Unequally Yoked

Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers.  How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness?  What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil?  How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever?  And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols?  For we are the temple of the living God.  - 2 Corinthians 6:14-16

This concept can be difficult to discern where the line is regarding interaction with unbelievers.  I think this is a very clear direction regarding marriage.  Don't team with, be a partner with, or live with an unbeliever.  Pretty much impossible to be married and not be one of those.  The NKJV says "do not be unequally yoked" and asks "what fellowship" or "what communion" does right have with wrong or light have with darkness.  How can you be married and not be pulling the same weight together or have no fellowship or communion? 

I don't want to chase a rabbit here at Easter time, but where in your marriage are you "unequally yoked"?  In what areas do you lack fellowship or communion?  Can you look at these areas and determine why?  Is there a difference of right and wrong per the Biblical standard or of light and darkness?  Since there shouldn't be such an area among two married believers, this is an important introspective look that needs to be discussed.

The trouble with a partnership with an unbeliever is the foundation or root of the goals, purpose, and methodology simply will and can never be the same.  I remember having difficulty with this concept when teaming with an unbeliever "friend" to coach football.  I ultimately did it and viewed it as ministry outreach since it was temporary and non-threatening to our beliefs.  However, even in the simplicity of that there were moments when we disagreed over things that he simply didn't "see".  For example, he brought music out to play before games to try to charge the kids up.  The first time he brought it I was in game prep mode and wasn't paying much attention to it until I caught a bad word from a song.  Then I started listening and realized he had inappropriate songs for 11-12 year olds to be listening.  I had to tell him to stop bringing music or to change the songs and he obliged and changed the songs.  But he could have just as easily created a big conflict over it by refusing to since he didn't know why it was a problem.  What could I have done then but stop coaching and remove my son from the team?  Very awkward position to be in caused only because a believer was teamed with an unbeliever.

An unbeliever simply doesn't have the knowledge to know something might be inappropriate or they purposely don't care if it is inappropriate.  How can a believer be teamed with that IF the believer is truly following Christ?  That "if" is a crucial one.  I think too many an unbeliever is around too many Christians who aren't following Christ so they don't see a difference, especially when the Christian won't stand up for what the unbeliever even knows is sketchy.  I'm not sure there is a more damaging thing to the gospel of Christ than a lukewarm, not fully believing Christian or a Christian who refuses to address sins but accepts them rather than cause a conflict with another person.  If you are a Christian, you already cause conflict with other people.  The sooner you accept that, the sooner you can be useful.

Ultimately, I think this is the larger problem with every occurrence of a believer being teamed or partnering with an unbeliever.  By this, I mean the believer who isn't purposefully following Christ actively.  This is also an area where we should hold one another accountable.  When we see in a friend where there is an idol or something that doesn't show Christ we should approach him and ask about it.  There should not exist both light and dark inside of us or we are not a team inside of ourselves.  It is important to be accountable to one another and to be willing to confront someone and be willing to be confronted regarding our heart and its commitment to following Jesus.