A Crucified Life - - Is Yoked With Christ

 

2 Corinthians 6:14

Do  not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?

*Strong's Ex. Conc. No. 2086

Unequally Yoked: yoked differently

From the Greek word 'heterozugeó' (pronounced het-er-od-zoog-eh'-o): different kinds of people joined together but unevenly matched. Used to describe Christians who join themselves together with others whose belief is not the same as their own; whose values/ethics/morals do not line up with the Word of God and run contrary to God's kingdom. 

    A yoke is used to join two together. In the farmer's field it is used to join two strong animals together. Deuteronomy 22:10 "Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together." Why? Donkeys are not known for being willing participants in heavy labor. So the ox would end up doing all the work. They would be unequally yoked together. 

    The same happens in the church. Though Paul was able to found a strong, thriving church in Corinth, this city already had a reputation for unrighteousness, for wickedness. Their evil deeds were so common practice that it seemed normal. 

    1 Corinthians 6:9-11 

    Around half a million people lived in this seaport community. Immorality was normal. A moral lifestyle lived according to God's Word was strange, peculiar. The two could not and should not join together in God's places of worship. 

    As the adage goes, "One good apple spoils the rest". The good apples cannot, nor will they ever be able to, produce good from bad. Bad apples will always make the good around them just as bad and sometimes worse than the bad apple is. 

    This is happening now in too many churches across the world. Sin is not being recognized as sin. Sin is flaunting itself and changing the written Word of God, leaving out the warnings and judgments of God. This, too, is sin. It is not the church's job to changed the Word; it is the Word's work to change the believer!

    Idolatry is idol worship. It is not God worship. Prostitution is sharing your body for money. Temple prostitution was perfectly legal and normal. But not in God's house. Gambling on professional athletic events was normal. Everything we have is from God. So to throw away perfectly good money on imperfect activities is not an act a Christ-follower does. 

    The people who came to this port to trade came from all over the world and some took up residence in Corinth. It became a melting pot of cultures and religions. Merchants, sailors, slaves (both free and not free). Having different backgrounds they all learned to live together in their sin.

    When you're living in the dark, you're not aware it's dark until a light shines into your darkness and reveals where you are. The gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ is the Light which shines in the darkness of men's souls revealing sin. 

    Along comes Paul who shares the gospel with many of them. They get saved and baptized and the church begins and grows. They used to be like the city around them, but now (1 Corinthians 6:11) they are washed in the blood of Christ, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, justified in Christ' Name and the Spirit. 

    They are set apart, different, on purpose. If they were to allow the wickedness of the city around them to influence them in any way in their church, they would have lost their purpose, their way. Sometimes it is difficult to live different. But with Christ living in us and the Holy Spirit of God's direction it is not only possible, but preferable.

    After all, what would people think? What if my family stops talking to me? What if my friends no longer want to associate with me? It is a decision each of us must make when we are on the brink of making that choice: Follow Christ as He bids us follow Him or stay in our comfort zone? 

    When we are yoked with Christ, the burden is light. He says so Himself. Matthew 11:29-30 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” 

     We who believe enjoy being joined together with Christ. We did not enjoy being yoked together with sin. We saw the joy others had in Christ and wanted that for ourselves. And we sought after Him and surrendered ourselves to Him. 

     We are the bride and Christ is our bridegroom. Know you not that the bridegroom is returning for His bride? Sooner than you think. 

YOKED WITH CHRIST

Saved by Love - Kathryn Scott

Your Word - Awakening Music

There Is One Gospel - City Alight

The Power of The Cross - Casting Crowns

By Your Spirit - Influence Music & Kim Walker-Smith

    

How Can I Know If I Am Living A Life That Pleases God? - God's First Will for Our Lives

 Always open a Bible prayerfully, with a sincere heart and a true desire to understand and rightfully know what it is that God is speaking to you. For The Word of God is Faithful and True. Those who lay hands on The Word of God with the intent to destroy, disprove or deny God's existence will have only themselves to blame when they are judged by God for their unbelief.

     Well, one way to know if you and I are living a life that pleases God is to know if we are living according to God's will. So, then, we we would need to know what God's will is for our life.

     Though you may not want to hear it, God's first will for your life is to be saved. 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” Salvation requires repentance. Unless we repent of our sins, confess them to God and turn away from doing them, then we are not saved. John 3:16-18 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believes on Him is not condemned: but he that does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God.”

     We repeat the message of salvation because our time is not God's time. He is longsuffering, His patience endures; until such time as He indicates His Son's return to bring His bride, His church, home. That is how long we will keep preaching the gospel. That is the length of time we have until The Holy Spirit leaves with them. We truly do not know that date; so we will keep preaching Jesus and Him crucified and resurrected to you until then. This message of a love so deep that it required the sacrifice of God's Lamb on the cross is imperative for you to hear: it is a message of life and death: yours.

     Acts 2:21 “And it shall come to pass that whosoever calls on the Name of The Lord shall be saved.”

Romans 10:13 “For whosoever shall call upon the Name of The Lord shall be saved.” Psalm 34:18 “The Lord is near to them that are of a broken heart; and saves such as are of a contrite spirit.”

Joel 2:13 “And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn to The Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness (longsuffering), and repenteth Him of the evil (is ready to relent and not punish).”

     Psalm 50:7-23 is a message from God; it is He who is speaking, not the writer. Verse 14 and 15 says “Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay your vows (your promises) unto The Most High: And call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” But see those next verses? He is speaking to those who do not believe.

     Psalm 50:16-23 But unto the wicked God says, “What have you to do to declare My statutes, or that you should take My covenant in your mouth? Seeing that you hate instruction, and cast My Words behind you. When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have been partakers with adulterers. You give your mouth to evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother's son. These things have you done, and I kept silence; you thought that I was just like you: but I will reprove you, and set them in order before your eyes. Now consider this, you that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none of you to deliver. Whoever offers praise glorifies Me: and to him that orders his conversation rightly will I show the salvation of God.” This is just a sampling of unrighteous wicked behavior which God abhors. But He waits for them to turn to Him and receive the salvation which He offers.

     Other examples of unrighteous living are in Romans 13:13 “....rioting and drunkenness, chambering and wantonness (sexual promiscuity and immorality), strife and envying.” 1 Corinthians 6:9,10 “Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators (prostitutes and those who associate themselves with such), nor idolaters (idol worship), nor adulterers (affair, fling, seduction, infidelity, hanky-panky,cheating, playing around; voluntary (not forced) sexual relations with a person you are not married to), nor effeminate (womanish, pretentious, unmanly, sissyish; a man having traits considered feminine), nor abusers of themselves with mankind (homosexuality),

     Nor thieves (bandit, burglar, cheat, criminal, crook, embezzler, hijacker, kleptomaniac, larceny, mugger, pickpocket, shoplifter, pirate, swindler [to name a few]), nor covetous (greedy, close-fisted, envious/jealous/green-eyed, grudging, hogging, mercenary selfish), nor drunkards (inebriated, alcoholic, boozer, lush, wino), nor revilers (fault-finder, backseat driver, complainer, disparager, doubter, fretter, muckraker, mud-slinger, nagger, nitpicker, slanderer), nor extortioners (freeloader, leech, parasite, sponge, vampire; one who secures money or favors through acts of intimidation and/or violence; blackmail), shall inherit the kingdom of God.”

     If that is not enough clarification for you, there are other references in The Holy Bible which will make it plain and understandable, some of which I will list here: Galatians 5:19,20,21 and Galatians 6:3,5,7,8; Ephesians 4:25-31; Ephesians 5:3-7,11,12,18; Philippians 3:18,19; Colossians 2:18 (angel worship); Colossians 3:5,6,8,9. There are many others which also clarify and confirm unrighteous living: lifestyles that do not please God.

     But we are also given instructions on how to live lives that do please God. And pleasing God is vital to not only our lives, but our souls. For our lives are temporary; our souls are eternal. We can choose to obey God's wills for our lives or we can choose to disregard God and receive the punishment, the consequences, for our actions. I, however, have chosen to obey God, sacrificing 'fun stuff' for eternal joy stuff, which I can have now and for ever. Your choice now will determine your destination later. As it is written in Joshua 24:15 "And if it seems evil to you to serve The Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve The Lord."