Long ago, the Lord forbade Israel to yoke two different animals together, such as an ox and a mule (Dt.22: 10). It was cruel to do so, for the weaker animal would work too hard, trying to keep up with the stronger animal. Neither would there have been any escape from the abusive treatment, the weaker animal being yoked to the stronger. Using this analogy, Paul told the saints not to be "unequally yoked" with unbelievers.

It is wrong for saints to be "yoked together" to unbelievers, for the unbeliever (the weaker) is forced into a spiritual pace he cannot maintain. He cannot possibly serve God "in spirit and in truth" as the believer can. Jesus described his disciples as, "not of the world, even as I am not of the world." Those who love Jesus have hearts which are spiritually inclined. Unbelievers, on the other hand, are "of the world", that is, they are motivated by worldly interests. Everything they do, even the apparently good things, is tainted by self-interest. For good reasons, God insists that His people not be yoked to unbelievers, especially in religion and marriage.

Obviously, we must associate to some extent with sinners, because that is what this world is made of. The only way to avoid all contact with the wicked is, as Paul noted, "to go out of the world". But we can, and must, avoid all unnecessary and binding associations, because the nature of the world and all who belong to it is contrary to the nature of God and His people.

The problem is not so much that the unbeliever intends to drive the believer away from God. In fact, many times sinners prefer believing mates. The problem is that the sinner's deadness to the things of God will, in time, adversely affect the saint who lives with it, day in and day out. "Be not deceived", wrote Paul, "Evil company corrupts good manners." For a sinner and saint to live together, a compromise must occur, and since a carnal mind cannot be subject to God (Rom.8: 7), the compromise must always be on the believer's part. God warned His unheeding children in the Old Covenant, "thy daughter shalt thou not give unto [the unbeliever's] son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me..." (Dt.7:3-4). Jehovah was never more in earnest than when he pleaded, "Give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons.... Make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. It will surely be a snare unto thee" (Ezra 9:12; Ex.23:32-33).

Ungodly marriages of "the sons of God" and "the daughters of men" (that is, between the righteous and the unrighteous) caused such an increase in wickedness that God angrily destroyed the ancient world with a catastrophic flood. Later, we hear Samson's godly parents pleading with him to marry one of the virgins in Israel, but he lusted for voluptuous Philistine women, until, at last, his enemies found him sleeping on Delilah's lap. Not heeding God's counsel, wise Solomon married ungodly women, who influenced him to turn away from God when he was old, and "Solomon [worshipped] Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites" (1Kgs. 11:5). Thus we learn, as Solomon in his better days preached in Jerusalem, "There is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel, against the Lord" (Prov.21:30).

Israel's constant attraction to foreign ways of worship, and her self-willed marriages to Gentiles resulted in untold suffering and heartache. When the judgments of God seemed unbearable in the days after Cyrus, King of Persia ordered the temple rebuilt in Jerusalem, one of Ezra's fellow workers, Shechamiah, confessed, "We have trespassed against our God, and have taken strange [unconverted] wives of the people of the land; yet, now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Now, therefore, let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them" (Ezra 10:2,3). What an uproar among the people it would cause today, as it did in Ezra's time, if a man were sent from God to denounce the ungodly marriages of saints and sinners as Ezra did! This, as we know, would be no easy task, "neither is this a work of one day or two, for we are many that have transgressed in this thing" (Ezra 10:13). Yet, it had to be done then! And the Scriptures suggest that the body of Christ will experience a similar purging before the return of the Lord Jesus (Mt.13:40-42).

At that time, it was discovered that "the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass." When we grasp the magnitude of this problem and see that the leaders of God's people are most guilty in this transgression, we can readily understand why so little is said about it anywhere. The hands of ministers in the body of Christ are covered with the blood of fallen saints, fallen because of the effect that their ungodly marriages have had upon their lives - marriages solemnly performed by ministers. I wonder how many more of our young Spirit-filled women will be sacrificed to the lust of unbelieving men before the congregation is stirred to demand an answer from our overseers? And how many more of our young men will be allowed to trade their fire and faith for the pleasures which worldly wives offer, before we cry aloud to God, as the repentant Israelites cried to Ezra for help (Ezra 10:14)? How long will it be before we are moved by the terror of the Lord, as Israel was moved, to demand that the man of God stand in the gap and denounce such marriages, rather than perform them? How many broken hearts and ruined lives are acceptable? There will be an accounting for the marital disasters to which ministers are lending their hand, and an accounting now to the saints is better than to wait for the reckoning at the judgment seat of Christ.

From Genesis to Revelation, marriages of believers with unbelievers are forbidden. This is one doctrine which should be agreed upon by everyone in the body of Christ, regardless of any other doctrinal consideration. So, my young saint, do not yoke yourself in marriage to anyone who has not been born into the family of God. No words can express the grief of those who have rebelliously joined themselves to one who has no heart for Christ. Their stories (and they are many) are heartbreaking. Please, my dear friend in Christ, do not marry out of the divine order. How can two hostile spirits work together in the same yoke? If your spouse's objective is carnal and yours is spiritual, what will the outcome be? Oh, how many precious brothers and sisters are defeated and confused because of worldly entanglements, marriage being one of the chief. Their pathetic and despairing spiritual condition gives somber testimony to the veracity of the Word of God. "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them members of an harlot? God forbid."

You are, as the Scriptures make clear, free to marry whom you will, but "only in the Lord" (1Cor.7:39). Every young believer should be taught that their marriage is to be connected through the cross of Christ. That is the key to God's blessing. It is the way in which God unites a man and woman physically, mentally, and spiritually. A marriage thus formed is unbreakable. Jesus spoke of such a marriage when he said, "What therefore GOD hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mk.10:9). It is easy to find a minister for hire who will say that God approves of your marriage, but that does not make it so. Outside of the will of God, marriage ceremonies are as vain as all the other works of sinful men.

Paul wrote, "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier" (2Tim.2:4). This is sound advice. The battle is on. The hour is come. The powers of darkness are leagued together in secret conspiracy against us, as we proclaim the unpopular truth that God's people should only marry within the body of Christ. What will you do about it, my friend? Will you be equally in earnest about this truth? Will you speak out? Will you give yourself wholly to the Word of God, to establish His truth in the body of Christ? Somewhere, there is even now a young saint in need of God's light. How much does their future mean to you?