Let me walk you through my process of meditating on this familiar verse:

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. (2 Corinthians 6.14)

Paul never specifies what he’s referring to. We always applied it to marriage, and that’s not bad advice although 1 Corinthians 7 indicates there were a lot of marriages of believers to unbelievers. Some have applied it to business partnerships, which also makes sense.

Here’s the therefore:

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.” Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. (2 Corinthians 6.17 – 7.1, ESV)

But what are we to separate from? Jesus certainly hung around with “sinners,” and in 2 Corinthians 5 Paul wants us to be ambassadors. An ambassador has to live in the other’s country. You can’t teach ‘em if you’re not around ‘em.

But not “yoked.” So I don’t know yet…

The application comes directly from Isaiah 52.11:

Depart, depart, go out from there; touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves,…

But even that’s not clear. Isaiah 52 is extolling Jerusalem. Then he says, “Go out from the midst of her…” But maybe “her” is Assyria and Egypt? (See Isaiah 52.3 – 6) The Lord will rescue his people from captivity. 

Today, we might need to think about separating from the values of the world. Seth Godin spoke to that on September 4. He observes that marketers work to create unease which will be cured by buying things we don’t need. We need to separate from that. Here’s how Seth starts:

For decades, marketers (and politicians) have been working to amplify cultural distress, a hack on our emotions.

Not the tragic emotional distress of being unable to care for your kids, find a place to live or deal with trauma, but the invented cultural distress of modern industrialized societies.

This is the easily created shame of not having a new suit to wear to the garden party, or having to use an old model smartphone instead of the new one. It’s the dissatisfaction of knowing that something ‘better’ is available, and the invented discontent that comes from the peer pressure of being left out or left behind. –Seth Godin, September 4, 2022

Walk away from that! “Go out from their midst and be separate from them…” 

Wow. Maybe that’s the unequal yoke! Trying to compete in the wrong game. Envy and greed are part of “every defilement of body and spirit.” I have a story that illustrates the discontent very well, but this blog is already too long. Stay tuned!

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. (2 Corinthians 7.1, ESV)