2 Corinthians 6:11-18: a reflection

11Our mouth is open to you, Corinthians. Our heart is enlarged. 12You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. 13Now in return—I speak as to my children—you also open your hearts. 14Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship do righteousness and iniquity have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? 15What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what portion does a believer have with an unbeliever? 16What agreement does a temple of God have with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk in them. I will be their God and they will be my people.” 17Therefore “‘Come out from among them, and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you. 18I will be to you a Father. You will be to me sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.”

Paul, writing with open affection to the Corinthians, urges them to a wise separation: Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. What partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? What fellowship has light with darkness? He is warning against binding themselves, in the deepest and most binding commitments, to what opposes God, commitments that would pull them away from him. And he adds a tender promise: I will be a Father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters.

Notice what Paul is and is not saying. He is not telling believers to withdraw from all contact with unbelievers, for that would mean leaving the world entirely. He is warning against the deepest, most binding commitments, being unequally yoked, bound together in a way that pulls us toward what opposes God. Such binding yokes, with what draws us from God, are to be avoided, not because we are better, but because they endanger our walk with him. And in place of such entanglements, God offers himself as a Father.

That is a wise word about our deepest commitments and partnerships. There are yokes, bonds, and commitments that bind us so closely to what opposes God that they pull us away from him; and Paul warns us to be careful about forming them. This is not a call to isolate ourselves from unbelievers, or to look down on them, but to guard our deepest bonds and yokes, that they not draw us from God. Be careful about the binding commitments you form, the yokes you take on; guard against binding yourself so closely to what opposes God that it pulls you from him. And treasure the relationship God offers in place of such entanglements: he will be a Father to you, and you his child. Guard your deepest bonds, and rest in belonging to the God who is a Father to his own.

Lord, Paul urged the Corinthians not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, warning against the deepest, most binding commitments to what opposes you, which would pull them away; and he added a tender promise: I will be a Father to you. Give me wisdom about my own deepest commitments and partnerships. Keep me from misreading this as a call to withdraw from all contact with unbelievers, or to look down on them; help me understand it as a warning to guard the deepest, most binding yokes and bonds, that they not draw me from you. There are commitments that bind me so closely to what opposes you that they pull me away; help me be careful about forming them. Guard my deepest bonds and yokes, that they not draw me from you. And thank you for the relationship you offer in place of such entanglements: that you will be a Father to me, and I your child. Help me guard my deepest commitments, and rest in belonging to you, who are a Father to your own.