February 1, 2009 - Pastor Tim

DON’T GET ON A MOTORCYCLE

WITH JUST ANYONE!

2 Corinthians 6:14 – 7:1

My dad’s a great guy. Raised in a Nazarene pastor’s home himself, his personal story was that of a young man who ran from God, leaving Ohio to go to college in California, only to find out that God was there too! He finally gave in to God’s persevering love, and from that time on he pursued God’s calling for his life with great passion.

I remember various times when we three boys were young and the family was driving through the part of Southern Ohio where Dad had grown up, and it seemed like every few miles Dad would point out a place where he had wrecked a vehicle in his early wild life. I often thought that if any of his three sons had wrecked that many vehicles, he’d have taken our licenses away! And though Dad is conservative in most ways, I have vivid memory of getting on a motorcycle with him when I was a teenager. It was as if something inside him triggered a flashback to his wild days of youth. We were on hilly dirt trails on wooded land, and I was scared to death! At one point, he flipped the motorcycle and we crashed, and as much as I love my dad, I promised myself I’d never get on another motorcycle with him!

Why would I tell that story? Because I was reminded of it when I was thinking through the implications of the passage of scripture we’re going to look at this morning. Here the Apostle Paul—after whom my father was named!—makes a strong and incredibly helpful statement about the importance of Christians living a different kind of life. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 6:14, and I would like to read to you from the New Living Translation of the Bible because I believe it puts it in words that have greater meaning to many of us—

[Read 2 Corinthians 6:14 – 7:1, NLT]

The New International Version of the Bible and the King James Version begin verse 14 with the admonition, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.” What I just read began, “Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers.” The paraphrase of scripture called The Message begins, “Don’t become partners with those who reject God.” Paul’s imagery with his original audience was that of two oxen being “yoked” together—harnessed together with wooden beams that kept the two beasts of burdens heading the same direction and at the same speed. And Paul’s warning is about not putting ourselves as Christians into positions where we’re partnered with or teamed up with or “yoked” with those who do not share our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

Can we just acknowledge that hearing such a “prohibition” from scripture makes some of us bristle—just because we’re being told not to do something! We don’t like to be told what we’re not to do! I suppose it’s human nature. What I want us to understand as we look at this passage of scripture is that, as it is in every restriction God places upon our lives as we journey with Him, it is done out of the protective heart of a Father who loves us and desires the very best for us.

If you read the Old Testament, you find lots of warnings being given to the people of Israel, the people God had chosen to be His own, the people whom He had promised to bless and prosper, as long as they remained faithful to Him. And in order to keep them faithful to Him, there were strong warnings about not intermarrying with pagans of other nations.

God’s warnings didn’t have anything to do with race, as it has sometimes been supposed. It was all about remaining faithful to God. Our Heavenly Father knew that if we partnered in marriage with those who worship other gods, we would be drawn away from our single-hearted devotion to Him—not to mention that the marriage would be under great duress because two people can’t go two different directions in life when they’re “yoked” together! God understood how our lives will be different if we commit to following Him—affecting what is important to us day by day; how we spend our time and our money; our dreams and ambitions, our goals, our priorities.

And while we sometimes bristle with the things God tells us not to do, why wouldn’t we want God’s Word to give us appropriate warnings? I would think we would welcome them! If I were busy talking with you as we were crossing a street and you saw a car coming right at me, I would hope that you’d interrupt me and tell me I better move it or I’m going to lose it! I really won’t mind if your words aren’t gracious and kind or if you raise your voice a little! But please don’t just go on as if nothing was happening and let me get run over! Do you suppose we could embrace God’s Word to us in such a way this morning?

What I believe Paul is saying to us is this: Don’t form any partnerships, whether temporary or permanent, with unbelievers that could lead to compromise in your commitment to Jesus Christ. Why? Because the unbeliever does not share the Christian’s standards, values, priorities, or goals. And, I might add, if your standards, values, priorities, and goals aren’t different from the person who is not following Jesus Christ, I have to seriously doubt the validity of your commitment to Christ. Is that fair?

What I don’t believe the Word is saying to us here is to avoid close contact with the world apart from Christ—the “pagan world,” if you will. By Christ’s Great Commission to us, we need to be in contact with the world, or we’re missing our calling as His Church. What Paul is calling us to stay away from are partnerships with those who do not share our commitment to Christ—teaming up with them. By the very nature of partnerships, we make mutual agreements and commitments with another—and that’s what Paul is telling us is extremely unwise and dangerous for the Christian.

So what’s he saying? How are we to apply this? Let’s start with Paul’s illustrations—

How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever? And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? (2 Corinthians 6:14b-16a)

Paul asks five rhetorical questions presupposing a negative answer to each one. A rhetorical question is when you ask a question to which you don’t expect an answer because the answer already seems obvious! I had to be careful in one of the churches I pastored because I had a lady in the crowd who would often respond out loud to my rhetorical questions and her answers weren’t always appropriate! What Paul is trying to make clear in his rhetorical questions is the incompatibility of Christianity and the world apart from God, the incongruity of intimate relationships or fellowship between believers and unbelievers. The chief reason why believers aren’t to enter any syncretistic or compromising relationship with unbelievers is that we belong exclusively to God. In many ways this Word of the Lord through Paul was an elaboration of the first two of the Ten Commandments: “You shall have no other gods before me” and “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything…”

It’s fair to think that Paul might be implying by his words to the Corinthians that some of them had perhaps become defiled by occasionally sharing meals at the local idol-shrines or by continuing to attend festivals or ceremonies in the pagan temples or even by maintaining their membership in some local pagan cult—trying to blend it in with Christianity in some way. All of scripture is clear to us: if we’re going to follow Jesus Christ, we have got to make a clean break with attachments that keep us somehow bound to the world apart from Christ. We are to live holy lives, and holy lives are lives that are fully devoted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

So how might we apply Paul’s words to us today? Certainly the quickest application we make—and appropriately so—is to marriage. Scripture gives vivid warning here for a Christian not to enter into marriage with someone who is not a believer, who does not share their passion to follow Jesus.

I remember attending a wedding when I was growing up. A girl who had grown up in the church was marrying a young man who was not a Christian. It was perhaps in the early years of using the unity candle to symbolize two lives becoming one. I remember that once they had lit the unity candle, it wouldn’t keep burning. It was kind of awkward and embarrassing. The flame went out. And my mom later commented to me her concern that it was reflective of what would happen in that bride’s life spiritually—and, as I recall, it’s exactly what did happen in the months and years that followed.

In watching lots of relationships across the years, I’ve concluded—and I often told our kids and the kids in our churches—you choose who you date, not who you’re going to fall in love with. Choose carefully the people you’re willing to date, because once you start dating them, you don’t really choose if you’re going to fall in love with them or not—you’ve already opened yourself up to that. It’s a dangerous thing to even start to form a dating relationship with an unbeliever. “Missionary dating” isn’t very smart. I know there are stories out there of people who have led someone they dated to the Lord—but for every such story I’m guessing there are 10 or 20 stories of people who thought they could change someone, fell in love and got married, only to find themselves in a marriage with someone whose life was aimed a completely different direction from them because they did not share a faith in Christ. And it seems complicated enough when it was just two, but start adding children to the family, and the disparity in values and priorities only become more obvious and more heartbreaking.

I also believe we can rightly apply Paul’s warning to forming a business partnership with someone who is not a believer. Again, the problem is with values and overall purpose. Our commitment to Christ should affect everything we do—including how we do business. It impacts why we do what we do, what we’re willing to sacrifice, what our ultimate goal in life is. And if you become a business partner with someone whose life goals are taking them a different direction than yours, you’re setting yourself up for a lot of frustration and grief. If we’d simply hear God’s warning, we’d spare ourselves a lot of grief in life!

Again, the problem is with values and overall purpose. Money is a powerful thing—and the true follower of Christ sees money through a different set of lenses than the person who is not committed to Christ. And while my first thought is that of the typical business setting, I also believe the same issues would arise in professions such as the medical field. Just think of all the ethical dilemmas facing our medical people today! Christian attorneys partnered with unbelieving attorneys are setting themselves up for certain conflict. Even educators find themselves facing dilemmas today, spurred by the clash in values. Lots of Christians today are struggling with the issue of unions—because in uniting with some unions they are uniting with those who do not share their Christian values. This warning against partnerships with unbelievers could also be broadened to give us strong warnings about employee/employer relationships—because if we’re not careful who we team up with, we find ourselves in a serious conflict of values. Oh, it’s getting complicated, isn’t it? How wonderful that we have the Lord to guide us through such complicated issues, granting wisdom and discernment to those who seek it with open hearts and open minds.

I have a dear Christian friend who is in the construction business. He was in a partnership with a man who turned out to be crooked in how he did business. My friend ended up facing prosecution and almost ended up serving time himself because of the actions of his business partner. He carries the label “felon” today because he made the unwise decision to go into business with an unbeliever. If he and his wife were to stand before our crowd today, I’m somehow guessing they’d have some convincing words to share about this passage of scripture!

Now, I think we’ve got to acknowledge the balance that we must learn to strike between being “light in a world of darkness” and yet not being “unequally yoked” or “partnered” with unbelievers. We are called to be the light of the world—to let Christ’s light shine through our lives that others may be drawn to Him. It’s our mission as individuals and as a church. And when we read passages like John 17—Christ’s “high priestly prayer” before he went to the Cross, it’s clear that His heart and passion for us is that we would be “in the world but not of it.” We are to live our lives in the world and to do so in such a way that others are drawn to the Savior whom we serve. But Paul is warning us not to partner with the world in any way that might lead to compromise of our primary devotion to the Lord. I might note here that this is the very reason why Nazarene churches and other holiness churches have throughout the years asked its members not to be part of what is often referred to as “oath-bound secret orders”—organizations that are quasi-religious in nature and to which its members must make an oath of allegiance, even though the values of that organization may not always reflect Christian values.

Paul was not calling for withdrawal from the secular world, but rather pleading with Christians not to put themselves into relationships with either pagan persons or pagan institutions that would water down or undermine their Christian values. And for those believers who are today in an unequally yoked marriage, if you read 1 Corinthians 7:12-16, Paul actually encouraged the Christian partner in a mixed marriage to maintain the relationship once in it if at all possible—though it’s clear from the whole of scripture that it’s terribly unwise for a Christian to enter into such a marriage.

There are those who might take Paul’s warning from 2 Corinthians 6 to be in conflict with the call to love others. Some might accuse us of being “intolerant” of other religions or of those who do not share our Christian faith, but please understand that scripture is clear that God will not share our devotion with any other god of any sort. Christianity is not by its nature a faith that can be syncretistic—blended in to merge acceptably with other religions. God will not share our devotions, though God is love and invites all people into fellowship with Him through Jesus Christ. Scripture tells us that Jesus “is the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to Father except through Him.” We are to love others, but we must choose carefully those with whom we partner.

We to carry out the words of Paul that came from the pen of the Old Testament prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel—

“Therefore come out from among unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them,” says the Lord. “Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you.” (2 Corinthians 6:17, NLT)

It is the call for us to live holy lives.

Some of us remember the day when the church tried to define holy living simply by the things we did not do—and it’s taken us awhile to figure out that such an approach produced Pharisees instead of healthy Christ-followers. The effort to define the church in terms of a haven from the world has an element of truth in it, but it also offers all sorts of danger. It can produce a kind of “enclave” (closed society) mentality in the church. In this model the church is not a fellowship in which we are equipped to function with integrity in the world, but a place where we do everything we can to hide from the world.

There’s no doubt that it can be intimidating and frightening to try to live a Christian life in an un-Christian world. At the same time, it’s a serious mistake for the church to cocoon itself in a protected environment from the world. I’m afraid that if we do that we become, as they say, “so heavenly minded that we’re of no earthly good.” But Christ has called us to be salt and light in our world—and we must figure out how to live that out dynamically and responsibly.

When it’s all said and done, what’s the bottom line for us as Christians? God insists on our single-hearted devotion to Him—a devotion that is not threatened or compromised by any other allegiance or devotion. And to such a person God promises that He will be our Father, and we will be His sons and daughters. As the Lord repeated to his people throughout the Old Testament, God is saying, “I will live with them and walk among them…I will be their God, and they will be my people.” It’s a wonderful promise! It’s a wonderful covenant God has made with us—and it’s a covenant that we are to keep with Him, a covenant we are to protect by guarding the commitments we make to others that might compromise our overall commitment to Him.

Let’s go back to my motorcycle ride with my dad. I won’t get on a motorcycle with just anyone because I value my life—and I’ve come to believe that motorcycles can be incredibly dangerous if the one in control isn’t safe. Now my dad’s almost 80, and I’d probably get on a motorcycle with him if he wanted now, but I can assure you that I won’t get on a motorcycle with just anyone! Why? Because I know I won’t be in control—which is a real problem if they ride like a maniac and you value life more than they do! And I won’t partner with just anyone either in any kind of partnership unless I’m confident that the person with whom I’m partnering shares my values and my whole-hearted commitment to follow Christ and to fully submit to His ways. That’s what Paul is saying to us today.