It is easy to love those whom you are fond of and easily get along with.
Life-ing with your kind is easy.
Co- life-ing with unbelievers requires a love beyond.
Agape kind of love.
A Google search says:
""A believer is a person who believes in the truth or existence of something. An adherent of a particular religion; someone with religious faith.""
The Holy Bible says
"Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers."
It may seem as if the statement is divisive and promotes exclusion. That might not be true. To a believer, the verse is truth without any malicious intent in it.
What is being yoked?
Well.. Google's Definitions from Oxford languages says that the word yoke is a verb. A past tense: yoked; past participle: yoked.
Example of use:
put a yoke on (a pair of animals); couple or attach with or to a yoke. "a plough drawn by a camel and donkey yoked together"
Thriveglobal.com says:
"I loved this simple explanation from Got Questions.org: A yoke is a wooden bar that joins two oxen to each other and to the burden they pull. An “unequally yoked” team has one stronger ox and one weaker, or one taller and one shorter. ... Mar 8, 2019"
So, when the Holy Bible says do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers in 2 Corinthians 6; what is the instruction saying?
This is a conditional instruction. You can be yoked. Just not unequally with unbelievers. The focus is not on being yoked but the unequalled part of it.
The opposite of this instruction can be:
Be equally yoked with unbelievers.
An extreme version of the opposite could be:
Be unequally yoked with believers.
We all dwell amongst each other. Believers and unbelievers. So, in seeking peaceable existing, a believer would seek this information. How to best handle being yoked with unbelievers?
Remember, a believer is not yet narrowed down to Christianity.
Do not team up with unbelievers when having to carry certain loads, burdens or do tasks. Progress will be slow or the work heavier. For the believer.
The verse does not say be mindful or careful. Nor does it say try it out or consider it. It says Do Not.
There are levels here:
Can you be yoked? Yes.
With who? Unbelievers or believers.
What about unbelievers, specifically? That is ok. But!
But what? Be yoked with unbelievers. Just not unequally in the vicissitudes of your life.
If the Lord had a personal issue against unbelievers, the instruction would have looked different. For example:
Do not be yoked with unbelievers. At all. Whether equally or unequally. For the time being. But that is not the case here.
Paul was addressing the Corinthians here. He seemed to be talking about the issues of life in this chapter. This continues from a discussion about a life in Christ. Paul teaches that when one is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, all things have become new.
This is a teaching about being reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. Now if that is important and of interest to you, it is natural to want to learn about relating with the unbelievers among you. At home, church, community, various organisations you interact with. Everywhere.
How to do this new life with unbeliever
Read the section below and see how you receive it.
O Corinthians!
We have spoken openly to you, our heart is wide open.
You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.
Now in return for the same (I speak as to children), you also be open.
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness?
And what communion has light with darkness?
And what accord has Christ with Belial?
Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?
And what agreement has the temple of God with idols?
For you are the temple of the living God.
We have been accustomed to prescriptive teaching on the Holy Bible. However, this time around? May the Holy Spirit really reveal the truth of these words to you individually. So they perfectly fit your situation or environment as deep as you understand them.
Maybe that way, you can take the right action for you when doing life around unbelievers.
For the one believing in Jesus Christ and having a relationship with Him:
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
And also, because God does love the world, He says in
Ezekiel 18: 21-23
But if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die.
None of the offenses he has committed will be remembered against him. Because of the righteous things he has done, he will live.
Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? Declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? So, in closing, God is not promoting hatred among believers and unbelievers in this teaching. A life in Christ requires a word based navigating of its path. Preferably with believers. But doable also among unbelievers.
Isn't that in line with loving your neighbour as yourself? Is this not the verse Your word be a lamp unto my feet. And a light unto my path?
So, what then when the inequalities are narrowed down to the last option: Between God and idols?
Proceed to 2 Corinthians 6: 16 - 18.
So....One more time:
Life-ing with your kind is easy.
Co-life-ing with unbelievers on the other hand? It requires a love beyond.
Agape kind of love.
Yizwa. Zwakala.
Hear. Be Heard.
#YiZwakala Le
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