Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? (II Corinthians 6:14-15)
To
the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is
not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. And
if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with
her, she must not divorce him. (I Corinthains 7:12-13)
Let’s
begin with the second passage as a boundary for the first. We are not talking
about breaking up families or other legal relationships or partnerships that exist
unless the unbelieving partner takes an attitude of “my way or the highway.” What the first passage advises is that one not
get married to or enter a legal partnership with someone who isn’t Christian. This
is not a case of withdrawing from society as a primary strategy for life, so that
one doesn’t have contact with non-Christians. Some may object to the idea of
Christianity stepping on toes by separating people happen to have different
religions but love one another, but Paul is giving good, general advice here. \
Years
ago, I contemplated becoming a life coach. Someone I know found out, and since
he was contemplating the same thing, he suggested we meet and talk. When we
did, he suggested that we should form a partnership. We could not have been more
opposite in our views of religion, philosophy, and politics. I asked him if –
on encountering one of my clients, he would be ready, willing, and able to
affirm my approach and advice, and whether he could trust me with his clients or
honor advice I might give them? We didn’t discuss it further.
Consider
one of the basic teachings of many religions. If you don’t follow that
religion, you aren’t going to heaven – whatever that religion considers heaven
to be. How much could you really claim to love someone if you don’t care that
they are on the road to hell? The only real alternative is to let that teaching
slide. And when your partner decides to
do something Scripture teaches is wrong? Another slide? What happens when you make
a decision to which your partner objects? Do you create disharmony in the home,
or do you let that decision slide? And who gets to make the decisions about the
education of children? Which religion is granted supremacy, or do you both let
the question slide and provide no religious education to your children – which will
generally mean that both religions involved will teach that the children are
bound for hell. What sort of parents would do such a thing to their children? If
we discuss philosophies or cultures instead of religions, the outcome is at
least similar, possibly the same. And if we claim that the other person is more
important than what we believe to be true, we have made a god of that person or
of the relationship. At the very least, there is a part of yourself, or a part
of the partner, that you can’t share or that your partner thinks isn’t as important
as he/she is. One or the other of you, or both, will compromise.
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