The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
In 2 Corinthians 6:14, Paul exhorts Christians, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?” There is no spiritual common ground between the saved and the unsaved. When we find ourselves in some way bound to unbelievers, whether in marriage or in business, it is the believer’s principles that are compromised.
As early as Abraham in Genesis 24:37, the necessity for the equal spiritual yoke was clearly stated: “Thou shalt not take a wife to my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell.”
God knew the human heart well when He commanded the Israelites to remain set apart in Deuteronomy 7:1-4: “When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee… thou shalt make no covenant with them… Neither shalt thou make marriages with them…For they will turn away thy son from following me that they may serve other gods. So will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.”
This requirement that Israel remain separate from the nations surrounding them was never about racial purity; it was always about faithfulness to God: “For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth…Because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Deut. 7:6, 8). God’s covenant with Israel required obedience on their part, with serious national consequences when they allowed the religious practices of other nations to stain their worship with idolatry and other gods.
The precedent of spiritual purity continues into the New Testament in which the blood of Christ redeemed us to Himself. Our covenant with Jesus involves unconditional salvation and the implant of the Holy Spirit in us to empower us to righteous living. God knows our human hearts need to be often reminded of our newness of life in Him because we still live in a world that continually tries to make the filth of sin attractive. We cannot dabble with relationships or things of this world for long without being sullied and our worship hindered by the filth.
Years ago we frequently heard the expression “If you feel far from God, guess who moved?” When we allow ourselves to be aligned with unbelievers, we will find ourselves contaminated by sin. God will always love you and will always be ready to forgive you when you repent: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
