2 Corinthians 6:14, commentary and pictures

The yoke is a binding partnership that demands harmony in spirit and action, and it forbids close alliances of confidence and joint life with those who have no love for God. There can be no fellowship or common ground in such a union, because righteousness and unrighteousness, light and darkness, Christ and Belial, the believer and the unbeliever, the temple of God and idols have nothing in common. The command is to come out from among unbelievers and be separate in spirit and practice, touching nothing unclean, and on that condition the Lord will receive His people and be a Father to them as His sons and daughters. Above all it forbids marriage of a Christian with an ungodly person, however moral or agreeable, since their faith, purposes and loyalties differ radically and such a union imperils the soul and obstructs service to God. The same barrier forbids business partnership with unbelievers, uniting God's institutions with the world, and union with worldly parties, secret societies and pleasures, while calling believers to remain in the world to do good without sharing its spirit.

Words and Opposites

The yoke is a binding partnership that requires harmony in spirit and action, and it forbids being unequally yoked with unbelievers in marriage and in any other close alliance of confidence and copartnership with those who have no love for God or the truth. Such ties include business partnerships, friendships that shape the course, partnerships in churches, health institutions, colleges and publishing houses and other work for God, confederacies, secret societies, and letting unbelievers into secrets, because they can draw away from worship and obedience, obstruct service, weaken faith, lead to sacrifice of principle, entangle God's work, and become a snare. The hope of converting the unbeliever does not make a forbidden union safe, and Christians are to preserve a distinct, holy character rather than join with the ungodly to improve influence.

Fellowship means participation and partnership, so there can be no fellowship, communion, or common ground between the two sides joined by the yoke. Righteousness has no fellowship with unrighteousness and light has no communion with darkness, showing that such union joins people whose loyalties and ways are opposed and is incompatible with loyalty to God. God's people must keep a clear distinction from the world, living in the world without belonging to it, refusing to follow Baal or serve wealth as a god, and refusing to share the world's spirit, practices, and example in affections and conduct.

Light represents righteousness, truth, obedience, and Christ, and darkness represents unrighteousness, error, sin, and disobedience; truth is light revealed and error is darkness. Christians have come out of darkness into light, have put on Christ, wear the badge of truth and obedience, and are governed by His elevated and holy principles, while the world is governed by dishonesty and injustice. The children of light set affections on things above and leave behind the things of this world, while the children of darkness are blinded by the god of this world and led by the spirit of the prince of darkness and cannot enjoy heavenly things.

The contrast extends to no concord between Christ and Belial, no shared part between believer and unbeliever or infidel, and no agreement between the temple of God and idols. Believers are the temple of the living God, in whom He dwells and walks, whose God He is and who are His people. Because they are His temple they are to come out from among unbelievers, stand separate, touch nothing unclean, cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and perfect holiness in the fear of God, with the promise that the Lord will receive them and be a Father to them and they will be His sons and daughters.

The converted and unconverted, saints and sinners, are as distinct as midday and midnight and as Christ and Satan, and do not blend imperceptibly like the colors of the rainbow. There can be no fellowship between Christ, the Prince of light, and the prince of darkness, and Christ and Satan rule rival kingdoms. Seeking the world's friendship becomes a snare leading to adoption of its customs, teachings, and standards and at last to sharing its spirit, while earthly prosperity does not prove God's favor and God's children may be unknown and rejected yet be heirs of Christ with names written in the book of life. Cherishing even one sin or retaining one wrong practice contaminates the whole person and makes that person an instrument of unrighteousness.

Good and evil never harmonize and cannot be joined or compromised, for light cannot be harmonized or mixed with darkness, Christ with Belial, purity with impurity, or good with evil. Those not yoked with Christ are yoked with satanic agencies, and safety is found only in being joined to Jesus Christ, with consecration to the Lord and separation from the world plainly declared and positively commanded in both Old and New Testaments. Joining with worldly men to carry out unsanctified purposes is a fearful mistake that forfeits God's favor and blessing, whose friendship can afford to be lost, since Christ has all power in heaven and in earth and God has placed a wall of separation between the world and what He has established. Attempting such union brings moral ruin and leaves a person on the very brink of the precipice, as shown by Solomon's intellectual greatness combined with moral degradation going backward from weakness to weakness, and by the minister handling sacred things who continues in licentiousness while claiming purity, whose guilt is greater because of greater light unless there is deep humbling, repentance, faith, and genuine conversion. Harmful associations injure souls, lead to excusing sin by one another's example, dull conscience, produce indifference to religious experience, forbid indecision and neutrality, open the soul to temptation, and let Satan use a person to harm self and others, so the call is to choose sides, give God undivided affection and the whole heart, trust His keeping power through prayer and watchfulness, and be careful in forming friendships and choosing companions.

Separation and Promise

The verse commands coming out from among unbelievers, standing separate, and touching nothing unclean in every word and act, refusing close binding with those without faith because righteousness shares no life with unrighteousness and light shares none with darkness, with the same exclusion extended to Christ with Belial, believer with unbeliever, and God's temple with idols. Believers are the temple of the living God, in whom He dwells and walks, whose God He is and who are His people, and keeping this separation is the condition laid down for receiving His promises. Obedience requires turning to God with full purpose of heart, diligent repentance, crucifying self, being enlarged in heart rather than narrow and contracted in spiritual devising, closing the heart against sin and selfishness, surrendering body, soul, and spirit, following Christ's example, keeping His law without transgressing even one precept, honoring God rather than conforming to disloyal laws and customs, and keeping sacred the Sabbath of the fourth commandment brought to view in the third angel's message. Whoever enters the strait gate and travels the narrow path will find the cross with obstacles, tribulations, bruising of spirit, hard speeches, ridicule, and persecution from the world, Satan and his angels, transgressors of God's law, and earthly authorities, and unless united to Christ as the limpet to the rock the strong downward current will sweep them off their feet to be found with the rebellious at last.

Separation is the condition for being received by the Lord, who will then be a Father and make the obedient His sons and daughters, and its advantages are to be laid hold of as special blessings. The warning applies with greatest force at the present time, when far too many professed Christians are Christians in name only, with no root, hearts filled with pride, impurity, unholy ambition, self-importance and love of supremacy, holding intelligent theoretical knowledge able to prove doctrine sound and scriptural yet holding the truth in unrighteousness and denying the faith by course of action, with hearts unsanctified through the truth, unholy in heart and unchristlike in word and deportment, not possessing the truth as it is in Jesus. Obeying requires the Spirit and principles of Christ's life planted in the heart to control the life, cleansing of the soul temple from defilement, purity of heart and earnest effort to meet the standard of God's Word, God's law written in the heart, God's truth illuminating the soul, and holiness, mercy, truth and love brought into the life, without which there is no purification and no fitness to be companions of the pure and holy and to wear the white linen which is the righteousness of the saints. Thus only comes sanctification of the Spirit, with God dwelling and walking in His people as their God, receiving them as Father and making them His sons and daughters, which alone fits them for welcome into the city of God and a place in the royal family. The call is addressed to believers in Colorado to reach a higher standard and to a people in a Laodicean condition to open their eyes to discern spiritual things, and it is especially appropriate now because the Lord is soon to come and perilous times are ahead.

Having these promises, believers must cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfect holiness in the fear of God, by earnest work, seeking and encouraging right thoughts and pure and holy purposes because they do not come naturally, under the sanctification of the Holy Spirit as servants laboring together with God. Separation must be in spirit and in practice, in affections and conduct, keeping a clear distinction from the world, refusing to share its spirit, practices, or example, refusing to follow Baal or serve wealth as a god, because joining with the corrupt makes a person corrupt and mingling brings a share in its fate. This separation is a lifelong consecration shaping thoughts and actions through self-denial and self-sacrifice, requiring separation in affection, freedom from contamination, and escape from the corruption in the world through lust, and it grows more distinct as the end approaches. In place of the world the obedient receive adoption into God's family, the kingdom under the whole heavens, an eternal weight of glory, and a life as enduring as eternity, while profession alone does not make them God's children but humble, willing obedience marks those who receive grace and salvation with holy character distinct from the world's.

Separation does not require withdrawing from society, for believers are to live in the world without belonging to it, remaining to do good, honor God, associate with people to lead their thoughts to eternal things, direct attention to eternal things after Christ's example, witness for Christ, and seek to save unbelievers, while remaining firm in principle and reproving dishonesty. Choosing the company of those who cannot be led from sin makes believers one with them, and conforming does not help unbelievers see their need of saving grace, whereas a distinct, holy life representing Christ can influence them by showing a better way. Believers must not bind themselves in close fellowship that identifies them with unbelievers or unites them in plans or work, must not adopt unbelieving conduct, must not share sinful ways or the pollutions ruled by enslaved appetite, passions, and worldly interests in disobedience to God's laws, and should seek spiritually uplifting companionship. Those who live unchristian lives should be shown their wrongs and urged to reform, and if they do not change they should be separated from the faithful so that God may have a clean and pure people, since joining the clean and holy with the unclean dishonors God.

Christ and Satan, light and darkness, cannot rule together in a person, for each person must be wholly for one or the other, and in the heart selfishness can no more live where faith in Christ is exercised than light and darkness can exist together, with spiritual coldness, sloth, pride and cowardice alike shrinking from the presence of faith. Indulging self-indulgence, avarice, deception, fraud, or any sin gives place to Satan's principles in the soul and shuts the door of heaven, while God's law does not prevent salvation because people may overcome sin by using the light and opportunities God gives and showing the power of His grace. The call includes keeping the body, God's temple, free from defilement, cleansing from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfecting holiness in the fear of God as doers of the word, since there is no mystery in it: practiced truth ends licentiousness that destroys physical and mental powers, which one who loves God with heart, mind, soul, and strength cannot violate. The principle in 2 Corinthians 6:1-18 binds every soul who takes the Christian name as a worker together with God and His chosen representatives to an apostate world to reveal Christ's character in works and reach the exalted possibility of excellence in humanity, not receiving the grace of God in vain, to be acted on now for now is the accepted time and day of salvation, now ever the eternal now with no tomorrow belonging to us, and practicing the chapter's instructions in daily life is an encouragement and safeguard against errors warned of in the churches. Making self the whole center and circumference, grasping every advantage and drawing in everything within reach, is spiritual deception of heart, spirit, soul, flesh and bones where selfishness reigns and creates an atmosphere putting other souls in peril, and the yoke is broken by falling on the Rock and being broken, humbling the heart before God without delay, surrendering whole heart, soul, strength, and mind, undoing what was done wrong, and ceasing to put the Saviour to shame when Jesus offers blessing, with hope still remaining for the one who surrenders.

Marriage and Home

The verse is a New Testament prohibition forbidding a Christian to marry an ungodly person, matching the command that forbade ancient Israel to intermarry with idolatrous nations, and God gives no approval to unions He has expressly forbidden. It forbids a believer to be joined in marriage with an unbeliever, and applies with special force to marriage among friendships, companionships, and business unions that shape life and service to God. A believer who entered such a marriage before conversion must nevertheless remain faithful to the spouse while placing obedience to God above every earthly relationship.

An unbeliever is one who does not acknowledge Christ's claims, is not controlled by His Spirit, and has not accepted present truth, even if otherwise worthy in every respect, and to disregard this divine injunction brings peril to the soul. Evil associates mean more than the immoral and profane, for connection with one known to be irreligious is contrary to God's order. The prohibition applies even when the one without the fear of God and not seeking obedience is moral, intellectual, apparently refined, fashionable, wealthy, and however agreeable in society and entertaining in conversation, since irreligion alone forbids the partnership. However pure and correct the principles of the God-fearing partner, the society of such a companion influences to lead away from God, imperils moral and religious character, and cannot fail to draw the soul away and endanger adherence to right to avoid disagreeable consequences.

Believer and unbeliever differ radically in faith, purposes, loyalties, and moral inclinations, and cannot share the same spiritual direction, for love for Jesus cannot blend with love of self and sinful ways. Promises not to hinder the believer's religious life do not remove this conflict and may be broken, so obedience to God's clear direction is required rather than letting unsanctified desires govern. Believers may marry in the Lord, and when both seek God earnestly and no obstacle stands in the way, they may proceed in the fear of God.

Such a marriage can become a lifelong snare that draws heart and affections from God, puts the soul in constant peril, obstructs service to God, weakens faith, leads to sacrifice of principle, and brings untold sorrow and reproach on God's cause. It joins those devoted to God with those connected to the world, risks drawing believers and those under their influence away from Christ and into worldly habits and sin, gives to another the love belonging to the Creator, and is disastrous when grounded only in sensual desire. Marriages formed against this warning can deaden noble aims, leave people without hope and separated from God, entangle them in Satan's net, and bring bitter consequences even to loss of the soul, so obedience is necessary for those who hope to see Jesus, become like Him, and receive eternal life.

To make such a union is to place oneself on Satan's ground, giving him easy access and advantage to aim his shafts of temptation, while smooth pleasant words hide motives, hidden wickedness, and snares laid for the soul. While God moves upon the minds of His servants, Satan works through the children of disobedience, so the one unequally yoked grieves the Spirit of God and forfeits His protection, taking terrible odds in fighting the battle for everlasting life. An unbelieving spouse may draw thoughts from Jesus toward worldly pleasures, and one who respects not God's claims and pays no heed to religion cannot be expected to be faithful to the marriage law.

The hope of converting the unbeliever does not make the forbidden union safe, and Christians are to preserve distinct holy character rather than join with the ungodly in hopes of improving influence. Joining in hope of changing the other for the better can instead entrap believers, leading them to yield faith, sacrifice principle, and become separated from God, for one wrong step can lead to bondage they cannot break. Even those expecting beneficial influence are often entrapped and overcome.

Choosing hastily without wisdom and self-control can turn marriage into a galling yoke for a lifetime, destroy happiness in this life, and endanger hope of the life to come. The danger of giving affections to one who chooses the world rather than Jesus may be obscured by youthful romantic ideas, but the marriage vow carries weighty lasting responsibilities, and remaining unmarried is better than risking eternal life. Never putting the neck under a yoke that will gall for a lifetime requires being careful and particular, keeping influence where one is helpful and a blessing, doing God's work, and being true to self and to God, for His favor is worth more than life itself.

Marriage was instituted by God as a sacred ordinance and must never be entered in selfishness but only after solemn prayerful consideration with divine counsel to know harmony with His will and earnest desire to conform to Scripture, and Heaven looks with pleasure on marriage so formed. Before marrying the believer must ask whether the new relationship will prove a source of true happiness, help the Christian life, please God, and be a safe example for others to follow, because it affects whole future life, faith, happiness, and example. Obeying Christ in this lets His Spirit work and speak through believers so they are living epistles known and read of all men.

One who married while unconverted and afterward converts must not leave but remain faithful, kind, and true while acknowledging God's claims above every earthly relationship, serving with fidelity even amid inconvenience, trials, and persecutions for Christ and truth. Such loving, meek, persevering fidelity to truth and duty may have a sanctifying influence and help win the unbelieving spouse. To marry with the understanding that the other is an unbeliever breaks God's command even when the suit is urged and inclination pleads, and yielding gives Satan victory, with both parties in nine cases out of ten lost to Christ, binding life interest to one living in disregard of God's requirements and bringing bitterness and woe far into the future.

Marriage with an unbeliever breaches the barrier God set around the marriage relation, because righteousness cannot share fellowship with unrighteousness nor light with darkness. A person who gives up truth or the Sabbath to obtain a spouse puts self-gratification and personal impulse above God's Word, shows low appreciation of His law and of marriage, practices a lie to avoid detection, and cannot expect or claim God's blessing while disobeying, for His promises are conditional on obedience. God cannot bless or sanctify these unholy incompatible unions, and they can ruin souls, so integrity and living connection with God must be preserved even at cost of losing spouse or children.

Isaac's marriage to Rebekah, chosen with his father's guidance and refusal of a wife from heathen nations, is a tender happy contrast to unequal union. Abraham applied the same principle in determining Isaac should marry one of his own nation who loved and feared God. Disobedience fills hearts and homes with misery and makes a home where shadows are never lifted, for human love is not strong enough, pure enough, or precious enough to supply the place of the love of Jesus. A woman must give herself to Christ before giving herself to any earthly friend and enter no relation conflicting with belonging to Christ, and choosing against counsel lets uncontrolled passion govern and bring misery and bondage.

True happiness requires Heaven's blessing on all possessed and done, and only in the Saviour can a wife find wisdom, strength, and grace to meet life's cares, responsibilities, and sorrows. Christianity should guide and sanctify the marriage relation rather than inclination governing choice of godly joined to ungodly, lest the godly become like the depraved in spirit and conduct. A marriage alliance is safe only in Christ, human love forms its closest bonds from divine love, and deep true unselfish affection exists where Christ reigns. Turning from prayer meetings and religious duties to spend time with one who has no love for God puts religious experience at risk, and there is no reason to expect God to prosper that union.

Young men and women need knowledge to bestow affections rightly and not regard early marriage as wise when it joins believer to unbeliever, breaking separation between righteousness and unrighteousness and light and darkness. They should seek society of those sharing love for truth, purity, and goodness rather than close bonds with those who do not, and must be protected from sinful sights, sounds, and irreligious surroundings that draw away from faith. A household must not keep unbelievers living or visiting in it, but only those clean and holy whose influence is saving, putting away those who do not love God whose influence is deathly whatever sacrifice it costs, because God cannot come into a dwelling surrounded by unsaving company nor bless efforts to save children there.

Being yoked so as to be molded by an unbeliever's ways invites temptation, runs contrary to God's plain direction, and may bring severe chastening. Changing the heart is the work of the Holy Spirit alone, for no human friend however close can do His work. Parents who disregard counsel and remain governed by selfishness are at enmity with God, and their children absorb the same spirit and disregard sacred things, out of keeping with known truth.

Business and Institutional Work

The verse forbids entering business partnership with unbelievers, because even business connection involves principle. Believers and unbelievers serve opposing masters, and Satan works through his subjects to ensnare followers of Christ. Their principles differ not only in religion but in business, where what conscience forbids to one the other allows, and where one acts from selfish motives regardless of God's law or the faith of those connected with him. If the other sincerely loves God and truth there must be either sacrifice of principle or frequent and painful differences, with continual struggle to guard against yielding. Without daily experience in the things of God a man will likely choose an easy compromising course, while one who regards salvation of the soul as first will meet great difficulties.

To sacrifice the principles of faith in the slightest particular places a person on the enemy's ground, separates him from God, and causes failure of spiritual growth. To link up with unbelievers and lean upon them is folly bringing burden, trouble, and disappointment, and their opinions and judgment on sacred interests cannot be depended on even when favorable now. With the Bible open before them they live in open transgression of God's law and the enemy influences their minds, so in future crisis the union will bring God's people into extreme trial. The command therefore requires believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, being true to principle, keeping clear of speculation, following closely in Christ's steps, and pressing on in the way of eternal life. Repudiating sacred truth to gain a better showing brings a person into unequal warfare where the enemy is given a chance to overcome, and uniting with worldly men can endanger interest in the truth and weaken hold on God.

The danger appears especially where one partner professes to observe the Sabbath while the other with hired laborers carries on the firm's business on that day. The Sabbathkeeper cannot keep his thoughts from business matters even when doing no outward labor, because business concerns occupy the mind. He may be drawn into settling accounts and receiving or paying money, and by sharing the profits of Sabbath labor becomes a violator of the commandment who professes to keep the Sabbath but does not keep it. Such a one the Lord looks upon as a transgressor, and his gifts and sacrifices He will not accept. Because redemption was purchased at infinite cost and man has continual battle with his own heart and with the world, the flesh, and the devil seeking to come between him and God, the only safe course is to obey the injunction and come out and be separate.

God's ordained instrumentalities — institutions for health, colleges, publishing houses — must not be united with unbelievers or come down to the world's ideas, opinions, and suggestions. Believers must not join in ways that expose them to unbelieving influence or entangle God's work with people who have no part in it and no sympathy with those who love His truth. They are not to bind themselves in partnership with those who have no faith in the truth, nor give people known to transgress God's law a role in counseling institutions established to proclaim the last message of mercy. They must fear to unite or bind up in bundles with unbelievers and fear to communicate the works connected with the Lord's cause to those who have no part with God. This distinctness also forbids property relationships or arrangements that compromise distinct religious life, such as leaving a Sabbath-keeping community dependent on unbelievers who might restrict or inconvenience it, or seeking education at worldly institutions in a way that acknowledges unbelievers have greater power or influence than God's people.

Those doing God's work must not form alliances with unbelievers or follow their counsel and plans. Those who do not know God and disregard His law lack spiritual discernment about the work, and accepting their suggestions weakens God's instruments and sets Christ's counsel aside. Such alliances dishonor God, and trust in people who disregard the Lord is unsafe, while relying less on their help or example reduces disappointment and supports faithfulness. God's work must follow orders from above, not advice of those who do not understand it, and one must remain in the channel of light rather than join in close work with people drawing others away from God. Such ties can lead a person from wholehearted service for Christ, expose weakness, and bring spiritual harm.

The warning also forbids forming a closed faction of like-minded people who approve one another's plans while excluding others from important councils. It forbids yoking as a true yoke-fellow with men who do wrong, carry things with a high hand, seek to control everything, and hold councils from which others are crowded out and kept in ignorance. Joining in a religious or institutional venture with people whose course opposes correction is an unsafe and unholy bond that can shield wrongdoing from needed reproof. Such a bond leads to rebellion and disorder and ends in departure from the faith and loss of the soul, and cannot have God's approval. One who joins such men instead of standing free in God and bravely opposing wrong shares responsibility for the wrong course he could have changed.

Health work requires great guardedness and watchfulness in staffing. Where evil influence begins there must be reformation by removing workers of any position or education who are not rooted and grounded in the truth, and by securing the proper religious element to teach right methods of treatment. Where an unconverted element is present, experienced Christians must be especially circumspect. There must be no union between physicians who entertain destructive theories and ministers who bear the gospel message while those theories are still held, for the power of Christ and the power of Satan are at war, utterly antagonistic, and between them there can be no connection until a change takes place. The Lord cannot work in partnership with a man who has leagued himself with the great deceiver and keeps on in satanic devising without repentance, conversion, and cleansing.

As long as such a medical missionary worker remains confused, unrooted in truth, defiled in soul temple, and refuses Christ's outstretched helping hand to choose his own course, God cannot join with him in the sacred work. His influence spoils the people of God and keeps the work from going in sacred, pure, beautiful lines, so his influence must either be cleansed from human devising under satanic agencies or he must take himself away or God must take him away. A real break with Satan will be openly known and not hidden.

Believers must separate from worldly influences that lead them to judge by the world's standards rather than God's, lest mixing with the world distort moral judgment to call evil good and truth falsehood. In doing the service of God no one is to become linked in friendship, companionship, and counsel with men who are not led by Christ and who have closed the door of their hearts against Jesus. Such yoking binds the soul under Satan's yoke and banner, merges individuality in misled men, causes hearing with their ears and seeing with their eyes and following their judgment, blinds discernment of the prince of darkness working through them, and holds decisions captive without power to break the spell. It puts a person out of place, brings terrible weight on the soul, leads in false paths where Christ has not led, mingles common fire with the sacred, and places on God's work a mold that is not God's inscription. Through threads of association Satan attaches himself to control the imaginings, finds entrance to tempt, weakens perception, and gains advantage to make of none effect anything brethren say or do not in harmony with one's own ideas.

It requires severing the last thread of unholy bonds and confederacy with worldlings who have no love for the truth, being far less communicative with them and no longer telling them plans and ideas, and instead being open and confiding with those seeking to obey the truth. Sharing with unbelievers information that should not be disclosed can corrupt Bible doctrines, weaken confidence in the truth, and sap spiritual vitality. If the believer cannot lift associates into a pure and holy atmosphere, they will drag him down, becloud discernment, bewilder the senses, and lead to reliance on human propositions. Obedience requires full dependence on God's actual presence and agency, refusing confidence in men, refusing to make flesh an arm, refusing to let their principles be woven into God's work.

One bought with a price, whose time, talents, and every jot of influence belong to the Lord as His servant to do His bidding and learn daily of Him, must not set up in business for himself and must not join with unbelievers in medical work or link up with the world. Refusal to yield to such linking opens the way to receive the grace of Christ the great Medical Missionary and His divine wisdom. Instead he is to wear the yoke of Christ, work in connection with believing physicians, and stand shoulder to shoulder with brethren in meekness and lowliness.

Believers must stand firmly for truth and righteousness and must not give overflowing sympathy and influence to worldlings to carry out their suggestions to weaken and do injustice to God's chosen ones, for God has pronounced His curse upon all such unions. The result of such uniting is that unbelievers are given the confidence that belongs only to those who love and revere God. The prohibition does not forbid working with Christ to transform the children of darkness by showing them the Lamb of God who takes away sin. True strength is not in numbers gained by union with the world but in perfect trust and complete unity with Christ.

What is sacred to God must not be blended with what is common or opposed to Him. The sanctuary dedicated to worship should be kept separate from school and business uses so its sacred character is clear, for Christ and God's temple have no concord with Belial and idols. God's medical work must stand as a peculiar institution governed and controlled by the Bible standard, not copying other institutions in practices or moral standing. It forbids uniting in closer harmony with the world to receive worldly patronage, and requires greater and more distinct separation where Jesus presides. To come out and be separate means touching not the unclean and in no wise partaking of sin, aiming to reach the high, pure, noble, elevated standard erected by the Lord Jesus Christ, so that the world in practices, ways, and manners has no attraction to entice from duty.

God's people must remain separate and distinct from worldly principles and must not compromise identity by presenting their work as one with worldly institutions or popular churches, for Christian unity is not conformity to the world. Fellowship with the world and its spirit separates people from God, and His sacred work cannot be joined with worldly policy or led by world-loving people unless they are converted. They are to remain distinct in principle, united with the Father and Christ, and obedient to every requirement of God's Word regardless of consequences. Serving Him may bring reproach, while seeking the world's esteem, honor, applause, and profit leaves no part in Him.

Keeping separate includes honoring the Sabbath rather than belittling it to link with unbelievers. It forbids recommending success by acknowledging the education the world gives as essential, for that declares the influence the world gives superior to the influence God gives and dishonors God. It forbids departing from principles of faith so as to make conformity to the world appear not wrong, and heeding the counsel of any man whatever his position who works against what God has done to keep His people separate. Keeping this separation belongs with giving God's decided message of warning for the world just as Noah gave God's message for the antediluvians, and departing from the old landmarks and denying the faith by words to carry out human plans violates it.

Politics and Worldly Confederacies

The verse forbids joining interests with unbelievers or the world, and this requires leaving political questions alone and having no union between worldly parties and those seeking Christ's righteousness. It forbids binding to political attachments and taking part in political strife, because the loyal and the disloyal, the believer and the infidel, have no common ground for working together, and their elements of light and darkness, Christ and Belial, will not mingle. The same separation keeps political ideas that cause contention and disorder out of the church and school, and keeps Christian influence from being joined to politics or bound up in confederacy with unbelievers, with God as the center and every mind worked by the Holy Spirit satisfied with Him. Willing obedience to the commandments shows allegiance to God as His chosen people zealous for good works, while the Christian life is to be steady for the appointed work rather than haphazard and emotional.

The prohibition covers secret societies and groups bound by oaths and penalties, and every yoke-binding alliance, combination, and close connection where those who have no love for God and for the truth gain undue or prevailing influence. Such secret cords God and heaven never devised must be broken, unbelievers must not be let into secrets, and mere knowledge of truth has no saving value unless practiced in this separation. Uniting in this way does not make a person Christlike, humble, holy, pure and undefiled, but after a time makes him of the same mind and spirit as his associates, which is the ruin of thousands, while believers remain in the world without becoming part of it so distinct conduct serves as faithful witness in habits, pleasures, fashions and amusements.

Helping the sick, clothing the naked, and aiding the needy is to be done through God's own appointed agencies in the name of Jesus Christ, without subservience to worldly societies of worldly character and without giving the world advantage. God's people are to be distinct from all worldly confederacy, well organized as one and united under the yoke of Christ alone by the living oracles of truth, taking only Christ's yoke.

Believers must in no case link up, make a league, or form a confederacy with the world or with men who do not walk in the light of the commandments and do not respect and honor present truth, but must sever unholy bonds and put away impious ambition for alliance with the world. Truth sanctifies the receiver and acts as a separating power, so the obedient and disobedient cannot yoke together, and close alliance lays a snare, puts a person on the enemy's side, strengthens enemies of truth, makes hard work for faithful workers, and leads the joined to act as unbelievers dishonoring their profession. Safety is to seek closer connection with God, heed His word in counsels, reproofs and promises, speak truth just as it is in the Word on all occasions with clearness and purity, declare the whole counsel for this period of earth's history, and refuse from fear of displeasure or offense to withhold required obedience or to depend on men's opinions however educated or highly placed. This requires refusing transgressors of the law a place as counselors in institutions established to proclaim the last message of mercy, refusing to let ambitious projects take the throne, keeping sanitariums under men controlled by the Holy Spirit who carry out God's plans, standing as a distinct peculiar people free from worldly policy, and revealing with unmistakable clearness the line between commandment-keepers and commandment-breakers in view of what is coming.

Servants of the living God and servants of Satan must be as distinct as light from darkness, with righteousness and truth never joined in partnership with unrighteousness and error. Men in responsibility must not deviate from Bible principles, must not bring worldly policy into God's work nor present their work as one with worldly institutions or popular churches, for Christian unity is not conformity to the world. Complete separation from God's enemies requires refusing to be guided by those who long knew present truth without yielding to its claims, refusing to conform to the world to gain influence, and standing firm for truth in all places, which forms the character of laborers together with God and keeps the church built on Christ alone without worthless material that fails in trial.

Church festivities that unite Christians with worldlings to support expenses are an unjustified union of righteousness with unrighteousness and light with darkness, even when presented as religious, and God's word does not justify them. The same call to come out, be separate, and touch nothing unclean forbids accompanying daughters to the theater and all joining to unbelief and its ways, as part of turning from sin and following Christ as God's temple in whom He dwells, walks, receives, and is Father to His sons, daughters and people. Obedience calls followers to separate from worldly amusements, entertainments, and musical association with worldlings as if harmless, because they offer no presence of Jesus or heavenly-minded influence for growth in grace, but are dangerous ground where Satan works smoothly to gain control, make members lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, and overcome divine vitality with which doing right is connected in the conflict of right and wrong since Adam yielded. Good and evil never harmonize and admit no compromise, for light is truth revealed and darkness is error, and truth will at last triumph when God vanquishes the enemy, with safety assured only to soldiers who work and sleep with armor on.

The verse contains the higher education, higher than worldly learning and than what was given to the early disciples through chosen messengers, with nothing in education so exalted as the instruction in 2 Corinthians 6. Those laboring in schools and sanitariums must not get in line with the world, study what the world studies, or become familiar with what the world becomes familiar with, and thinking they must do so is one of the greatest mistakes. Students must study diligently to comprehend it, advance just as far as the Word takes them, work intelligently for this higher education by searching the Word, and let the Word guide work and understanding of God's will, with righteousness as the sign of understanding His will committed through His messengers and the Holy Spirit impressing minds with that truth. Applied to children, parents must protect and educate them to recognize and escape the world's corruptions rather than be exposed to influences drawing them from God.

Love for God and obedience to His commandments draws followers to Christ and away from worldly elements, and cannot be joined with love for worldly pleasures, friendship, indulgences, degrading pleasures and low conversation, just as Christ has no concord with Belial. Close fellowship and company with people not connected with God, without fear of God or light of truth, weakens moral power and strength, draws toward their ways and spirit, while truth fixes the mind on God and eternal realities and takes away taste for such things.

Believers and unbelievers are governed by opposing influences under different masters, opposed in purposes, hopes, tastes and desires, and cannot be joined in spiritual harmony, so attempts to blend contrary principles fail. Voluntarily giving the worldly and unconsecrated influence, leadership or preeminence draws God's people away from Him and does not make sinners saints; instead the unsanctified influence gradually pushes spiritual influence aside, because those without love for sacred things do not delight in spiritual and righteous themes.

Those who keep the commandments must live separated from the disobedient and must not let those in darkness lead them from truth nor trade loyalty for friendship with the world, even when separation provokes opposition, surprise and hostility from haters of the precepts. Believers are the Lord's chosen denominated people whom truth has brought out from the world as Seventh-day Adventists, and the special distinction and line of demarcation between those who serve God and those who serve Him not must ever remain as great as between light and darkness. To deny that distinct standing and act as if there should be no distinction is to deny the faith and be left to the result of that choice, while taking the position as the temple of the Holy Ghost with Christ abiding within reveals Him in spirit, words and actions in unmistakable distinction from Satan's followers, yet still invites all to come in for help, healing and good works that glorify the Father.

History and Last-Day Urgency

Solomon's marriages to heathen wives and his political alliances with pagan kingdoms violated the express command not to unite or connect with unbelievers and those acting in opposition to God. He took wives from idolatrous nations in thirst for political power, thinking his wisdom and strength could keep his religion pure and convert them to the true God. Instead of winning them to truth he let pagan beliefs enter his religion, built altars for their idols, and was turned from God. Union with idolaters perverted his faith, marred and blunted his conscience, led his finite judgment far astray, destroyed the power and purity of true religion in him, supported idolatrous immoral worship, and cut his connection with God until intellectual greatness was combined with moral degradation and a life of promise ended in deterioration from weakness to weakness.
Even when such union is expected to exert beneficial influence over those in the wrong, those who enter it are too often entrapped and overcome, yielding sacred faith, sacrificing principle, separating themselves from God, and taking one false step that places them where they cannot hope to break the chains that bind them.

Israel was separated as God's people and forbidden to mingle and intermarry with idolaters as a wise barrier for safety, yet mingled with them in worship and pleasure until sharing their spirit and interests. Choosing the company of the ungodly exposes to temptation, for as familiarity with sin grows people become more like the world and less able to see its harm. Christians likewise yield to worldly influence and conform to its customs to gain ungodly friendship, and such friendship can draw them into sin, separate them from God, and leave them vulnerable to those who turn against them and seek their destruction.

Unions grounded only in sensual desire repeat the error of the antediluvians, whose unions opened the way to sin, and the danger against which Israel was commanded to remain a separate people. Believers should not enter marriage or another intimate alliance with people who do not respect and obey God's commandments, for such a bond joins those devoted to God with those connected to the world, gives to another person the love that belongs to the Creator, and risks drawing believers into worldly habits and sin. Godly and ungodly people should not be joined simply because inclination governs choice in disregard of counsel from God and His glory, lest the godly become like the depraved in spirit and conduct, for Christianity should guide and sanctify the marriage relation while uncontrolled passion lies at the foundation of many marriages.

When Christians joined with people only half converted or only partly turned from paganism, they entered a path that led farther from the truth by accepting Jesus outwardly while rejecting the need for repentance and a changed heart. These apostate Christians later joined their pagan companions in persecuting those who remained faithful to God and in opposing essential doctrines and teachings of Christ.
When an apostate church refuses to abandon falsehood and idolatry, separation from it is necessary to obey God, for peace and unity must not be bought by sacrificing or compromising truth and righteousness, and when unity requires that sacrifice separation and even conflict are preferable.
In Luther's time also, followers mingled with the sons of Belial were to become by divine truth a distinct holy people separated from unbelievers and the world.

Taking the spirit of the world into the church fast leavens it, is falling away after the same path as ancient Israel from a holy calling, has no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness and no concord with unbelievers, and provokes the Lord's displeasure. Neglect to follow the light leaves His people not knowing the things that belong to their peace until they are hid from their eyes, placing them in a more unfavorable position than the Jews upon whom Christ pronounced a woe.
The command to separate in spirit and practice from the world and touch not the unclean is especially appropriate now because the Lord is soon to come and perilous times are ahead, requiring earnest work to cleanse from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness in the fear of God by seeking and encouraging right thoughts and pure and holy purposes because they do not come naturally.
It is a most solemn message for this time to come out from among unbelievers and be separate, calling faithful men and women to be in the world but not of the world as true witnesses showing by modesty in apparel and by Christlike words and actions that they are sons and daughters of the heavenly King, wearing the pilgrim's dress and manifesting the pilgrim's spirit in a good confession.
In the closing scenes of earth's history, as the time of trouble such as never was is about to come and Satan works with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, the prohibition against connecting with unbelievers is especially urgent, the fewer marriages contracted the better for all, and above all marriage with unbelievers must be avoided, with feelings, impulses, and affections flowing heavenward not earthward in sensual thought and indulgence, for every soul must stand as in the sight of the heart-searching God.

Those in the present Laodicean spiritual condition must open their eyes to discern spiritual things by refusing to be unequally yoked, having no fellowship of righteousness with unrighteousness, no communion of light with darkness, no concord of Christ with Belial, no part of a believer with an infidel, and no agreement of the temple of God with idols, because believers are the temple of the living God in whom He dwells and walks as their God, and therefore they must come out and be separate and touch not the unclean with the promise that the Lord Almighty will receive them and be a Father to them as His sons and daughters, and having these promises must cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
When truth in its simplicity and strength prevails among believers and is brought to bear against the spirit of the world, the separation with no concord between Christ and Belial and no fellowship between believers and the spirit of the world becomes evident.
Disciples must then be living examples of the life and spirit of their Master, holding every precious gift by strength from God, with fervent and effectual prayer regarded in heaven, and when servants take the shield of faith for defense and the sword of the Spirit for war there is danger in the enemy's camp, while persecution and reproach wait to be called into action against those endowed with power from on high; and fellowship with unbelievers incompatible with loyalty to God calls for separation from their company when they have no love for God's truth, since spending much time with them and joining their conversation fails to meet God's conditions for His children and does not glorify Jesus.

Loving God and keeping His commandments, especially the first four which require supreme love to God with all the heart, soul, and mind, draws those chosen out of the world to Himself and separates them from the world and from the elements of the world, far from loving the world's pleasures and friendship. Whatever divides the affections and takes away supreme love to God becomes an idol that separates the soul from God, and though carnal hearts cling to idols and try to carry them along, there can be no advance until they are sacrificed and put away, for Christ and Belial have nothing in common and those drawn by the spirit of the commandments trust in Him alone and press on in obedience without fear.
All copartnership between the children of God and the world and all unholy bonds of union of believers with unbelievers and friends of the world are forbidden, and believers must stand firmly for truth and righteousness and must not give overflowing sympathy and influence to worldlings to carry out their suggestions to weaken and do injustice to God's chosen ones, for a curse is pronounced upon all such unions which give unbelievers the confidence belonging only to those who love and revere God; yet this does not forbid working with Christ to transform the children of darkness by showing them the Lamb of God who takes away sin, for true strength is not in numbers gained by union with the world but in perfect trust and complete unity with Christ.
Close binding unions of confidence and brotherhood must not be entered with people who reject God's truth and authority or with those who do not fear God, because the faithful and the worldly differ in thoughts and loyalties concerning God, truth, and eternity and cannot share true unity of purpose or action, and such associations can divert from serving the Maker and place even those blessed with earthly means or influence in temptation to forget God, so prayer for protection must be joined with avoiding temptation where possible and obeying God's word that His strength and defense may remain.

Light has no union with darkness and separation from the world's spirit and friendship is necessary for union with the Lord and life in Him, from which connection come strength and prosperity, and God's people are to be distinct holy examples whose response to received light enlightens, convicts, or condemns others. Light discovers and manifests the evil hidden under darkness and tests works, so in a degenerate age when error and darkness are preferred rather than light and truth, the works of many professed followers will not bear the test when examined by the light now shining, and many do not come to the light lest it be made manifest that their works are not wrought in God; light neglected or rejected will itself judge and condemn, and guilt is measured by truth not followed.
A person cannot claim harmony with God's work while holding visions that contradict the Spirit of God, for light and darkness and believers and unbelievers have no true fellowship, and mixing truth with falsehood makes truth ineffective and leads away from God, so false visions must be renounced.