[greenbear]

Amanda's

The whole context of II Corinthians 6 is separation. Basically avoid the wrong crowd...on many levels. The carnal Corinthians just could not get this right. Constantly hanging with false teachers and the like.

Verse 14 is probably the definitive verse used to prove that an unbeliever and a believer should not marry.

A yoke causes the 2 harnessed to go in the same direction. Where one goes, so goes the other. I am reminded of Amos 3:3 -

Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

Smarts is not always discernment. Don't take offense. I like you a lot. But from what I've read you don't always look at the big picture.


2 Cor 6:14 is not about marriage.

There's enough written about marriage... we don't need to import incidental verses to support our position that it is not God's will that believers marry unbelievers.

Biblical marriage is not about being yoked together. It is about being joined together. It was to His Jewish disciples that Jesus said, Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. I don't believe this applies to us, but even if it did, Jesus is the plowman. We are not "yoked" with Him. Christian marriage is a similitude of Christ and His church. We are joined. We are in Him, and He is in us. There is no yoking, there is a joining of ourselves to Christ.

John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Whether old time Bible commentators, pastors or Bible teachers, or ourselves try to apply the analogy of yoking to the marriage relationship, it is just plain wrong. It destroys the true analogy that Christ and Paul gave of being joined to Christ, being in Christ. We are not yoked to Christ. We are not doing works along side Him. We are doing works in Him.

John 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

Romans 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

Who are we to say what God can or can't do when a believer marries an unbeliever? How many times do each one of us sin every single day of our lives? Are we to be hypocrites? His ultimate purpose, I firmly believe, is not to have us follow a set of rules, but to take out of the gentiles a people for his name.

I have noticed in my life that He sometimes does it in unorthodox ways.