Farming – The Lowedown

2 Corinthians 6

¹⁴ Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? ¹⁵ What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? ¹⁶What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, (2 Corinthians 6:14-16, ESV)

The Daily DAVEotional

Not long ago, I was conversing with a Young adult who was interested in pursuing a relationship. He was under the impression though that this person he was interested in was “off limits” because of Paul’s command in this passage that believers should “not be unequally yoked.”

As we talked further, it was clear to me that his understanding of what Paul was teaching in this passage was not quite accurate. It made me wonder how many Christians misunderstand what this passage is saying.

To properly understand this passage, one has to know something about the function and purpose of a yoke.

A yoke is a tool used by farmers and in the New Testament, which was primarily an agrarian society, the meaning of Paul’s command would have been less confusing than it is to the modern reader who may have never even seen a farm, much less understood a farming term.

A yoke is a wooden bar or collar that fits around a pair of animals (such as oxen) for the purpose of pairing them together to pull a load. Often the yoke had a plow attached to the center of the bar and was used for tilling a plow line.

When pairing two animals to a yoke, it is important that the animals be of equal size and strength. This allows for the plow line to be straight. If the size and strength of the animals yoked together is unequal, you will have the unfortunate situation of one animal overpowering the other, which will cause your plow line to veer or even move in a circular pattern instead of a straight line.

Paul is using this everyday farming illustration that his audience was quite familiar with in order to explain a spiritual reality.

When he says that a believer should not be unequally yoked with an unbeliever, he’s saying that believers should not be united with those who don’t have the same views and values. If you have different beliefs and values, it will be more difficult to move in the same direction and with the same purpose.

This passage is often referenced in the context of dating and marital relationships to show a believer that God doesn’t want them to pursue relationships with non-believers. However, this command is not exclusive to marriage. It applies to other types of relationships as well, such as business partnerships, etc.

The idea is really simple actually. You are trying to plow in a straight line. But if you have two animals that are unequally yoked, that is, not of the same size and strength, you end up with a non-straight plow line. Two animals of equal size and strength will work together more easily. Two animals that are “unequal” are more likely to work against each other. The objective of plowing that straight line becomes increasingly more difficult, if not impossible.

Now let’s relate this to relationships. What is Paul saying?

A Christian has a set of beliefs about God and a core set of values about how to live life. A non-Christian has a completely different set of beliefs and values. When you’re in a marriage relationship, or even a business partnership, it is difficult to move forward and in the same direction if the two partners have different and competing beliefs and values.

In a marriage relationship, this gets even more complicated when kids are involved. Questions like, “how will we raise the kids?”, “what faith tradition will we practice?”, “how will we administer discipline?”, and other important questions must be addressed. These issues often become the source of great conflict as each partner seeks to exert their beliefs, values and preferences.

It’s quite common in marriage for partners to compromise and change their views over time in order to achieve marital harmony and minimize conflict. In a situation with one believing spouse and one unbelieving spouse, the danger is that the believing spouse will compromise their beliefs and values in order to accommodate the unbelieving spouse.

This tendency to be influenced over time by the beliefs and values of non-believers is exactly why God, in the Old Testament, warned and even commanded the Israelites against marrying foreigners. The danger was that the pagan foreigners would negatively influence their spouse to drift away from worship of the true God. In the most extreme case, the believer might forsake God altogether and begin worshiping foreign gods and pagan deities.

This is exactly what happened with Solomon later in life. Countless other biblical examples could be cited that demonstrate the dangers of which Paul is warning.

So what does it mean when Paul commands believers not to be unequally yoked?

It means don’t align yourself or permanently partner yourself with someone who does not have the same biblical beliefs and spiritual values. If you do, you will likely find yourself with plenty of conflict and disharmony as each person seeks to control the direction of the relationship or partnership according to their beliefs and values. The pursuit of God is likely to become minimized or eliminated altogether.

One final note on this passage. In explaining his reasons for not being unequally yoked, Paul says, “what accord does Christ have with Belial?”

The term “Belial” was understood as a euphemism for “Satan”. This is a strong statement. Paul is saying that the unbeliever’s beliefs and values are following Satan. He does NOT mean that unbelievers are Satan worshipers. But just as Jesus, in John 8, told the Pharisees that they were unwittingly, and unknowingly following the devil, the father of lies, because they were rejecting him, so Paul is saying that those who are unbelievers, as wholesome, nice and moral as they may appear, are unwittingly and unknowingly following Satan, who will use any tool or method at his disposal to create chaos, disorder and conflict in order to render a believer in Christ ineffective and useless.

So if you’re a follower of Christ and you’re thinking about entering into a relationship with someone who is NOT a follower of Christ, THINK AGAIN!

(For more on Jesus’ exchange with the Pharisees in John 8, which included his proclamation that they were following their father, Satan, see my blog post, “Who’s Your Daddy?”)

Reflection

What examples have you seen that show the dangers of being unequally yoked, either in marriage or a business partnership?

What advice would you give a person who is thinking of pursuing a dating relationship with someone who does not share their Christian faith? How would you counsel this person?

If being equally yoked means sharing the same beliefs and values, how would you go about determining whether the other person’s beliefs and values are “equal” to yours?

As a Christian, what beliefs and values do you think are essential to include in your list to evaluate whether the other person is “equally yoked”.

Photo by Paul Jai on Unsplash

Matthew 21

³³“Now listen to this story. A certain landowner planted a vineyard, built a wall around it, dug a pit for pressing out the grape juice, and built a lookout tower. Then he leased the vineyard to tenant farmers and moved to another country. ³⁴At the time of the grape harvest he sent his servants to collect his share of the crop. ³⁵But the farmers grabbed his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. ³⁶So the landowner sent a larger group of his servants to collect for him, but the results were the same.

³⁷“Finally, the owner sent his son, thinking, ‘Surely they will respect my son.’

³⁸“But when the farmers saw his son coming, they said to one another, ‘Here comes the heir to this estate. Come on, let’s kill him and get the estate for ourselves!’ ³⁹So they grabbed him, took him out of the vineyard, and murdered him.

⁴⁰“When the owner of the vineyard returns,” Jesus asked, “what do you think he will do to those farmers?”

⁴¹The religious leaders replied, “He will put the wicked men to a horrible death and lease the vineyard to others who will give him his share of the crop after each harvest.”

⁴²Then Jesus asked them, “Didn’t you ever read this in the Scriptures?

‘The stone rejected by the builders has now become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous to see.’

⁴³What I mean is that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will produce the proper fruit. ⁴⁴Anyone who stumbles over that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls. ”

⁴⁵When the leading priests and Pharisees heard Jesus, they realized he was pointing at them—that they were the farmers in his story. ⁴⁶They wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid to try because the crowds considered Jesus to be a prophet. (Matthew 21:33-46, NLT)

The Daily DAVEotional

Jesus often spoke in parables to teach spiritual truths. In this parable, the landowner is the Lord and the farmers are the Pharisees. The servants represent the Old Testament prophets whom God continually sent to warn His people, but who were constantly rejected.

In the story, the landowner finally sends his son, who represents Jesus.

In the parable, the farmers decide to kill the son because they don’t want to relinquish control and power. They don’t want to serve the owner and give him his portion of the proceeds. They want to BE the owner and keep all the proceeds for themselves.

Jesus explains the meaning of the parable in verse 43:

What I mean is that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will produce the proper fruit.

The fruit Jesus is referring to is the nation of Israel’s acceptance of Him as the Messiah. Since the religious leaders were rejecting Jesus, and they used their power and influence over the people to keep the people from accepting Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus is warning them that their status as God’s special chosen people was in danger. Like the farmers in the story who were stewards of their master’s land, the Israelites were simply stewards of the message and revelation of the one true God. By rejecting Jesus, this stewardship would be taken away from them and given to another nation.

What is this other nation Jesus was referring to?

Jesus quotes Psalm 118:22-23 which was also referenced by Peter in 1 Peter 2:4-7, in which Peter says that Jesus is building a new temple made up of those who would follow Him. Thus this new nation is not a physical nation, as Israel was, but a spiritual nation with those who believe in Jesus as its citizens. I wrote about this new temple here.

Jesus was using this parable to show the Pharisees that they were rejecting the Son because they didn’t want to relinquish their religious control over the people. Verses 45-46 indicate that the religious leaders realized what Jesus was saying about them. However, instead of repenting, their inclination is to arrest him.

This parable was directed at the Pharisees and the nation of Israel and the punishment Jesus mentions cannot be duplicated for us today. So how then does this parable relate to us in our current culture? What can we learn from it?

Though we cannot reject Jesus in the same way, and thus we cannot experience the same penalty Jesus mentions, I think there are lessons we can learn from the way the Pharisees responded to God and the revelation He was giving them.

I think one potential lesson is that there is a dangerous trap for religious leaders, or anyone who is in a position of authority over others. The trap is to think so highly of yourself that you believe the people you are leading cannot get along without you. Instead of shepherding people to follow the Lord, we can become enamored with our own voice and our own self-importance and we can become consumed with gaining and maintaining a following for ourselves.

Being in authority and power over others, as the Jewish religious leaders were, can become so addictive and necessary to our own identity that we will do whatever is necessary to keep it. In the case of the Pharisees, they were willing to kill the Messiah himself to keep it.

We’re not in a position today to kill the Messiah to hold onto our power and authority, but we may still go to great lengths to keep our positions, including lying, deception, manipulation, intimidation, fear, bribery, harassment, etc.

Reflection

In the parable, God sends his messengers to convey truth but the messengers are constantly rejected. What are some of God’s messages (doctrinal truths or commands) that you find difficult to follow and are tempted to reject?

In the parable, the outcome of the nation of Israel rejecting the Son is their stewardship is taken away and given to another nation. What do you think will be the outcome for those who reject Jesus today? How will God treat the farmers of today who continually reject the messengers, including His son, whom God has sent?

What are some situations or relationships where you have found yourself wanting to maintain power and control when you know you should release it?

Some people will go to great lengths to maintain power, authority, status or position? What do you think causes a person to adopt an “any means necessary” policy to maintain their power?

Photo by Alex Gorbi on Unsplash