Does the term unequally yoked apply only to unbelievers?

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Alvertsky

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This is SO true and really good advice. Sounds like a dream relationship. On the flipside, I'd like a person to have SOME different interests/hobbies from mine and things that I don't really care about. I have things people don't care about and that gives me time to do those things. I like to be left alone sometimes. I need *my* time. lol
Are you looking for one of the other 2 million anabaptist males in the world, or are any of the other 3.5 or so billion males eligible?

You might also try and figure out how many anabaptist males live near you and are in your age bracket, and are unmarried and looking because it is a miniscule number which makes failure likely
 
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DuckieLady

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Are you looking for one of the other 2 million anabaptist males in the world, or are any of the other 3.5 or so billion males eligible?

You might also try and figure out how many anabaptist males live near you and are in your age bracket, and are unmarried and looking because it is a miniscule number which makes failure likely

lol It probably would be a fruitless endeavor, wouldn't it? I am with the others here in that as long as you can make it work the denomination doesn't matter for the most part. We are all part of the body of Christ and no two people will always agree on every detail anyway.

Fortunately, no. Not at my age. I am not looking for anyone. Not interested in doing that.
 

Alvertsky

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lol It probably would be a fruitless endeavor, wouldn't it? I am with the others here in that as long as you can make it work the denomination doesn't matter for the most part. We are all part of the body of Christ and no two people will always agree on every detail anyway.

Fortunately, no. Not at my age. I am not looking for anyone. Not interested in doing that.
But why would you deprive the person who is looking for and needs you. Happiness is radically infectious and needs to be spread
 

Nancy

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Just as a matter of advice, I would suggest all women who are prayerfully looking for a husband, and dating ...to have a lot of open discussions. Is he comfortable and freely able to discuss topics that are deeply important? Do you share the same convictions on faith, how to run a home, raising children, approaching health and even childbirth, finances, or even politics? Do you share similar interests? If you enjoy gardening, how does he feel about having a garden? Is he against it? Is he supportive? To what degree is he supportive ...would he just let you have a garden and taken no interest in sharing on that endeavor with you? This may seem trivial ...but in reality, it isn't. Husbands and wives should be walking in the same direction, sharing the same goals ...and if he's a workaholic who just comes home and watches some TV, eats supper, says a few words, then goes to bed ....he may be a believer, and even share a few Biblical discussions ....but your heart may be geared more toward having a more unified relationship, communicate more, do things together that will move you both toward a shared goal. A marriage like that isn't a very happy one...it can be good at times, but it doesn't flow well. It's a lot more work than it would be if the two shared the same hopes and desires in lifestyle.

I've rambled...lol ....but bottom line, take note in how well communication happens and how conflicts or misunderstandings are handled. That says a lot!

Sure does say allot T! All of those things are very important so as a married couple are seeking the same things. Reminds me of a triangle illustration where the bottom 2 corners are husband and wife, and at the tip of the triangle is GOD...arrows point up from the husband and wife corners and meet at the top...God. I have a brother who married a Catholic and he has had such division because of it. They are still together but, not on the same page spiritually. He has payed the price of being unequally yoked to someone who does not believe as he does.
All of those things you mentioned say to me...LOOOOONG engagements! lol.
Bless you my sister!
 
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OzSpen

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Comparing marriage to the yoking together of farm animals is nothing short of vulgar. I am married not yoked, but if you would rather be yoked more power to you.

As for Jesus he preached to nonbelievers including prostitutes perpetually. In fact since there were no real christans in his time nearly everyone was a nonbeliever

Al,

Have you never heard of an analogy or figure of speech used in the Bible? That's what I used in my statement. That's what Paul also used in 2 Cor 6:14.

Take a read of these Bible teachers:

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(14) Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.--We seem at first to enter, by an abrupt transition, upon a new line of exhortation. The under-current of thought is, however, not difficult to trace. There was a false latitude as well as a true. The baser party at Corinth might think it a matter of indifference whether they married a heathen or a Christian, whether they chose their intimate friends among the worshippers of Aphrodite or of Christ. Against that "enlargement" the Apostle feels bound to protest. The Greek word for "unequally yoked together" is not found elsewhere, and was probably coined by St. Paul to give expression to his thoughts. Its meaning is, however, determined by the use of the cognate noun in Leviticus 19:19 ("Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind"). Cattle were unequally yoked together when ox and ass were drawing the same plough (Deuteronomy 22:10). Men and women are so when they have no common bond of faith in God. Another explanation refers the image to the yoke of a balance, or pair of scales, and so sees in the precept a warning against partiality in judgment; but this rests on very slender ground, or rather, no ground at all.

Pulpit Commentary
Verse 14. - Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Ewald, followed by Dean Stanley, Holsten, and others, thinks that here there is a sudden dislocation of the argument, and some have even supposed that the section, 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1, is either an after thought written by the apostle on the margin of the Epistle after it was finished; or even an interpolation. The latter view has arisen from the unusual expressions of the section, and the use of the word "Belial," and the command of Greek shown by the varied expressions. There is no adequate ground for these conjectures. Every writer is conscious of moods in which words come to him more fluently than at other times, and all writers of deep feeling, like St. Paul, abound in sudden transitions which correspond to the lightning-like rapidity of their thoughts. It is doubtful whether the readers would not have seen at once the sequence of thought, which depends on circumstances which we can only conjecture. Probably the alienation from St. Paul had its root in some tampering with unbelievers. Such might at any rate have been the case among the Gentile members of the Church, some of whom were even willing to go to sacrificial feasts in heathen temples (1 Corinthians 8-10.). "Unequally yoked" is a metaphor derived from Leviticus 19:19 and Deuteronomy 22:10, and is the opposite of "true yoke fellow" (Philippians 4:3). What fellowship; literally, participation (Ephesians 5:6-11). Unrighteousness; literally, lawlessness (1 John 3:4). It was a special mark of heathen life (Romans 7:19). Light with darkness. This antithesis is specially prominent in Ephesians 5:9-11 and Colossians 1:12, 13, and in the writings of St. John (John 1:5; John 3:19; 1 John, passim).
And another:

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
14. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers] Dean Stanley observes on the “remarkable dislocation of the argument here.” But the connection of thought is not difficult to trace. The only reward (see last verse) St Paul sought from the Corinthians was conduct in accordance with the Gospel of Christ. This was the best form their sympathy with him could take. Therefore he touches on some of the points on which they were in the habit of doing most violence to their Christian profession. They did not keep sufficiently aloof from unbelievers, but even went so far as to ‘sit at meat’ with them ‘in the idol-temple’ (see 1 Corinthians 8, 10, and notes) and thus become partakers with them in their idolatry, whereby they were the cause of infinite mischief to the souls of their brethren. The reference in the words ‘unequally yoked together’ is to the precept in Deuteronomy 22:10, a precept, like many similar ones in the same chapter (2 Corinthians 6:9; 2 Corinthians 6:11-12) and elsewhere in the Mosaic laws, manifestly figurative in its character. The Apostle’s words must not be confined to intermarriages with the heathen, though of course it includes them in the prohibition. It refers to all kinds of close and intimate relations. “They are yoked together with unbelievers, who enter into close companionship with them.” Estius.

what fellowship] The word thus rendered here is not the same as that rendered communion below, a word which (see notes on 1 Corinthians 1:9; 1 Corinthians 10:16) is itself rendered indifferently by communion and fellowship in the N. T., but is derived from the word signifying to partake (partynge, Wiclif), e.g. in 1 Corinthians 10:17. See Ephesians 5:7; also 1Ma 1:13-15 and 2 John 1:11.

unrighteousness] Literally, lawlessness, the normal condition of the heathen man, Romans 6:19, while the Christian is endowed with ‘God’s righteousness,’ ch. 2 Corinthians 5:21.

light with darkness] Cf. John 1:5; John 3:19, the one signifying the condition of man in Christ, the other his condition without Christ. See also Ephesians 5:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:5; and ch. 2 Corinthians 4:4.
These Bible teachers state of 2 Cor 6:14,

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
14. Be not—Greek, "Become not."
unequally yoked—"yoked with one alien in spirit." The image is from the symbolical precept of the law (Le 19:19), "Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind"; or the precept (De 22:10), "Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together." Compare De 7:3, forbidding marriages with the heathen; also 1 Co 7:39. The believer and unbeliever are utterly heterogeneous. Too close intercourse with unbelievers in other relations also is included (2 Co 6:16; 1 Co 8:10; 10:14).

fellowship—literally, "share," or "participation."

righteousness—the state of the believer, justified by faith.

unrighteousness—rather, as always translated elsewhere, "iniquity"; the state of the unbeliever, the fruit of unbelief.

light—of which believers are the children (1Th 5:5).

Oz
 

mjrhealth

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Again: it's an analogy to highlight two partners sharing the load. Not literal.
Do you believe that a husband and wife should support each other?
Actually in the real world, a new cow would be yoked to an older more experienced one, every time the younger cow got out of line the older would pull him back into line, also the older cow being stronger would carry more of the burden till the younger less experienced grew in strength, experience and wisdom, Thats why we are supposed

Mat_11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Who would not want to be yoked to Christ
 

Alvertsky

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Al,

Have you never heard of an analogy or figure of speech used in the Bible? That's what I used in my statement. That's what Paul also used in 2 Cor 6:14.

Take a read of these Bible teachers:

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(14) Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.--We seem at first to enter, by an abrupt transition, upon a new line of exhortation. The under-current of thought is, however, not difficult to trace. There was a false latitude as well as a true. The baser party at Corinth might think it a matter of indifference whether they married a heathen or a Christian, whether they chose their intimate friends among the worshippers of Aphrodite or of Christ. Against that "enlargement" the Apostle feels bound to protest. The Greek word for "unequally yoked together" is not found elsewhere, and was probably coined by St. Paul to give expression to his thoughts. Its meaning is, however, determined by the use of the cognate noun in Leviticus 19:19 ("Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind"). Cattle were unequally yoked together when ox and ass were drawing the same plough (Deuteronomy 22:10). Men and women are so when they have no common bond of faith in God. Another explanation refers the image to the yoke of a balance, or pair of scales, and so sees in the precept a warning against partiality in judgment; but this rests on very slender ground, or rather, no ground at all.

Pulpit Commentary
Verse 14. - Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Ewald, followed by Dean Stanley, Holsten, and others, thinks that here there is a sudden dislocation of the argument, and some have even supposed that the section, 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1, is either an after thought written by the apostle on the margin of the Epistle after it was finished; or even an interpolation. The latter view has arisen from the unusual expressions of the section, and the use of the word "Belial," and the command of Greek shown by the varied expressions. There is no adequate ground for these conjectures. Every writer is conscious of moods in which words come to him more fluently than at other times, and all writers of deep feeling, like St. Paul, abound in sudden transitions which correspond to the lightning-like rapidity of their thoughts. It is doubtful whether the readers would not have seen at once the sequence of thought, which depends on circumstances which we can only conjecture. Probably the alienation from St. Paul had its root in some tampering with unbelievers. Such might at any rate have been the case among the Gentile members of the Church, some of whom were even willing to go to sacrificial feasts in heathen temples (1 Corinthians 8-10.). "Unequally yoked" is a metaphor derived from Leviticus 19:19 and Deuteronomy 22:10, and is the opposite of "true yoke fellow" (Philippians 4:3). What fellowship; literally, participation (Ephesians 5:6-11). Unrighteousness; literally, lawlessness (1 John 3:4). It was a special mark of heathen life (Romans 7:19). Light with darkness. This antithesis is specially prominent in Ephesians 5:9-11 and Colossians 1:12, 13, and in the writings of St. John (John 1:5; John 3:19; 1 John, passim).
And another:

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
14. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers] Dean Stanley observes on the “remarkable dislocation of the argument here.” But the connection of thought is not difficult to trace. The only reward (see last verse) St Paul sought from the Corinthians was conduct in accordance with the Gospel of Christ. This was the best form their sympathy with him could take. Therefore he touches on some of the points on which they were in the habit of doing most violence to their Christian profession. They did not keep sufficiently aloof from unbelievers, but even went so far as to ‘sit at meat’ with them ‘in the idol-temple’ (see 1 Corinthians 8, 10, and notes) and thus become partakers with them in their idolatry, whereby they were the cause of infinite mischief to the souls of their brethren. The reference in the words ‘unequally yoked together’ is to the precept in Deuteronomy 22:10, a precept, like many similar ones in the same chapter (2 Corinthians 6:9; 2 Corinthians 6:11-12) and elsewhere in the Mosaic laws, manifestly figurative in its character. The Apostle’s words must not be confined to intermarriages with the heathen, though of course it includes them in the prohibition. It refers to all kinds of close and intimate relations. “They are yoked together with unbelievers, who enter into close companionship with them.” Estius.

what fellowship] The word thus rendered here is not the same as that rendered communion below, a word which (see notes on 1 Corinthians 1:9; 1 Corinthians 10:16) is itself rendered indifferently by communion and fellowship in the N. T., but is derived from the word signifying to partake (partynge, Wiclif), e.g. in 1 Corinthians 10:17. See Ephesians 5:7; also 1Ma 1:13-15 and 2 John 1:11.

unrighteousness] Literally, lawlessness, the normal condition of the heathen man, Romans 6:19, while the Christian is endowed with ‘God’s righteousness,’ ch. 2 Corinthians 5:21.

light with darkness] Cf. John 1:5; John 3:19, the one signifying the condition of man in Christ, the other his condition without Christ. See also Ephesians 5:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:5; and ch. 2 Corinthians 4:4.
These Bible teachers state of 2 Cor 6:14,

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
14. Be not—Greek, "Become not."
unequally yoked—"yoked with one alien in spirit." The image is from the symbolical precept of the law (Le 19:19), "Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind"; or the precept (De 22:10), "Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together." Compare De 7:3, forbidding marriages with the heathen; also 1 Co 7:39. The believer and unbeliever are utterly heterogeneous. Too close intercourse with unbelievers in other relations also is included (2 Co 6:16; 1 Co 8:10; 10:14).

fellowship—literally, "share," or "participation."

righteousness—the state of the believer, justified by faith.

unrighteousness—rather, as always translated elsewhere, "iniquity"; the state of the unbeliever, the fruit of unbelief.

light—of which believers are the children (1Th 5:5).

Oz
I do not convert all life situations to bible passages, and was not taught to do that by my religion either. Others do, their choice
 

Alvertsky

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And just what is your religion??
I have stated the same about my religion as you did, christian and that it how I shall remain because I choose to speak to all of christ followers, not just a few of one group as all the children of christ are equal
 

Prayer Warrior

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I have stated the same about my religion as you did, christian and that it how I shall remain because I choose to speak to all of christ followers, not just a few of one group as all the children of christ are equal
You’re saying that your religion is Christianity? That you are a Christian?
 

Alvertsky

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That is not what I stated. Please do not add to my statements.
I did not say that you said that, I said that and I will say it again because the statement is about me, which is why it begins with the word I.

I do not convert all life situations to bible passages, and was not taught to do that by my religion either. Others do, their choice