“Do not become dissimilarly yoked with unbelievers.” This is a general statement. What does it mean? We have to go on to see the following questions: “For what partnership do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? And what concord does Christ have with Belial? Or what part does a believer have with an unbeliever? And what agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, even as God said, ‘I will dwell among them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.’ Therefore ‘come out from their midst and be separated, says the Lord, and do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you’; ‘and I will be a Father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to Me, says the Lord Almighty’” (2 Cor. 6:14-18). All of these questions issue from the first statement: “Do not become dissimilarly yoked with unbelievers.” This is a positive statement. It is the basic premise. After this basic premise, five questions follow. These questions show us that believers and unbelievers are not compatible with one another and cannot be similarly yoked.
I hope you will realize that although we live in the same society as those in the world today, we cannot build up an intimate relationship with them, whether it be with respect to a business venture, general friendship, or marital union. If an unbeliever and a believer are together, sooner or later they will end up with trouble. Believers have their standard, and unbelievers have theirs. Believers have their ideologies, and unbelievers have theirs. Believers have their views, and unbelievers have theirs. If the two are put together, the result will not be blessing, but sorrow. The two hold different views, opinions, ethical standards, and moral judgments. Everything is different. One pulls one way, while the other pulls the opposite way. Putting both under the same yoke would simply break the yoke. The believer either has to go along with the unbeliever or break the yoke.
I wish all new believers would realize that when believers and unbelievers are put together, the believers always suffer. We should never think that we can pull the unbelievers in our direction. If we want to pull them in our direction, we do not have to do it by making friends with them. I can tell you that I have tried to pull my old friends in my direction, but I did not try to maintain my old friendship with them. We can win our old friends over to our side without trying to maintain our old friendships with them. If we try to maintain our friendships, they will probably win us over to their side.
C. H. Spurgeon once gave a good illustration. A young lady came to him and told him that she wanted to make friends with an unbeliever. She said that she wanted to bring him to the Lord and then become engaged to him. Mr. Spurgeon asked the young lady to climb up on a high table. She did as he asked. By then Mr. Spurgeon was already quite an old man. He told the young lady to hold his hand and try her best to pull him up. She tried very hard but could not do it. Mr. Spurgeon then said, “Now let me pull you down,” and with one jerk, she was down on the ground. He said, “It is easy to be pulled down but hard to pull someone up.” This answered the girl’s question. Please remember that pulling someone up is always hard. It is very difficult to pull an unbeliever up, but it is easy for him to pull you down. Many people have been pulled down by unbelievers. Many brothers and sisters are pulled down by their friends because they have not dealt with the problem of friendships.
New believers should tell all their friends that they have believed in the Lord Jesus. They must open their mouth to testify and confess that they have received the Lord. Whenever they see their friends again, they must bring the Lord to them. I had many friends when I was in school. After believing in the Lord, I would take out my Bible, sit down with them, and talk about the Lord whenever I saw them. My conduct before I was a Christian was very poor. At the least I had learned to gamble and I enjoyed going to the theater. I was easily dragged into these things by my friends. But after I believed in the Lord, I would take out my Bible whenever I sat down with them. After I became known for doing this, my friends began to leave me alone. This was good for me because they stopped including me in their activities. Had I not done that, it would have been unavoidable for me to be dragged away. We would rather not be welcomed by our friends than be pulled away by them. It is best to keep a mild friendship with them, but do not pursue intimate friendship. Be polite and courteous. Do not lose your friends, but do not become deeply involved with them. We belong to the Lord, and we should always bring the Lord to them.
If you serve the Lord faithfully and bring the Lord to your friends in this way, sooner or later they will either turn to the Lord or forsake you. These are the only two possibilities. There is hardly a third possible outcome. They will either follow you and take the same way, or they no longer will bother you. This will work to a new believer’s advantage; it will save him much trouble. A person will be dragged away by an unbeliever if the two bear the same yoke, because he has to disobey the Lord in order to maintain his close friendship with the world.