UNEQUALLY YOKED
Separation leads to identification which leads to preservation.
Matthew Henry said “It was the honor of Israel, and the greatest preservation of their holiness, that they were a peculiar people, and were so to keep themselves, and not to mingle with the nations, nor suffer any of them to incorporate with them.”
The Old Testament provides the framework for the New Testament understanding of relationships for not only those inside the family of God, but also outside the family. Brother and neighbor. (Yes, there is a tremendous difference!) And, this separation includes both doctrine and morals. These instructions will lead to hatred for us by the enemies of God, (which most of us expect) but also by those we break bread with. (Those we would never expect!
Today’s Christian in our lives can be tomorrow’s nightmares in our lives! If you look at the instructions below and live your life by them, that is, the theme behind them, (separation) you will be hated, isolated, called unloving, etc.
The Scriptures even touch on practical habits, probably unknown or not even considered in the mind the pagans. For example, courtesy! Yes, even courtesy was instructed within the family of the Lord. For example; do you recall the words of Cain? Am I my brother’s keeper? Moses didn’t beat around the bush and he said, “Yes; you are!” The Hebrew word for keeper is shamar. It means to keep, guard, observe, give heed protect, save life. I bring this up because even little things like courtesy to the family of God are an identification seen through separation. Identification is our proof that we are separated by God for His purposes and we shall see this later when I quote from 1 John.
Deuteronomy 22:1-4; “You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him. And you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother’s, which he loses and you find; you may not ignore it. You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them. You shall help him to lift them up again.
To do the opposite would be to lack care and concern for another which is simply put, selfish behavior. I am reminded of how my Pastor recalled a story. One evening, he had heard much noise and was led to believe that his neighbor’s horse had possibly escaped the fenced in area and was out on the highway. He left his house to look for the horse, especially since his neighbor may not have been home. Turned out to be a deer hit by a vehicle, but you see the point. Pastor Ron put another before himself. He was willing to go out into the dark highway and find a horse for his neighbor.
As we think these other passages through what is the primary Scripture to keep in the back of our minds? Why be separated doctrinally and morally? Why be equally yoked? Because we follow God!
1 Kings 18:21 Eliyahu stepped forward before all the people and said, “How long are you going to jump back and forth between two positions? If ADONAI is God, follow him; but if it’s Ba’al, follow him!” The people answered him not a word.
OLD TESTAMENT passages;
Exodus 34:12-16 Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.
Leviticus 19:19 “You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material.
Deuteonomy 7:1-6 “When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than yourselves, and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire. “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
Deuteronomy 22:9-10; “You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited, the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard. You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.
Ezra 9:1-3, After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.” As soon as I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak and pulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled.
Ezra 9:11-13 which you commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land that you are entering, to take possession of it, is a land impure with the impurity of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations that have filled it from end to end with their uncleanness. Therefore do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’ And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt,
Nehemiah 13:1, 23-27; On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, 23; In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people.
And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?”
Psalm 106:35-42 but they mixed with the nations and learned to do as they did. They served their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. Thus they became unclean by their acts, and played the whore in their deeds. Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people, and he abhorred his heritage; he gave them into the hand of the nations, so that those who hated them ruled over them. Their enemies oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their power.
Proverbs 22:24-25 Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.
Malachi 2:11, 15; Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.
NEW TESTAMENT passages
Romans 16:17; Now I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who create divisions and sinful enticements in opposition to the teaching you have learned. Stay away from them!
1 Corinthians 5:9-11; I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people– not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler–not even to eat with such a one.
1 Corinthians 7:39 A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, only in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 15:33; Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
James 4:4-5 You adulterers! Don’t you know that friendship with the world means hostility with God? So whoever wants to be a friend of this world is an enemy of God. Or do you think the Scripture means nothing when it says that the Spirit that God caused to live in us jealously yearns for us?
Now, as I said before earlier, there are specific reasons for us to remain unequally yoked and these reasons result in the combination of a multitude of passages.
We must be cautious and walk tenderly (with a godly balance) in how we treat those who hate God. Why? Because helping the wicked brings wrath. And in the case of the elect, wrath is discipline;
2 Chronicles 19: 1-3; Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned in safety to his house in Jerusalem. But Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him and said to King Jehoshaphat, “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD? Because of this, wrath has gone out against you from the LORD. Nevertheless, some good is found in you, for you destroyed the Asherahs out of the land, and have set your heart to seek God.”
Think clearly about what this is saying! This is a personal issue/problem/grievance for me! Many churches and Christians hear of a natural disaster or catastrophe and what do we do? We whip out that check book and send money over to say, Indonesia because they are suffering due to the Tsunami/storm. In the midst of a population filled with Muslim idolatry, Christians have decided to put that past them and look at the greater good. Humanity is more important and for a moment in time we look past a population of men and women who worship the moon god and claim Jesus was not the Messiah!
Do we need to be reminded of the basics? Even in the movie braveheart, we hear the statement; an attack on one of the king’s guards is an attack on the king himself. (Something like that) An attack on the Son of God is a direct attack on the Father!! It goes beyond the example of the king and his official because the Father and the Son share the same nature according to John 5.
Those who support idol worshippers have ignored what Jehu said. They have given the enemies of God help in the name of “Christian love.”
Wow Moshe! What a thing to say! How unloving of you. I have a question for those complaining about my position which is clearly stated in the passage above. What about the small God fearing churches in New Orleans during Katrina? How many of the same people that whipped out the ATM card for Indonesia also whipped out the cash for a small church destroyed by water? In my opinion, a Christian who looks out for the needs of those who hate God and does not consider the family of God is as Paul said, is worse than an infidel!
1 Timothy 5: If anyone does not take care of his own relatives, especially his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
We are identified as God’s people even by our checkbook statements. Who we give God’s money too is very important to Him. If a ministry is not proclaiming the gospel and is more obsessed in using the money to paint colored horses on some type of fabric behind the pulpit as he or she tells you how to interpret apocalyptical literature then we should have a problem supporting them financially. To give them cash is to support the works of men who are more concerned about end times instead of now times. We are not talking about money out of the so called pastor’s own wallet. I am speaking of the offering, the money given to be used to advance God’s gospel for God’s people for God’s glory. That is God’s money.
Returning to the issue of idolatry and living conditions, I’m quite sure there is a reason for such calamity and filthy conditions on people who live in India. Men, women and children who bathe in waters infested with urine and feces at the same time worship elephants and monkeys proving Romans 1 to be true!
There is a reason God’s wrath is upon them and Christians look past this to use this opportunity for evangelical outreach. If it is evangelical outreach to idolaters then let it consist of the gospel alone. Money does not cause a person to be born from above. Let God convert them and then, help them in whatever manner you can. In the meantime, do not play with those who hate God.
By way of example let me mention Rick Warren and his “peace” program to draw an example of what it means to unidentifiable. There is no mention of the wrath of God in this program. There is no mention of the need to repent of idolatry. It is a platform for Warren to impress his flock of goats with good deeds to impress his god and the world he lives in. So, the question is; how can I identify Warren as a Christian when the gospel is not being proclaimed?
The gospel is not about AIDS. It is the good news provided at the expense of His unique Son. It’s about the wrath of God being averted because the demands of the Law were met and satisfied.
“For God so loved the world He gave His Son to be a means to help AIDS and AIDS victims?” That is the Rick Warren translation of John 3 after it runs its course through the unregenerated grey cells . So, give men hope here and now and don’t worry about the condition of their soul? How many people do you think, (in the Warren congregation and outside) are making checks out toward funding Warren’s hobby horse? Why do the followers of Warren, those who dont even attend his building and even the next President love this man? I can answer that in one word. Separation. There is none! There is no identification linking his gospel back to God’s gospel.
Warren has no fruit! The world loves this man! Why? Because he is identified as one of the worlds “loved ones.” He is not hated for the gospel because his gospel is humanism. That does lead to my next point involving a “moral driven” gospel. The homosexual community has begun to embrace Warren. What?? According to the Huffington report Melissa Etheridge, or is it more proper to call her (in love of course) “Mel” has met with Warren. Is it just me or does anyone else see the humor in her last name having the word ”ether” in it?
She says; “….I received a call the day before to inform me of the keynote speaker that night… Pastor Rick Warren. I was stunned. My fight or flight instinct took over, should I cancel? Then a calm voice inside me said, “Are you really about peace or not?”
I told my manager to reach out to Pastor Warren and say “In the spirit of unity I would like to talk to him.” They gave him my phone number. On the day of the conference I received a call from Pastor Rick, and before I could say anything, he told me what a fan he was. He had most of my albums from the very first one. What? This didn’t sound like a gay hater, much less a preacher. He explained in very thoughtful words that as a Christian he believed in equal rights for everyone. He believed every loving relationship should have equal protection. He struggled with proposition 8 because he didn’t want to see marriage redefined as anything other than between a man and a woman. He said he regretted his choice of words in his video message to his congregation about proposition 8 when he mentioned pedophiles and those who commit incest. He said that in no way, is that how he thought about gays. He invited me to his church, I invited him to my home to meet my wife and kids. He told me of his wife’s struggle with breast cancer just a year before mine.
When we met later that night, he entered the room with open arms and an open heart. We agreed to build bridges to the future.
Brothers and sisters the choice is ours now.
We have the world’s attention. We have the capability to create change, awesome change in this world, but before we change minds we must change hearts. Sure, there are plenty of hateful people who will always hold on to their bigotry like a child to a blanket. But there are also good people out there, Christian and otherwise that are beginning to listen.
They don’t hate us, they fear change. Maybe in our anger, as we consider marches and boycotts, perhaps we can consider stretching out our hands. Maybe instead of marching on his church, we can show up en mass and volunteer for one of the many organizations affiliated with his church that work for HIV/AIDS causes all around the world. Maybe if they get to know us, they wont fear us…” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melissa-etheridge/the-choice-is-ours-now_b_152947.html
Isn’t it sad that a happy lesbian is tolerant of Warren’s definition of Christianity? Mel says to Warren ‘come on over and meet her wife and kids. :-0
She may also want to explain to Warren how she believes in miracles. Yep, she wants Warren to meet the kids she parents without ever laying a hand on a…(I’ll keep it clean) having never touched a male part or engaged in a proper male and female sexual act. Mel, that is quite the miracle! How will you ever sit down and explain the birds and the bees to her kids? Will it be the birds and the birds?
To me it reveals his (Warren’s) true colors because I am not fooled by numbskulls posing as the real deal. If you know me you know I constantly cry out; “you can spray paint a pig with 24kt gold paint, but underneath it is still a pig!” Warren is appearing to be gold on the outside, but is still playing in the mud doctrinally.
Warren remains under the wrath of God and I am sure he and Melissa will have an eternity to talk about her records and his peace plan together if they do not repent now and look to God for His salvation.
Am I a hater? Not hardly. The wrath of God abides on the homosexual as much as it does the liar. Sadly, the majority of evangelicals have focused on the homosexual issue and gained support for their moral gospel mission. We do not go to hell because of what we do. We go to hell because of what we are. Need explanation? Just ask.
Remember, John says that the world does not hate its own. But, It does hate the Messiah and His disciples.
John 15:18 “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would have loved its own. But because you do not belong to the world- on the contrary, I have picked you out of the world- therefore the world hates you.
Another reason for the separation is that it reveals a heart for God. We can learn much from the things King David had to say about his lifestyle, not the bad, but the good! Someone would probably say (a wiseguy) “does that include his murder and adultery?” That would be asinine! David was a man after God’s own heart because he knew who he believed in. His morals did not make him a man after God’s own heart. His doctrine did! We do not read of David deviating doctrinally.
He was a regenerated man with the sin of Adam and men fall morally from time to time. Paul explains why this happens to believers;
Galatians 5:17; For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
Look at David’s heart revealed in the following passages when he contrasts his life with the lives of idolaters;
Psalm 26:4 I do not sit with deceitful men, Nor will I go with hypocrites. I hate the assembly of evildoers, And I will not sit with the wicked.
Psalm 26:9 Don’t include me with sinners or my life with the bloodthirsty. In their hands are evil schemes; their right hands are full of bribes.
Psalm 44:21 If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, wouldn’t God have discovered this, since he knows the secrets of the heart?
Psalm 101:3 I will not allow before my eyes any shameful thing. I hate those who act crookedly; what they do does not attract me. (it shall not cling to me) Deviousness will depart from me; I will not tolerate evil. If someone slanders another in secret, I will cut him off. Haughty eyes and proud hearts I cannot abide.
Psalm 119:63 I am a friend of all who fear you, of those who observe your precepts.
Psalm 139:21 ADONAI, how I hate those who hate you! I feel such disgust with those who defy you! I hate them with unlimited hatred! (a perfect hatred) They have become my enemies too.
We already know what we believe and how we live will cause others to hate us and snarl at us. I do not have to remind us of Matthew 10 and how our families, our bloodlines, would hate us and betray us. This is nothing new. This was the treatment of many who walked with God before the Messiah arrived. The followers of the God of creation were considered disgusting to the pagans. Think of the pagans of old who worshipped the pig and then ate of it. How they must have looked down upon the Jews who refrained from eating the pig! Why? Because the people of God were identified even by eating habits. They would not partake in a pagan religious festival. For example;
1 Corinthians 10:18-22; Look at the Israelites from a human point of view. Those who eat the sacrifices share in what is on the altar, don’t they? Am I suggesting that an offering made to idols means anything, or that an idol itself means anything? Hardly! What they offer, they offer to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to become partners with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot eat at the table of the Lord and at the table of demons. Are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than he is, are we?
They were set apart, separated as God’s people and the pagans knew this and as a result they called them disgusting.
Proverbs 29:27 An unjust person is an abomination to the righteous, but he who lives uprightly is an abomination to the wicked.
A few more passages and I will wrap this up. Again, we are to stay away from those who deceive us;
Ephesians 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty talk; for it is because of these things that God’s judgment is coming on those who disobey him. So don’t become partners with them! For you used to be darkness; but now, united with the Lord, you are light. Live like children of light, for the fruit of the light is in every kind of goodness, rightness and truth- try to determine what will please the Lord. Have nothing to do with the deeds produced by darkness, but instead expose them,
1 John 1:5 And this is the message which we have heard from him and proclaim to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him- none! If we claim to have fellowship with him while we are walking in the darkness, we are lying and not living out the truth. But if we are walking in the light, as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of his Son Yeshua purifies us from all sin.
I can end this here. Do not be unequally yoked. You must be identified as one of the Lord’s and this comes through separation. How can you be separated? Follow the instructions found in the Scriptures.
The Bible alone contains the message of God.