OVERKILL? Why does Paul make such a big deal about this?
- 2 Corinthians 6:14-18.
- Paul here argues that Christians should not marry non-Christians. That strikes many people as overkill. Is it really that big a deal? Is it really worth the repetition that Paul makes here? This is the question that we want to answer in the sermon this evening.
WHAT'S THE NATURE OF THE DISTINCTION? With exhausting repetition, Paul emphasizes that these are incompatible visions of life.
- 2 Corinthians 6:14-18.
- Let’s say that you’re at a friend’s house and their preschool girl wants to show you her stuffed animals. She takes you to her room and starts showing you her seemingly endless stack of stuffed animals. She pulls them out one by one and hands them to you, introducing each one: “This is Hank and this is Henry and this is Penelope and this is Kathy and this is Gert and this is Rainbow and this is Michael and this is . . . .” After a couple minutes you continue to be polite but in your mind you’re thinking, “I get it already – you have a lot of stuffed animals!”
- You could understand someone having similar thoughts to Paul’s writing here. He doesn’t just make his point – he makes it again and again and again. At a certain point, you just want to say, “We get it already – you really don’t want people being unequally yoked!”
- Let’s start with the fundamental question before we get to the reasons he uses.
- In v. 14 he begins by saying, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.” What does that mean? It’s simple: he is saying that a Christian should not marry a non-Christian.
- Now, that may sound a little harsh to some of you. In fact, I’m confident it does because we see Christians ignoring Paul’s advice here all the time and considering it not a big deal to marry someone who is not a Christian. Not only do Christians disobey it, but they do so without even having a serious internal debate about it. It’s not seen as a big deal.
- Let’s briefly look through his reasons:
a. “For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?” (v. 14b)
b. “Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” (v. 14c)
c. “What harmony is there between Christ and Belial?” (v. 15a)
d. “What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?” (v. 15b)
e. “What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?” (v. 16a)
- In all these, he clearly makes a hard distinction between being a Christian and being a non-Christian. He sees them as two completely different categories. This is stronger than many of us would draw the lines and certainly stronger language than we would use to describe them.
- There is something Paul sees here that we usually don’t. Perhaps the second half of the passage can help us grasp what it is.
- In the second half of the passage, look at how Paul describes us. Let’s look at five of the elements:
a. “For we are the temple of the Holy Spirit.” (v. 16b)
b. “As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them . . . .’” (v. 16c)
c. “‘. . . and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’” (v. 16d)
d. “Therefore come out from them and be separate . . . .” (v. 17a)
e. “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters . . . .” (v. 18a)
- These speak to the change that has happened in us as believers. We are the home of the Spirit. We are walking with God. We are God’s people. We are called to be different than the world.’’
- Let me bring in the phrase that I just used in your sermon outline: “visions of life.” Being a Christian is more than just an empty statement of doctrinal beliefs that you’ve signed your name to without any substantive change to the way you live your life. Rather, being a follower of Christ involves having an identity and behavior that is substantially different than the world around us. We are to have a vision for our life that’s worlds away from business as usual.
- Perhaps the simplest way to understand it is to read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. This is Jesus’ manifesto of what life in the Kingdom looks like.
- And so, to the extent that Paul’s words here sound like overkill, it’s probably a sign that we have lowballed the vision of what God wants to do in our lives.
APPLICATION OF THIS TRUTH FOR THE UNMARRIED CHRISTIAN: The most important question about a potential spouse is “Are they a follower of Jesus?”
- There are many things that you look for in a potential spouse: looks, intelligence, humor, education, etc. For the Christian, the very first thing that should be on our list of qualifications is “Are they a follower of Jesus?”
- This speaks to all the previous discussion. If we take our own faith seriously and it’s the central belief of our lives, then obviously we want someone who shares that same vision.
- If you and your significant other are talking about building a house but you have wildly different visions of what that house should look like, there will inevitably be major tension in your discussions. You need to have a similar vision, complementary blueprints.
- If you believe Paul’s words about the vast difference between believers and non-believers, you would without question want someone who shares your life vision.
- I will tell you one way I incorporated this truth into my own life when I was a young adult. I would not date people who were not serious about their faith.
- Now, not everyone agrees with that, but it seemed obvious to me. If anyone I went out with could turn into a serious relationship, I wanted to ensure up front that it was someone who met this most important of criteria.
APPLICATION OF THIS TRUTH FOR THE MARRIED CHRISTIAN: Your mutual faith should change the vision of your marriage.
- It’s so easy and common for us to think about faith in Christ as an individual thing. It’s “me and Jesus.” That tendency shows up in how many Christians consider the church to be optional to their walk of faith. Of course, the church was intended to be a fundamental part of living out our faith.
- It also shows up in Christian marriages. Each is a Christian, but their mutual faith doesn’t necessarily alter how they live their lives.
- Having a Christian marriage should impact how you raise your children.
- Having a Christian marriage should impact how you spend your money.
- Having a Christian marriage should impact how you treat each other.
- Having a Christian marriage should impact how you spend your time.
APPLICATION OF THIS TRUTH FOR THE "UNEQUALLY YOKED": You have put yourself in a challenging situation, but God will help you there.
- There’s some good news here but also some bad news here. We need to honestly look at both.
- First, the bad news: if you’re a Christian who married a non-Christian, you disobeyed a Biblical commandment.
- The clear Biblical instruction is not to be “unequally yoked.” It’s not a passage that is difficult to understand – it’s just a matter of obeying what we’ve been taught.
- Now, there are lots of excuses that Christians will give as to why they went their own way on this:
a. “We’re in love.”
- That’s nice, but it doesn’t change the Bible’s teaching.
b. “I didn’t know.”
- Unless you’re a brand-new Christian, that puts the blame squarely on you. If you read the Bible with regularity, you would have known.
c. “I don’t agree with what Paul says.”
- That’s nice, but it doesn’t change the Bible’s teaching.
- Now, for the good news: even if you’ve disobeyed God’s command, He will help you within your situation.
- We all know people who would just smugly look at us after we’d made a mistake and leave us to sort out the consequences. Fortunately God is not like that. He is merciful and gracious. He will meet us in our struggle and help us.
- Toward that end, I do think an important first step is to confess to Him that we repent for ignoring His commandment. We need to acknowledge that He gave clear instructions and we went outside His perfect will by disobeying them. If our attitude is that we would have disobeyed God on this issue anyway, I’m not sure we have much right to go and ask Him for help with the messy consequences.
- Having done that, we come to God and ask Him for help with our circumstance. Obviously our two biggest requests are:
a. That our spouse would become a follower of Christ.
b. That our walk with Christ would not be hindered by our unsaved spouse.
