UNEQUAL YOKING by Bonnie Ricks
From Take A Minute Daily Devotionals by Bonnie Ricks
2 Corinthians 6:14-18 NIV "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.... What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? ... 'Therefore, come out from them and be separate, says the Lord....'" (vv. 14a, 15b, 17a)
Most of us use this scripture as a directive for dating and marriage. But it's so much more. In this portion of his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul was speaking of any binding relationship with others - business, friendship, dating, AND marriage. So what do we mean by a "binding" relationship? Any relationship wherein you are in “partnership” with another individual and participation in that partnership might cause you to have to either compromise your Christian walk or where your beliefs might end up being a dividing “wall” between yourself and the other person.
Let's look at an excellent “for instance”… a situation I allowed myself to get into some years ago which continued to haunt me for years. I got involved in a writing project, one that had a written contract, with a man who – on the surface – was the nicest of gentlemen. He was well dressed, intelligent, educated, successful, and quite elegant in his demeanor. Going against good sense as well as what I knew to be right in God's eyes, I involved myself in this project which covered a span of several years and involved many, many hours of work and some expense on my part. I didn't even consider bringing up the subject of this man's spiritual life until about a year into the project, when we were having lunch one day. During this conversation, the man revealed that he was a professing atheist! At that point, I had too much invested in the project to back out, or so I thought. So I continued on. Time began to show me what a mistake I had made, and how difficult dealing with this man was to become because his "boss" and my boss don't get along! For several years, problems resulting from that project kept rearing their ugly heads – to the point that the project – which came close to launching me into a career of screen writing for major films – was eventually brought to a dead standstill, and finally was “shelved” permanently because a Christian and an atheist could not agree on certain aspects of the work. All six years of work on what was, in my opinion, the best writing I’ve ever done, was packed away… never to see the big screen where it had great potential to be a huge box office success. All was lost because I went against God's Word and allowed myself to become unequally yoked.
This same principal applies in friendships. If we allow ourselves to become close friends with those who are not committed to Jesus, those friends will influence our thinking, whether we want to admit it or not. Inevitably, such a close friendship will come to a point where we either have to stand up for what scripture tells us to do and lose the friend, or compromise what we should do and head down that dark road outside of God's will.
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Daily Smile:
John explains to his doctor, "Doc, when I got up this morning, I put on a pair of white gloves and started calling my wife Minnie. Then on the way to work I couldn't help singing, 'Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to work I go', and when I got there I started calling everyone Happy, Grumpy, Dopey and so on. What's the matter with me?"
"That's easy," replies the doctor. "You're having Disney spells."
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