14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
For what fellowship [share] has righteousness with lawlessness [iniquity]?
Now Paul asked five rhetorical questions. All expect a negative answer.
“Fellowship” means to share or partner. The Christian does not share in standards that are not God’s.
“Righteousness” puts one’s whole life under an obligation to God’s standard of life. “Righteousness” speaks of the justified believer. “Lawlessness” is the unbeliever’s state, a sphere of iniquity (1 Jn 3:4-10). “Lawlessness” asserts itself against God’s norms and standards, against God’s Word.
PRINCIPLE:
Righteousness and rebellion cannot share values because they are opposite ethical positions.
APPLICATION:
Believers and non-believers go in opposite directions. They march to a different drumbeat.
Christians and non-Christians live in two different spheres, within moral opposites. Believers occupy the world of light, righteousness, and eternal life. This affects their values, goals, attitudes, and hopes. At the human level, believers and non-believers may have extensive contact, but they live in opposing worlds in the spiritual realm. The Christian cannot live in close association with the values of non-Christians (Ro 12:2; Jas 4:4; 1 Jn 2:15-16). The believer must make a clean break with the values of non-believers.
There is no harmony between the values of a Christian and non-Christian. The intimacy that a believer has with God should not be shared with those that are hostile to God. The values do not align. The issue is compromise of Christian character. The problem with such intimacy is that it will develop into a union that will blunt how a believer should live.
