Choose Wisely

"Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?" (2 Cor 7:14)

We often look at this as a negative.

Don't get married to an unbeliever.

Don't go into business with an unbeliever.

Don't have unbelievers as your best friends.

Usually the applications are illustrated with examples of how an unbeliever pulls the believer into the world's system. The believer gets sucked into illicit relationships. The believer begins to make unbiblical business decisions.

While those are applications which can be drawn from this verse, and those illustrations may be true, it seems that we often forget the reason that God gives.

Just keep reading.

"Therefore, go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty" (v 17-18).

The command of verse 14 is not from a God who wants to bring us into a convent or closed society. God is not trying to ruin our lives.

The command comes from a holy God who wants to meet all our needs - even relationships.

He wants to be our father, but He is holy. His holiness demands that He can not look upon sin. He cannot dwell in the presence of sin.

If we are involved in sinful relationships, God cannot be there.

If our loyalty is divided between God and others, He can't fulfill His desire to meet our needs.

In reality, it's a choice we make.

Do we want to make alliances with people who are not following God?

Or do we want the loving Creator of the universe to be our Father?