2 Corinthians 6:14 - Exposition

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, 2Co 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 (1Co 8-10.). "Unequally yoked" is a metaphor derived from Le 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 , Colossians 1:13 , and in the writings of St. John ( John 1:5 ; John 3:19 ; 1 John, passim ).