2 Corinthians 6:14

Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? Or what communion hath light with darkness?

This apostolic order has at least two anchors in what Paul had just written: (1) He had just warned them against receiving the grace of God "in vain" (2 Corinthians 6:1); and (2) he had just touched upon a truth which undoubtedly had superlative impact upon his emotions, that being the loss of love for Paul on the part of the Corinthians. It was the encroachment of paganism against the holy faith which was the ground of the warning in 2 Corinthians 6:1 and the cause of the defection mentioned in 2 Corinthians 6:11-13; and it was directly in response to both of these that the scathing attack on paganism was delivered. Scholars who see some unreasonable break here and start prattling about "interpolations" have just failed to read the sacred text.

UNEQUALLY YOKED

Unequally yoked with unbelievers ... This meant that no Christian had any business making alliances of any kind with pagans; and yes, that certainly includes marriage. Why should any Christian wife accept a pagan for a husband? This writer has known many who did it to their sorrow; but it was never anything but a sin. Paul was not here discussing the situation where one of a pagan couple had obeyed the gospel and the other had not; he had already dealt with that. Here he was laying down a rule that forbade such alliances in the first place. Furthermore, there is nothing here that limits the application to marriage. Any close alliance with a pagan partner in business, recreation, marriage, or any other kind of union can mean nothing but disaster for the Christian.

Illustration: Two men went in business together; one had the money, and the other had the experience. After about a year, the one who had the experience had the money, and the one who had had the money had the experience!

With a little distortion, the above is a good example of every partnership with a pagan. And, as for the question of whether or not there are any pagans today, the answer must be that there are many whose morals and ideals are as pagan as those of the days of Aphrodite Pandemos.

What fellowship ... what communion ...? Christianity and paganism are antithetical, as diverse as righteousness and wickedness, or light and darkness.