Today's Scripture Reading (May 6, 2024): 2 Corinthians 6
A few years ago,
I had the privilege of attending a denominational World Youth Congress. Teens
and their sponsors from all over the planet gathered for a week of concerts,
worship, and service projects ministering to the city (this World Youth
Congress was held in Toronto, Canada). The event drew the local news media,
which provided occasional updates from the conference. But it was one of the
paper reporters who launched an attack on the conference. According to this
reporter, the conference had a more profound, possibly darker purpose than just
a moment for teens from all over the world to get together and have fun.
According to the newspaper, the gathering was important because this is where
these kids found their future spouses. Events like this one gathered the dating
pool for these kids who were forbidden to marry outside of their faith.
The report
came as a surprise, sending the leadership into a spiral of activity as they
tried to counter it. It also sparked several discussions on how to address the
issue with the thousands of kids attending the conference. The whole report was
wrong, and where they had gotten the idea was a bit of a mystery. Did kids meet
someone of the opposite sex and begin a dating relationship at the conference?
Sure. But that happens whenever teens come together. The denomination held no
restrictions on marriage, and the dating life of the teens was not even a minor
purpose of the gathering.
This verse
has been used in restricting Christian marriage. Some interpret this verse as
Paul's warning about believers dating unbelievers and that a marriage between
someone of the faith and someone outside of the faith has the potential to
cause damage to the Christian. So, don't be unequally yoked. And understand
this when you are dating; don't wait for the relationship to get serious before
considering whether you are unequally yoked.
However, that
is not really what Paul is getting at. Paul isn't limiting this to one segment
of relationships but all relationships. Not only is dating not the focus of
this passage, but the idea of being yoked to unbelievers in our business
relationships might be more critical because it is there that we might be most
tempted to go against our established character. Our focus must be on Jesus,
and sometimes that focus is impossible when we are unequally yoked.
So, Paul
stresses to his readers that they shouldn't be unequally yoked with anyone
because, without Jesus, the relationship is doomed to struggle. As Solomon said
in Ecclesiastes, "A cord of
three strands is not quickly broken" (Ecclesiastes 4:12).
Tomorrow's
Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 7
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