Radioactive Relationships Series

I like Eugene Petersen’s paraphrase: “Don’t become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership, that’s war. Is light best friends with darkness? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands?” (2 Corinthians 6:14 The Message)

There’s an obvious reason why God warns us away from these kinds of mismatched relationships. Proverbs is full of warnings about this, but here’s a simple one from 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.’”

The Bible says it is unwise for a Christian to marry an unbeliever. Now, the Bible also makes it very clear in 1 Corinthians 7 that if you are currently married to an unbeliever, you don’t have permission to leave them for this reason. This passage applies to single people who may be looking for a mate. As simply as I know how to say it, if you are a Christian, you should seek to be married to another believer.

Some of you may be thinking, “What does the Bible say about dating a non-Christian?” Nothing. Because the Bible doesn’t say anything about dating. Period. Dating is part of our Western culture, and in Bible times, as is still the case in many Eastern cultures today, marriages were arranged by the parents. But if dating is the process of seeking a mate, then I would encourage you to date only those guys and gals who would be considered a potential mate.

At this point, I know I’ve lost some of you who are thinking, “C’mon, pastor! Don’t be so old-fashioned! I’m dating a non-Christian because I want to lead him or her to the Lord.” Let me just tell you that in 37 years of preaching, I have found that in 99% of the cases, missionary dating doesn’t work. When you throw in hormones, romance, and a bunch of other stuff, what usually happens is the Christian gets pulled down to the level of the unbeliever. The reason for that is what I call “the gravity of depravity.” If I stood on this stool and had you come up on stage and I said, “I’ll try to pull you up on the stool, and you try to pull me down.” Who do you think would win? Someone much weaker than me could pull be down, because they’d have gravity working in their favor. So, do yourself a favor and date and marry someone who shares the same spiritual values you do. If you don’t you’ll be like these two shoes—mismatched.

If you form a business partnership with an unbeliever, you may also be asking for trouble because that other person doesn’t share the same spiritual values you embrace. I’m not talking about those of you who work with unbelievers on the job, or are assigned to them by your company. I think this principle could be applied when you enter into a binding business relationship with someone that forces you to accept the other partners’ goals and values. I’ve known dozens of Christians who’ve been burned through the years—and I’ve also known dozens of people who claimed to Christians who burned their partners. It’s like mismatched shoes. It’s like an ox and a donkey in a yoke. It’s like being exposed to radioactive fallout: It may not happen overnight, but it has a slow and gradual effect on you.