Unequally Yoked

 In 2 Corinthians 6:14, Paul commands: 

“Do not be bound together with unbelievers. For what partnership does right have with wrong? What fellowship does light have with darkness?” 

Paul reminds Christians that they are “a temple of the living God,” and concludes, “Let us purify ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit.”

Although Paul nowhere uses the word “marriage” in this passage, it is commonly applied to marriage because of the context, the biblical usage of “yoke,” and Paul’s marriage teaching elsewhere.

First, the imagery comes from animals being joined under one yoke to pull together. In Deuteronomy 22:10, God commands Israel: “You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.” That is not because donkeys are useless let alone evil, but simply because two unequal creatures joined in one harness cannot pull properly together. Marriage is one of the clearest examples of such a binding yoke. Genesis 2:24 says: “They shall become one flesh.” In Matthew 19:6, Jesus repeats this and adds: “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

Second, in 2 Corinthians 6, Paul asks about “partnership,” “fellowship,” and “agreement.” He applies the principle of unequal partnership to the believer and the unbeliever, who do not walk in the same obedience of faith. Marriage is certainly a partnership and fellowship. So if Paul warns Christians not to enter binding spiritual partnerships with unbelievers, marriage cannot be excluded from  the passage.

Third, Paul gives a similar rule in 1 Corinthians 7:39 when he says that a widow is free to remarry, but “only in the lord.” That means a Christian’s marriage choice should remain within loyalty to the lord Messiah Jesus. 

While it is right to say that 2 Corinthians 6 can be used to exhort Christians to marry within the biblical, New Testament faith, that does not mean Christians may never speak with, work with, or love their unbelieving neighbors. For example, earlier in 1 Corinthians 7:12–16, Paul says that if a Christian is already married to an unbeliever, and the unbeliever is willing to live with the believer, the believer should not leave. That means Paul is not saying, “Run away from every unbeliever.” He is warning against voluntarily entering a binding unequal yoke. After all, he adds that we would have to “go out of the world” to avoid all such contact (1 Cor. 5:10). The issue, then, is the “yoke” of marriage as a binding arrangement in which two lives must pull in the same direction. This is the most obvious case because marriage joins worship, monogamy, money, home life, children, and, of course, one’s religious priorities.

Yet reality shows that mix marriages are certainly common. A recent 2023–24 Pew study found that 26% of married U.S. adults have a spouse with a different religious identity, including Christians. Earlier data also found that among people married since 2010, 39% had a spouse from a different religious group. But the existence of mix marriages does not prove that they produce better parents, more fulfilling spouses, or more successful professionals. In fact, the data does not support the claim that religiously mixed marriages strengthen Christian foundations. Couples in mixed marriages tend to be less religious than those married within the same faith. Other research links religious service attendance with stronger marital bonds, happiness, stability, and lower divorce or separation risk in some cases.

But even if a mixed marriage is loving, educated, financially stable, and raises well-adjusted children, that still does not answer Paul’s question: “What partnership does right have with wrong? What fellowship does light have with darkness?” 

The world may measure success by careers, income, and well-adjusted children. In contrast, the New Testament measures Christians by their obedience to the faith.