Make Sure the Yoke isn't on You

This weekend I had a tough decision to make, and turned to the Bible for some sound advice. One of the verses I looked up was this one:

"Don't team up with unbelievers." (2 Corinthians 6:14, NLT)

Or, as the more literal ESV has it, "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers." Now this is a well-known verse, which in my experience used most of the time to discourage Christians from dating non-believers. You know the drill: "No, Johnny, you can't go out with Jenny, no matter how hot she is, because she's a non-Christian."

"But what if our relationship ends up leading her to Christ?"

"With respect, Johnny, it's more likely it'll end up leading you the other way. Just trust God's Word on this one. You can't be unequally yoked. It just won't work."

Yes, I've said that speech too. And it's true; it's a good one. But is 'teaming up with unbelievers' limited to romantic relationships? Does it mean that I can't even be on the same soccer team with an unbeliever? What on earth does this verse mean? That's what I was wondering.

I had a couple of days of angst about it before I decided to fire up my e-Sword and figure out once and for all what this whole 'unequally yoked' deal is all about. In the Greek.

So here it is: the Greek word for 'unequally-yoked-with' is heterozugeo. If you're sharp, you'll notice that the hetero- part is the same prefix that we use in words like 'heterogeneous' and 'heterosexual' to mean 'other or different'. So that's pretty clear. Being unequally yoked has to do with being connected to people different from you in the sense that they don't believe in Jesus.

The other part, -zugeo, comes from a word that means, um, well, 'yoke'. Now unless you were born in the time of the Voortrekkers you're unlikely ever to have seen one of these things. Apparently a yoke is a big piece of wood that fits over the necks of two oxen pulling an ox-wagon or, more to the point, a plough. So picture you as one of the oxen, and an unbeliever (or a few) harnessed on the other side of this yoke, and you'll get some idea of what the verse is talking about. I took three things out of this (not so comfortable) image.

1. Being 'unequally yoked' is about when you're working together for the same purpose. Oxen are yoked together to pull a wagon or plough a field or otherwise make themselves useful. If you're just hanging around with unbelievers, hoping that you can witness to them and bring them to Christ, there's nothing wrong with that. After all, if we're not around unbelievers, how are we meant to make disciples as Jesus told us to? But if you're working together with unbelievers on something like a business partnership where you've got some common goal, then you may be 'unequally yoked'. Advance to point 2 to find out if you are.

2. Being 'unequally yoked' is about being tied down. After all, if you're an ox, and you're yoked to another ox who wants to turn right, you've gotta turn right with it! It's easy to see how this could be a problem for believers. If you're in a partnership where you're obliged to do something with another person, and he or she starts doing things that don't honour God, you're stuck. This is, I guess, why romantic relationships with non-Christians are not a good idea. Our partners may put us in a position where it's a choice of their way or the highway, and their way involves some dodgy stuff. But on the other side, if you're working together with non-Christians in such a way that you're not obliged to do anything you don't want you, you're fine.

3. Being 'unequally yoked' gets you nowhere. Try to picture a little ox on the right hand side of the yoke, and a huge one on left hand side. Where do you think they're going to go? The big, strong ox will probably pull the wagon and the little ox towards the left, and they'll keep going round in circles. Not so helpful. Neither is teaming up with unbelievers if you're working toward a common purpose, and tied down to each other.

Obviously, it's impossible to get away from all unbelievers, and a bad idea too, as we've seen. So in this world we've constantly got to be checking our relationships to see if we're getting 'unequally yoked', in unhealthy relationships with unbelievers. So ask God to help you make sure that the yoke doesn't get onto you!