The Unequal Yoke
For a Christian to contemplate marriage with an unbeliever is, however, most serious and solemn. To have one's whole life bound to another who has no love for that blessed Saviour is indeed the worst yoke of all, for it is a yoke one cannot leave (1 Cor. 7:1010And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: (1 Corinthians 7:10)) or break according to God (Matt. 19:66Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. (Matthew 19:6)). How careful we should be as young people that we do not allow our affections to go out to one who does not love our Lord Jesus Christ. What sorrow many have brought on themselves through disobedience in this very thing.
Some have entered into marriage in the vain hope they could win their unbelieving partner for the Lord, but there is not one shred of encouragement from God in this. He is sovereign, but one cannot count on His blessing in such a course, for it is going directly contrary to His Word. How many have found that they did not win their unsaved companion to the Lord, and instead of a life of happiness and fruitfulness it proved to be a yoke of continual sorrow and barrenness. Dear young friends, we are never wiser than Scripture. God's Word is clear and plain: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers."
We have one last "mixture" which was forbidden in Israel. "Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woolen and linen together." Garments in Scripture speak of our ways and habits. A garment of linen and woolen would be an unnatural mixture, and this would speak of the working of both the Spirit and the flesh in the Christian. The Spirit would ever occupy
us with Christ and heavenly things, while the flesh finds its satisfaction in the world. We ought not to be mixed up with that which the call of God has separated us from.
There are many examples in Scripture in which this "garment of divers sorts" is seen. There was Lot, a righteous man, and yet so sadly sunk down in the- world, that there was scarcely any trace of the call of God in his life and testimony. How different was Abraham, with his tent and his altar, who though he had his failures, as we all do, nevertheless "looked for a city which bath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God." Heb. 11:1010For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. (Hebrews 11:10). There was no such mixture with the Apostle Paul; he was a heavenly man.
May we seek grace to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh so that others will see that we do not belong to this world but are on our way to our heavenly land.
Then Israel were also to have fringes on the four corners of their clothing. Those fringes on the extreme edge of their garments would keep them from being soiled by the earth. There is nothing that helps us to walk better on earth as Christians than the constant remembrance that we belong to heaven. Even though we have to walk down here for a little while, it will help keep us from becoming earthly-minded if we remember that our place and portion is up there with Christ Jesus in the glory.
Memory Verse
Messages of the Love of God 9/21/1975