two letters of the word and set them aside. And what does un always mean? Without. See? That's all. And so someone that is ungodly is simply someone who is without God in their life. They may be the prime example of citizenship. But they're still without God. They're ungodly. See? And so the same way here. Just because Paul calls them unbelievers doesn't mean that they're the pits. They may be perfectly good people. Morally, maybe better than a lot of Christians could ever hope to be. But they're still unbelievers. They are without faith. And without faith is what? Impossible. Oh, I like my audience. See? They can respond. It's impossible to please God. Now, get the picture here. I'm not saying that we're talking about two diverse people. Here's someone who is a Christian, and he or she marries someone from down in the gutter. No, no. We're talking about people who may be on an equal level in society, but here's a believer, and here is an unbeliever. And Paul says, by inspiration, it won't work to be unequally yoked. Now, you know, the Scripture always makes things so plain. Come back with me to Deuteronomy. And, of course, you always have to remember, as you read the Old Testament, that Israel was a rural or an agrarian society. They still live back in the antiquities when animals were used for beasts of burden and so forth. And so there's a lot of correlation between the agricultural of the day and even the spiritual understanding. All right. So now then, when Paul says, be ye not equally, unequally yoked, what does the word yoke immediately bring to mind? Well, the beasts of burden out in the field plowing. That's what a yoke did. It put two oxen together so they could pull in unison. All right. Now look at Deuteronomy chapter 22, verse 9 and 10 and say, and this, of course, was part of Israel's law. So, Deuteronomy 22, verses 9 and 10. And the admonition is still the same today. Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Got it? Deuteronomy 22, verse 9. Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with diverse or different seeds, lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, in other words, the legitimate grapevine, and the fruit of thy vineyard be defiled. In other words, the law said you couldn't have a vineyard of grapes and then sow something else that was still able to cross -pollinate because they would have a rogue crop. And it was against the law to do it. All right. But now look into the next one. Deuteronomy 22, verse 9. And this we can probably picture. Thou shalt not plow out in the field with an ox and an ass or a little donkey together. Now can you picture that? Can you picture that? That poor little donkey would just be working his tail off, wouldn't he, to keep up with that big ox. Well it's ridiculous. But, you see, it wasn't that the Israelis or the Jewish people were actually doing this. I can't envision that they would. But the lesson that it was teaching, that as soon as you have an unequal yoke, you've got something that's ridiculous. And an ox and a little donkey is as ridiculous as you can get. And it's simply an unequal yoking. All right. Now the next one. To us, today, we kind of smile. We think, well what's it driving at? Because with our technology, you can now throw wool in the washing, and it doesn't drop and shrink like it used to. I can remember when I was a kid, if something that was woolen got washed accidentally, it was done. It would just shrunk up into nothing. All right. Now here's the admonition. Don't make a garment that was part wool and part linen. Why? Well when they washed it, the thing would be all contorted. It would be out of shape, and it would look ridiculous. See? And that was the law. Now it wasn't again that I think many Jews tried to make a garment half wool and half linen. I don't think that was the problem. But God was teaching them a lesson. Don't mix things that won't work together. It's that simple. All right. Come back to 2 Corinthians. Now I know that most people, when they look at this verse, the only thing they think about of course is an unequal marriage. Listen, it doesn't have to stop with marriage. It can enter into anything where people have to work together for a common cause, and as soon as you put an unbeliever and a believer together, you're just as unequally yoked as that ox with a donkey, or as making a garment with linen and wool. It's the same thing. My, how many times. I always have to stress, you know, I'm not a marriage counselor. I'm not a pastor. I don't even pretend to be. But you have no idea how many people call with their marital problems. And invariably, you know what the problem was? Unequally yoked, one way or another. And their problems began before they ever, ever got married. In fact, I'll never forget. I asked one young lady. She was crying her heart out that her husband had become a wife beater and all that. And I said, now, wait a minute. Didn't you know that he had that potential when you were going together? Well, she said, maybe a little bit. I said, then why did you go ahead and marry him? Well, he was the star football player. Now, I got nothing against football players. But listen, that's a mighty poor criteria for husband material. Now, there's nothing wrong, like I say, a football player can be a good husband. But to choose a man to be your husband just because he's a star football player is as ridiculous as you can get. That's again an unequal yoke. But all, listen, the problems that people walk into with their eyes wide open, thinking that they can change the person somewhere down the road. No, listen, people don't change. Iris and I have talked about that in all the years that we've known people. Except for what salvation does for people, people do not change. I'm not one bit different than the guy she met, and she's no different than the girl I met. We don't change. And so when you begin with an unequal yoke, you're beat from day one. Always have to think of a realtor out in Colorado. There was a day when Iris and I thought we'd like to make one more move and have a ranch in Colorado. And so we were looking around, and we stopped this one realtor, and he gave us some rules of thumb, and I love rules of thumb. And he said, well, mister, let me tell you something. He said, if you can buy a ranch at the rate of $1,000 for every cow-calf pair that you intend to run, you've got a good chance of making it. He said, if you go out and spend $2,000 for every cow-calf pair, you're beat before you start. Well, that's just the way it is with marriage. How many people don't enter into a marriage relationship, and they're beat before they start? Why? Unequally yoked. But, like I said, it doesn't stop with marriage. It can be in business, it can be anything, wherever two people, or however many, have to work for a common cause. All right, let's move on. What fellowship? Verse 14. What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What have you got? Two distinct opposites, see? What communion does light have with darkness? The two will not cohabit. You can't have both. You're either going to have light, or you're going to have darkness, and you cannot separate them. All right, go on. Verse 15. What concord, or what accord? Does Christ have with Belial? Now, it's interesting. This is the only place in the whole New Testament the word Belial is used. But it is used several times in the Old Testament. And I used to think that it was a reference to some pagan god. No, it isn't. Do you know what the word Belial means? Huh? Yeah. Something that's worthless. Thank you. Something that is worthless. Now, just analyze that a minute. If we have Christ, who is the epitome of everything great, He is the epitome of goodness, and grace, and righteousness, and majesty, and we're going to put that alongside with something that is worthless? It's ridiculous, isn't it? Just as ridiculous as putting a little donkey beside an ox. All right, move on. What part doth he that believeth? A believer. What part can he have with an infidel? Well, I can't imagine two such people living under the same roof. Now, that would take a lot of grace to have to live with an infidel. And I suppose an infidel would say the same thing about having to live with a believer. But they are two totally opposites, and they cannot pull together. All right? Verse 16. Oh, they're just one example after another. What agreement does the temple of God have with idols or their temples? And he comes right back and tells us, what temple of God is he talking about? Our human physical body, which is the temple of the living God. For God has said, I will dwell in them, that is in the believers. I will walk in them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people. That's the promise to the believer. And the unbeliever can't claim that. It's not true for him. All right, now verse 17. So here's the conclusion. Wherefore? Because of all of these arguments that I have now given for almost 28 minutes. All of these arguments, for what purpose? Come out of it. Come out of a world that is diabolically opposed to everything that we believe. And that's the world around us. Now that doesn't mean that we're going to retreat in the monasteries like they did from 500 to 1500 A.D. And historians put the right name on that period of time. What was it? Dark Ages. Dark Ages. Why? Because the Word of God was confined to the monasteries. The average man didn't have access to it. And that's exactly what happens to the human race when the Word of God is withdrawn. Israel at times in her history lost contact with the Word of God. And what happened? Oh, they went down the tube nationally. And so here we see from the Scriptures. Come out from among these that are totally different from our beliefs. And be ye separate, saith the Lord. Touch not the unclean, and I will receive you, and I will be a father unto you. Now I haven't got time to look at all the Scriptures. I really intended to. But I got time to look at a couple of them. Turn back with me a minute to Genesis chapter 12. I was going to make a run of these all the way up through human history this half hour. But we're not going to make it. And I want to move on to the next chapter in our next program. Come back to Genesis chapter 12. The Abrahamic covenant of course. You all know that one. Genesis 12 verse 1. Now the Lord had said unto Abram. Now watch this. Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house. What is that? Separation. God couldn't deal with Abraham in the midst of Ur. God couldn't deal with Abraham while he was in the midst of all of his pagan relatives. And remember they're all pagans. They're all idolaters. Joshua says that they all worshipped other gods. So there had to be a separation before God could work with him. All right. Let's move into chapter 13. Chapter 13 verse 8. Abram and Lot. And Abram. Verse 8 of chapter 13. And Abram said unto Lot. Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdsmen and thy herdsmen. For we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? What's the next word? Separate. See? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. And then you come on down to verse 14. And the Lord said unto Abram. After Lot was what? Separated. Oh, it started with day one. That God's people had to be separated from the world around them. Now you come on into Exodus. If I got a minute or so left. Come back to Exodus chapter 19 again. No, I guess we're in 20 before. Exodus 19. No, Exodus 8. I'm sorry. Exodus 8. Exodus 8. And here are the plagues coming upon Pharaoh's Egypt. And the first three, Israel had to come under them as well as the Egyptians. But now look what it says in verse 22. Exodus 8 verse 22. And God said, I will sever or separate in that day the land of Goshen in which my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there. To the end thou shalt know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. And now look at verse 23. And God says, I will put a division between my people and thy people. Speaking of Egypt. And tomorrow this sign shall be. What did God do? He separated them. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. A weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported. And your gift is appreciated. Thank you. And be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.