2 Corinthians 6:14-18 Hitched Together
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: May 1, 2020 2 Corinthians 6:14-18
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
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.”
(Understanding the Text) We always apply this to marriage, but I don’t see any reference to marriage here. Thus, I think it has a wider application of any kind of partnership, such as a business relationship, but I’m not sure. There is the idea that we are the temple of the living God and should not share that temple with unbelievers, so that would indicate a marriage bond, yet Paul does not mention husband and wife here, so it seems that he is focused more upon separation from the world. I need to look in the commentaries.
Robertson’s Word Pictures agrees that it includes marriage but is not limited to marriage. “Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers (mē ginesthe heterozugountes apistois). No other example of this verb has yet been found, though the adjective from which it is apparently formed, heterozugos (yoked with a different yoke) occurs in Lev_19:19 of the union of beasts of different kinds. In Deu_22:10 we read: “Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together.” Literally, “Stop becoming (mē ginesthe present imperative, not mē genēsthe aorist subj.) unequally yoked with unconverted heathen (unbelievers).” Some were already guilty. Marriage is certainly included, but other unions may be in mind. Cf. Eph_5:7. Paul gives as the reason (gar) for this prohibition five words in questions to distinguish the contrasts.”
Guzik points out that the Corinthians were being too worldly and it was keeping them from growing spiritually. Paul is addressing this problem and so, although the principle is very applicable to marriage, it is probably not what Paul himself was thinking about when he wrote 2 Corinthians. “But Paul means much more here than only marrying an unbeliever. It really applies to any environment where we let the world influence our thinking. When we are being conformed to this world and are not being transformed by the renewing of your mind (Rom_12:2), we are joining together with unbelievers in an ungodly way. iv. This speaks especially to the issue of influence. Paul is not suggesting that Christians never associate with unbelievers (he makes this clear in 1Co_5:9-13). The principle is that we are to be in the world, but not of the world, like a ship should be in the water, but water shouldn’t be in the ship! But if the world is influencing us, it is clear we are unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And this unequal yoke, or ungodly influence, may come through a book, a movie, a television show, a magazine, or even through worldly Christian friends. Most Christians are far too indiscriminate about the things they allow to influence their minds and lives. v. We all like to believe that we can be around ungodly things as much as we want, and that we are strong enough to ward off the influence. But we must take seriously the words of Scripture: Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits” (1Co_15:33). It needs to come back to the simple question from Rom_12:2 : are we being conformed to this world or are we being transformed by the renewing of your mind? vi. The Corinthian Christians were thinking like worldly people, not like godly people. They gained this way of looking at life – or at least stayed in it – because of their ungodly associations. Paul tells them to break those yokes of fellowship with the ungodly!”
This now makes sense when coupled with Paul’s point before this about having God’s weapons in both hands. This is the same idea. Paul is saying that we can’t fight the spiritual battles that we are facing if we are of a divided mind. We cannot have one foot on the land and one foot in the water. We need to plunge into the water and swim. Paul is saying that the Corinthians were still tied to their unbelieving friends and relatives in ways that were pulling them back into false ideas and weakening them to face the battles they needed to face.
(Revelation of God) God wants all of us. He wants all of our hearts, all of our interests, and all of our goals. However, this is not selfishness. Instead, He wants to cleanse them and return them to us with purity. Then we can be the living and loving creations that He envisioned rather than the broken and raggedy death lovers that we are.
(Application / Prayer) My application for myself is that I need to make sure that I am not hooking the two animals up together to try to succeed. I need to daily commit myself to You and trust You instead of trying to do Your job for You by worrying about success or failure. I need to reject worldly ideas of fighting spiritual battles in my own strength and listen to Your ideas. I need to stop aligning my mind to the minds of the unconverted and align my mind totally to You. Help me with that.