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As believers, we are commanded not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. What constitutes being unequally yoked? Let’s discuss that today here on Grace in Focus, and we are so glad that you are joining us today, friend.
Grace in Focus is the radio broadcast and podcast ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Find out more about us by going to our website, faithalone.org. One thing you will find there is our subscription-free magazine called Grace in Focus.
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Come subscribe today at faithalone.org. Now with today’s question and answer discussion, here are Bob Wilkin and Mike Lii.
Well, Mike, what do you have for us today?
Yeah, we have a couple of questions. The first one here is from Burt, and he’s asking about 2 Corinthians 6 14. How seriously or broadly do we apply unequally yoked?
Should it affect our voting, or would that make me a busybody? And let me go ahead and read the passage. And do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness, and what communion has light with darkness?
You know, Mike, that’s normally cited regarding marriage.
Yeah, I heard that a lot growing up, that they would always point to this passage, like, don’t marry an unbeliever. This is what this verse tells us.
But this doesn’t actually say it’s talking about marriage.
Yeah, I mean, if you look at the whole chapter, it never once talks about marriage.
So it’s really, we’re not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. And Paul doesn’t give the application. What is it, 2 Corinthians 6, 14?
Yep.
So, he’s not really giving us the application. He’s telling us, don’t be unequally yoked with the unrighteous. So would that apply to marriage?
It would make sense it applies to marriage, but that’s not the immediate context. It would make sense it would apply to other issues. For example, if you had a small business, it would seem like it would be unwise to be unequally yoked with an unbeliever.
But this verse doesn’t actually forbid it, right?
I mean, the chapter, again, is not speaking about business. These are, I guess, applications we’re trying to draw whatever the principle here is.
In terms of voting, it for sure wouldn’t apply. I mean, otherwise, we can’t vote for probably either person. Now, I know, I understand, like in the presidential election, some people would say, well, former President Trump has said that he has come to faith in Christ, and maybe he has.
And I bet you Kamala Harris has probably said, she believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, but if you’re saying which one of them clearly knows that they are eternally secure, I’m not sure either one of them would say they know they’re secure by faith in Christ, right? Yeah, I don’t think this applies to voting.
And I would even think this wouldn’t prohibit you from starting a small business. Look, let’s say you’re Mark Zuckerberg, and let’s say Zuckerberg was not a believer, I don’t know if he is or isn’t. Let’s say who was that guy, I remember I saw the movie, the social network or something, and he had this guy that’s founded it with him.
Well, let’s say the guy that founded it with him is a born-again believer. I don’t think this verse wouldn’t prohibit him from starting a business with him. I think the idea is that you would not be yoked with them in some kind of a context where you would be forced to compromise your principles.
Oh, so it really more applies to spiritual decisions than just… Because, you know, I was for a while in business with my dad, and at that time my dad was not a believer, so I guess I was supposed to quit my occupation with my dad and leave the family business?
Yeah, you make a good point, Mike. I mean, ultimately, that would mean then you couldn’t be in a family business unless your family member was a believer. You almost have to leave the family, right?
If you’re an 18-year-old being, I guess I better leave because I’m unequally yoke with my family.
Yeah. And I think my dad would have had the impression, boy, you’re involved in some sort of cult now, you’re quitting the job because of that.
Right. All right. So I would say, it’s not crystal clear what Paul is saying other than we don’t want to be yoke to them in such a way that it is going to be causing me to compromise my values.
Let’s say you were in business with your dad, but your dad was requiring you to lie and to cheat on the reports to the IRS, etc. Now there, that would be unequally yoke.
Right.
Don’t you think?
Yeah, no, I think that’s true.
And so I think it would really come down to, if I’m in a situation where my Christian testimony and my Christian experience is being compromised, I need to leave.
Yeah, if somehow this relationship, this yoke is impacting your spiritual life in a negative manner, right, you know, this could be even applied to just friendships, right? If you have friends who say, hey, let’s go out to the bar every night, let’s go party, let’s do drugs, you know, that might be a form of unequally yoke where you might have to say, no, we can’t continue along this path or right. But if your friends, even though they might not be believers, you know, they just want to attend ballgames and get board games.
I don’t think it’s being unequally yoke if you still get together for activities.
No, I agree with you. And I would say if you wanted to get more discussion on marriage, go to 1 Corinthians 7, not 2 Corinthians 6. And there Paul clearly implies that believers should be marrying believer.
And if the unbeliever wants to depart, I think is in a context where in Corinth, couples were only one member came to faith in Christ. And then the unbeliever wants to depart. And Paul says, okay, let him depart.
He’s not envisioning a situation where a believer goes out and marries intentionally an unbeliever. Although we have to debate whether that situation would apply there or not. Probably would, but it probably wouldn’t allow for remarriage.
I don’t know. You’d have to discuss that whole issue. So I would say, Bert, this is not about voting.
It’s not about going to a ball game. It’s probably not even about having a small business where you could have employees that were unbelievers, right?
Otherwise you’d say, Your pool is getting smaller every day.
Yeah. We will rejoin in just a moment. But years ago, Zane Hodges wrote The Gospel Under Siege.
Sadly, this is still true, and GES president Bob Wilkin has recently written its sequel. Bob’s new book, The Gospel Is Still Under Siege, is a book about theological clarity on the biblical teaching about eternal salvation. It is available now.
Secure yours today at the Grace Evangelical Society’s Bookstore. Find it at faithalone.org/store. That’s faithalone.org/store.
Now back to today’s content.
All right, we got a second question, don’t we, from Kelly?
Yeah, Kelly’s asking about Revelation 14 6, where angels have the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth. Are they just bringing it to man to preach or sharing it themselves? Let me go ahead and read that verse, Revelation 14 6.
Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water. I guess her question is like, who is this gospel being preached to?
Okay, and who’s preaching it?
Yeah, who’s preaching it? And I guess we probably should clarify, the gospel, obviously, we shouldn’t always automatically assume it means saving message.
Right. In fact, here, the gospel is the message of judgment.
Right.
And it’s good news because the righteous will be vindicated, and the kingdom will come, and wickedness is being defeated. So this is all good news, but not so much good news for the wicked.
Yeah, those being subject to this judgment is pretty much bad news for them. Yeah.
It’s funny because I wrote about this in one of my articles, and one of my books, I believe in my book, The 10 Most Misunderstood Words, I discussed this. And I quote Dr. Ryrie, who was one of my seminary professors, and he says, this is one last chance for people on earth to believe the gospel and be born again. Well, then I quoted Dr. Walbert, who was another one of my seminary professors, and Dr. Walbert said, this obviously isn’t the saving message.
This is obviously the message of judgment. And I was like, so which one of my professors is right?
Right.
Dr. Walbert is right, because if you read it, it’s clearly talking fear God and give glory to Him. That’s not John 3.16. For the hour of His judgment has come, and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.
And that’s not John 3.16. That’s not how we’re born again.
Yeah, belief does not equal fear and worship.
Right. So it absolutely is a message of judgment, and that is gospel in the sense that it’s good news that God is going to vindicate believers, and He’s going to throw off wickedness, and that the new age, when Messiah is going to rule and reign, is about to come at any moment. Remember, during the ministry of Jesus and the apostles, the kingdom of God is near, the kingdom of heaven is near.
It was near because Jesus was ready to bring in the kingdom in the first century. And it was only because Israel rejected him that it didn’t come. Now here, it’s coming.
Because Israel, at this point, is believing. Now we have the other question Kelly asked. And who is it that is preaching this message?
Is this the angel who’s saying it in the heaven? And of course, what does it say? Heaven’s singular here?
Yeah, heaven’s singular, in the midst of heaven.
Yeah, but of course, heaven, Uranus, can refer to either the third heaven, or the first heaven, which is the area around the earth. The sky is called heaven. When Jesus ascended into the sky, that’s called heaven.
Or the second heaven is outer space. I think this is probably the sky around the earth. And he’s probably saying this.
And could this be heard on the earth? Well, quite possibly.
Yeah, the verse says, preach to those who dwell on the earth. So it’s to imply that the people on earth are hearing this, right?
Yes, that does. So I looked in Dr. Walbert’s commentary, and he just said there’s an angel flying in what he calls the mid heaven with an everlasting gospel to preach to the entire world. And he doesn’t say whether the angel is shouting this so loud that everybody on earth hears this, or whether he’s just shouting it in either the third heaven or in the first heaven.
But the believers on earth are the ones who are taking that message. And I think you looked at another commentary, basically said the same thing. It seems to me, it has to be people on earth that are proclaiming this, because doesn’t it say every tribe and nation and language and people?
Yeah, it does say that. Nation, tribe, tongue and people.
So therefore, it seems to me it’s clear that humans are the ones that are taking the message. Now, maybe hypothetically, this angel is speaking and the believers on earth somehow hear it. It’s like some sort of vision or something.
But the other way to take it is the angel is saying this, but that message is already being proclaimed by humans. For one thing, they have the Book of Revelation, right? They can read this verse and they can see that this is a message there to be proclaiming.
I think the commentator you looked at, I think it was Beckwith, he says that he’s calling on people to repent and worship God. And I think that’s a good synopsis of it, but not in order to be born again, that’s in order to escape the judgments that they would decrease. And of course, if they did repent and worship God, then maybe they would also come to faith in the Messiah.
Yeah, I guess that’s how they preserve their life through the tribulation, by fearing God and worshiping Him. That’s not how they get everlasting life, but it’s how they save themselves through the tribulation.
Yeah, in fact, Revelation 9, 20, 21, 16, 9 to 11, both of them say that people did not repent of their evil deeds, of their wicked deeds, and so as a result, the judgments continued. But if they had repented, the implication is the judgments would have lessened.
Very good.
Well, thanks so much, Kelly, and thanks so much, Burt. And remember, Keep Grace in Focus.
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The preceding has been a listener-supported ministry from the Grace Evangelical Society.
