Unequal Yoke; What Does It Mean?

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?” (2Cor.6:14). Christ expects his followers to maintain a close relationship with themselves, especially when it comes to spiritual things, and maintain a lesser one with unbelievers.

Unbelievers are those who do not believe in Jesus Christ, and as such, they are not a part of his fold. He demands that his sheep be separate from them so as not to be corrupt. True believers therefore should know their limit when it comes to relating with unbelievers. He is not saying that they should not relate at all with the unbelievers; rather he is asking that they should not become intimate with them.

Why should there be a separation?

1. Belief: two people cannot work together except there is an agreement. The believers in Christ and the unbelievers do not share the same belief; so it would be very difficult for them to work harmoniously since there is no basis for them to agree with one another. For instance, the believers accept that Jesus Christ is lord but the unbelievers don’t. Christ’s followers also accept the reality of heaven and hell fire: but those who are not his followers don’t share this reality. So it would be wise for believers to separate themselves from people who are capable of making them lose their belief.

2. No fear of God: anyone who has no Jesus Christ in his life has no fear for God: so it is potentially harmful for God’s children to associate with such persons. The reason why such people lie, fornicate, rebel against authority, etc. is because they do not have the fear of God in their lives. In order to guard his children, Jesus has therefore advised them not to mingle with such people.

3. Practice of evil: Unbelievers also indulge in ritual killings, idolatry, fetishism, etc, and God had on several occasions warned his children to have nothing to do with these kinds of practices. It is therefore necessary to separate themselves from anyone capable of influencing them into doing that which would offend God.

4. Polygamy / divorce: Monogamy is one of the hallmarks of Christianity, and God does not take it kindly with any Christian who goes into polygamy. Polygamy remains one of the hallmarks of the unbelievers; since they have contrasting ideologies, it would be wise to separate them.

Unequal yoke makes people with different opinions, ideologies and perceptions to be brought into a relationship that would not produce anything good. People of God should be aware of these differences, and seek to establish relationships with fellow believers that would help them grow in their spiritual lives and enhance their doctrinal beliefs.

How Do We Know A Man That Loves God?

It is very difficult to know a man that loves God; especially nowadays that religion has become a tag rather than a way of expressing an intimate relationship with the heavenly father. This has made it much harder to understand when people proclaim the name of the lord with the tip of their tongues, but they are far from him in their hearts.

However, there are ways we may understand a man that truly loves God from his heart. Some of the things that would be visible in his life include:

1.He keeps God’s command: Keeping God’s command is one of the ways of showing one’s love for him. Jesus made it clear that it is the man who keeps his commands that truly loves him (John 14:21, 15:10, 1 John 5:3; 2John 6)

2.He believes God: One way we could show we love him, is for us to believe in him: Anyone who does not believe in him does not truly love him. John 6:67-69, 9:35-38, 1 Peter 1:7-8). We are told that Abraham believed in him and it was accounted for him as righteousness: He was also called the friend of God for this reason (James 2:23).

3.He fears him: Having the fear of God is a demonstration of one’s love for him. When we talk about fear here, we are not talking about morbid fear, but reverence for him (Deut.10:12; Job 1:8; Ps.33:8, Phil.2:12)

4.He hates evil: when a man loves the lord, he hates evil because the lord hates evil. In a nutshell, a man who loves the lord would also love what God loves and hate what he hates (Ps 97:10; Prov.8:13; Rom. 12:9). Joseph demonstrated this by refusing to commit adultery with Potiphar’s wife, because he understood that the lord hates it. (Gen.39:7-9)

5.He is wholeheartedly devoted to him: Caleb and Joshua proved their love for God by being wholeheartedly devoted to him. When the rest ten spies showed half-hearted devotion, their heart was truly with the lord because they loved him (Numb.32:11-12; Josh.14:9-10). King Hezekiah also did the same thing to show how much he loved the lord (2 Chr.31:21).

6.He loves his presence: Loving the lord’s presence is also another way of showing one’s love for him. The person who loves the lord would want the lord’s presence to be with him at all times (Ps.23:6; 27:4, 51:11, 122:1; Luke 2:49).

7. He loves the brethren: No one can love the Lord if he does not love the brethren (both his blood brothers and Christian brothers). 1 Peter 1:22; 3:8; I John 3:10-12, 14-17, 4:7-8, 20-21. He also extends the love to his enemies (Matt.5:43-48).

8.He worships the Lord: True love for the Lord also means worshiping him and taking part in the ordinances of the Christian religion (Ps.30:4, Lk.22:17-19; Acts 2:41-42; 1 Cor.11:17-34, 14:26, 16:1-2; Col.3:16, 1 Tim.2:8)

9.He wins souls: Winning souls for the Lord is a way of letting him know that you love him, and do not wish to enjoy him alone (Prov.11:30; Matt.28:19; Mk.16:15; Rom.1:14-15; 2Tim.4:2)

10.He lends to the poor: He opens his hands unto the poor, and gives of what the lord has blessed him with unto them (Prov.14:31, 19:17, 21:13, 22:9, 28:27; Heb.6:10).

11.He accepts God’s discipline: The man who loves God accepts his discipline; he does not complain when the lord disciplines him. He accepts the lord’s discipline the same way a child would accept his/her father’s discipline (Deut.8:5, Ps 94:12-13; Heb12:5-12; Rev.3:19).

The Reward For Obedience

No body loses anything by obeying the word of God; rather we have everything to gain by living in obedience to his instructions. When God gives an instruction he looks for someone who would carry it out and receive his blessings. Obey his word and see the benefits it would bring into your life.

What do we get by Obeying?

1.Healing: Naaman was a respected and influential army general, but he suffered from leprosy for several years. He tried his hands on all known remedies but none cured his malady. The day he obeyed the simple instruction from Prophet Elisha and dipped himself into River Jordan was the day he received healing for his disease condition; (2Kings 5:1, 10, 14). His arrogance and disobedience did not help his condition; the only thing he needed that could heal him was obedience to the instruction of God’s prophet.

2.Righteousness: Abraham was declared righteous not only because he had faith but because he balanced his faith with obedience. We all know that faith without work is dead, so the work he did was to obey God’s instruction to leave his father’s land for a place God would show him. The second work he did was to obey God when he was asked to sacrifice his only son Isaac. (Gen 12:1-5; Gen22:1-3)

3.Long life: God promised to give long life to those children that would honor their father and mother (Ex 20:12; prov.6:20-23; Eph 6:1-3). The reason you would enjoy long life is not just because you honour your parents but because you have actually obeyed God’s word which says you should do so.

4. Safety: All the people who disobeyed God’s word in Noah’s generation died. Only Noah and his family were saved because they chose to obey God’s word. Obeying his word actually keeps you from destruction. (Gen 6:7-8)

5.Prosperity: The lord instructed the children of Israel to keep his word: they would only prosper by obeying his word. The same way he expected the Israelites to obey his word and prosper is the way he still expects us to be obedient to his instructions today. (Joshua 1:8)

6.Salvation: Obedience to God’s word can also bring salvation to other people. The scripture revealed that Evangelist Philip obeyed the simple instruction from the angel of the lord, asking him to go to the way that led to Gaza. When he followed that instruction he met the Ethiopian Eunuch who eventually received salvation (Acts 8:26-28). The second person whose obedience brought salvation to somebody else was peter. He obeyed God’s order to go to the house of Cornelius, and that brought salvation to Cornelius’ family. (Acts 10:19-21, 44-48).

There is no better way to get God’s reward than to live in obedience to his word. When you obey him, he feels honored by you and pours out his divine blessings upon your life.

Who Should We Love?

Love is one of ingredients that keep the world moving: without it there would be lots of hate, prejudice, murder, oppression, victimization, etc. But as believers there is a standard set for us by our Lord Jesus Christ, which we must follow religiously if we’re to be like him.

Jesus instructed us to love certain categories of people in order to show to the world that we are his true disciples.

1.Love God: According to Jesus Christ, the first and greatest commandment is that we should love God with our heart, soul and mind (Matt 22:37-38; Mark 12:29-30). The love for God should supersede that which we have for any other person or being, because he deserves the number one place in our hearts.

2.Our neighbours: Jesus also said that next to loving God is that we should love our neighbours as ourselves (Matt 22:39-40; Mark 12-31). Why should we love our neighbours next to God? It is because if we love our neighbours we would not sin against them (Rom 13:9).

3.Strangers: Both the Old and New Testaments admonish us to love strangers because we were strangers, we are going to be stranger one day, and because there are rewards for loving them. (Lev. 19:34; Dut 10:19, Heb 13:2)

4.All men: The word of God advises us to do good to all men, especially those who are of the household of faith (believers). Doing good is not implying we should be moralistic; rather it is saying we should do good to them out of a heart of love. The good deeds should be motivated by true love for them (Gen. 6:10)

5.Our enemies: Jesus Christ also made it clear we should not limit ourselves to loving only those who love us and hating those who hate us, just like the pagans do. Rather he instructed us to “love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you…“(Matt 5:43-48, Rom. 12:20-21, Ex. 32:4-5, Prov. 25:21-22).

We must therefore be able to see everybody just the same way our Lord Jesus sees them, and treat them the way he expects us to treat them. We should be lavish in giving out love because it is one of those attributes that differentiate us from pagans. When we love generously we show that we belong to Christ and that lives in us