More About Marriage
For a long time I have waited for someone more educated and better informed to write on this line. If it has been done, I have failed to read it. Maybe this article will prove the old adage about certain kinds rushing in where angels fear to tread.
It is safe to say that 2 Corinthians 6:14 through 7:1 applies to one particular thought. Verse one of chapter seven refers to the promise in verse 17 and 18 of chapter six.
This writing of Paul's does not, can not, refer to marriage. The expression, "Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers," does not refer to marriage. Another expression found therein, "What agreement hath a temple of God with idols?" does not refer to marriage. The question is always asked, "What stronger yoking is there than marriage?" Paul doesn't mention the closeness or strength of the yoking— he simply says, "Be not yoked."
We cannot make any verse mean anything to contradict another passage. If we use this to teach about marriage, we have contradictions. Paul asks this, "What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?" In marriage the believer and the unbeliever have the salvation of the unbeliever in common. 1 Peter 3:1 and 2 tell us that very plainly. Light and darkness do have something in common when a child of light is married to a child of darkness. Paul tells us that in 1 Cor. 7:14 and 16. They have the sanctification of the unbeliever and their children to consider.
When we are tempted to split these passages, and want to use 2 Cor. 6:14-16 and leave out verses 17 and 18, please let us remember what we say about teachers of direct operation of the Holy Spirit who try to do the same to John 6:44 and 45.
The subject under discussion in 2 Cor. 6:14, 15 is still the topic of 2 Cor. 6:17, 18, isn't it?
If it is, and if any of that applies to marriage, Paul contradicts himself. In 1 Cor. 7:12, 13 Paul says for the believer to NOT leave the unbeliever. In 2 Cor. 6:17 there is the command for the believer to come out from among them, to separate themselves. The only way to escape a contradiction is to have the passages to refer to different things, which they do. If 2 Cor. 6:17, 18 refers to marriage, one can not be a child of God till he leaves his unbelieving wife. In marriage, the unbeliever is not an "unclean thing" to the believer.
If it is not about marriage what is it about? It isn't written about social life as can be seen by reading 1 Cor. 5:9-13.
2 Cor. 6:14 through 7:1 is applicable to worship. That is the one thing in which a believer has absolutely nothing in common with an unbeliever. We can have no part or lot in any degree with a "mixed worship." In worship, light has no communion with darkness at all. To make these passages apply to marriage is a perversion of the scriptures.