Be Not Unequally Yoked

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Every Thanksgiving, people howl over Black Friday, America’s frenzy of consumerism and covetousness. There is either eye-rolling or salivating, depending on who you are.  But there is an even more deadly poison infecting our society’s bloodstream.

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When November and December roll through, the season is just right for a collection of faiths in my neighborhood, and probably in yours. This melding of Christians, along with those of Catholic, Muslim and Jewish faith. There is food and fellowship. There is, in effect, a ‘spirit of agreement’ present.

“So what’s wrong with that?” Nothing, if you have rejected Jesus Christ. Nothing, if you don’t miss His absence from Christmas in this day. Sharing time with people who are currently unsaved, who openly say that the Bible is anything but the infalliable inerrant word of God, is okay if you believe all religions and faiths pretty much lead to the same place.

However, the Christian who looks in the mirror and see someone who is “born again”… if that is your self-definition… then you must learn that the Lord doesn’t love this spiritual pollution. The Christian who claims to “believe the Bible” has access to many warnings against fellowshipping with unbelievers.

The words that John R. Rice used to describe ecumenical get-togethers fit so perfectly: Someone who loves the Bible hates the enemies of the Bible. Along with unbelievers, Muslims are enemies of the Bible. Jews are enemies of the Bible. Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, Mormons, and Catholics are all, according to their words, deeds and stated beliefs, enemies of the Bible. Those who don’t already know this… if you are reading this, you likely can access the Internet, and research for yourself.

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2 Corinthians 6:14-18

There is no judgment from this quarter. No man can judge; the Bible (i.e. God) has already judged us all, and condemened us. That’s why we need Jesus.

But other than genuine brotherly love and spreading the gospel by way of the Holy Spirit, in that we treat unbelieving co-workers, family and other neighbors (anyone who is in your vicinity or that you can affect) with kindness…  The born again Christian is not to form meaningful associations with just anyone because they are “good people.” Yes, that is swimming against what the world tells us in a thousand ways. So, Christian, do you believe the world? or the Lord?

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Reprinted from the writings of Dr. Rice:

“The New Testament Has more Emphasis on Love Than on Separation”

So Dr. [Billy] Graham writes in a printed letter widely scattered which he says is “not to be published.”

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2 John 1:9-11

Now let us say frankly that brotherly love is taught throughout the Bible; and that of faith, hope and love, the greatest of these is love. But is it honest and right to use love as an excuse for disobeying the plain command of Scriptures? This is an old device of Satan by which he has led many, many people into sin and compromise.

The father who whips his children and makes them mind doesn’t love them like he ought! The preacher who preaches on Hell and judgment is simply mean; he doesn’t love people as he ought! The death penalty for murder is uncivilized: we are supposed to love the murderers and rapists and turn them loose! So say those who love modernists so much, but not fundamentalists.

And so our “New Evangelicals” reason that we ought to love the modernists, pat them on the back, call on them to lead in prayer, tell them they are good Christians while they spit on the Bible and step on the blood of Christ!

But the Bible has a very clear word about this. “Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good” (Rom. 12:9). Why be a hypocrite about love?

What would you think about the sincerity of a man who would insist that he loves his wife just like Christ loved the church, and that he loves a harlot just as much as his wife! What would you think of the sincerity of a man who would solemnly affirm his holy zeal for old-time Americanism, if he would say that he is just as strong from communism?

No, there are some things that are opposite. If you cleave to that which is good, you must abhor that which is evil. Otherwise, love is pretended, with “dissimulation.” The man who loves corn hates weeds. In raising cattle in West Texas, the men who loved their cattle hated the screwworms, the ticks, the Texas fever which were enemies of the cattle. A man who is for Heaven is against Hell. A man who is for the Bible is against the enemies of the Bible. The man who is for the historic Christian faith is against infidelity. It is insincere hypocrisy to pretend otherwise.

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Ephesians 5:11

The Scripture warns, “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes” (Proverb 13:24). Faithful love deals with sin and harm among those we love. With a true surgeon, love will cause him to cut out the cancer which threatens the life of his patient. With the true preacher of the Gospel, love will cause him to warn people against sin. And Jesus said, “The friendship of the world is enmity with God” (Jas. 4:4).

The kind of love that causes people to ignore the plain commands of Jesus Christ on separation from unbelievers is a fake kind of love. No good Christian ought ever be guilty of using that kind of an argument to get people to do wrong.

I believe that the right kind of love for the late Bishop Pike, the infidel Episcopal bishop of San Francisco, would have been to solemnly warn him that he needed to be born again, that Christ-rejecters wake up in Hell. He is no true friend of an infidel who pats him on the back, calls him a good Christian, asks him to lead in prayer, says he is all right just as he is, and turns over inquirers to him to ruin their faith. To put love against Christ and His commands and against duty is wrong.