I am going to veer a bit from my normal emphasis regarding believers and unbelievers. For many years I have encouraged relationships with unbelievers. How can we be witnesses if we do not communicate?
Yet Paul wrote, 2 Corinthians 6:14
Do not be bound together [unequally yoked] with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? 16 Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,
“I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 17 “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you. 18 “And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” Says the Lord Almighty.
A yoke is a bond. We have seen two oxen pulling loads in movies. The yoke is the collar that the ox pull against. A yoke is also imagery for a burden or concern.
I would like to remind us that unbelievers are different from believers in important ways. Paul uses the dichotomies above, right vs wrong, light vs. dark, God vs. satan. We are not on the same road as unbelievers. As believers, our attention is on the Holy Spirit. We follow the light of the Spirit. That will make us different than the world. God will use our holy life as a light in the darkness. When we were sinners, we didn’t become Christian because Christians were like us, we became Christians because Christians were different than us. V18 We should live like our Father.
1 Peter 3:15, Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make an explanation to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, with gentleness and respect
I believe we can hear the Holy Spirit, and live in the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) in such a powerful, unnatural way that people cannot but ask us why we are not wretched, worried, and angry like the rest of the world.
We are not like the world. We are like our Father, God. The more we are like God, the more we will be a light in the darkness. As a light, people will ask us of our hope. Be the Light!
Blessings.