In marriage counseling, compatibility testing for couples, pre-marital, postulates the notion that there are well defined borders to a personality. "Change" is only a positioning within those borders. If this were not true, compatibility testing would not be helpful - its basis (compatibility testing) has biblical support in the admonition "be not unequally yoked ......." What is expressed in that piece of Holy Writ is a principle tied to a specific application "be not unequally yoked with an unbeliever." This is all an IMO moment, but if the Lord were simply giving a command statement, He would have simply said "be not yoked to an unbeliever." This single word assumes a standard or measure that adds the feeling of practicality to the advice. There is a reason for the Lord's advice -- "unequal" smacks of disagreement, division, a prophet tone of bad things to come.
John
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I think you might have missed it John . A saved person yoked to a lost person is an unequal coupling. They cannot be a team. That is what the Bible is telling us. Saved and lost do not pull together. They pull in different directions, no matter how compatable they may seem.. One has an eye on the world. The other has an eye on Christ. Hope that makes sense to you.
Terry
Is there any other kind of "yoke' between a believer and an unbeliever other than "unequal?" I am not sure what you see in my paragraph above that causes you to think I missed it or that I am thinking, in this instance, differently than you. The writer could have been using this redundency for the sake of mere emphasis -- a solid possiblity. But, and I guess it depends on how you punctuate this sentence, it might be that Paul is combining a principle with an application, as I said above. Don't be unequally tied -- to an unbeliever, to a proner, to one of a drastically differing faith, to a momma's boy. The modern day counselor can see, in this, some justification for compatibility testing. He can see the import of couples having a certain commonality. The actual compatibility testing is based on the belief that "change" is more properly a change in positioning within the personality confines of the individual. Why do we have High Church, Rock and Roll Pentecostalism, Divide and Conquer Baptists, Tranditionally attached Catholics and the like? It has very little to do with misinformation or dishonesty (as a primary factor). Rather, sectarian differences are more related to the emotional needs and preferences of the individual than anything.
John
