What does it mean to be “unequally yoked” in the business world? I once thought it meant you couldn’t have partners in business who weren’t Christians. I no longer think that way – at least that specific thought. But before I say much more, let’s review the passage from 1 Corinthians 6.14-17:
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.
The phrase unequally yoked in this passage means to avoid becoming mismatched with someone that does not work well together with you. The concept comes from yoking one animal with another of a different kind that would cause an imbalance which would render their yoking fruitless.
Quote from C.K. Barret
C.K. Barret writes in his excellent commentary on 2 Corinthians (I know this is a long quote, don’t skip over it):
…Paul uses a metaphor…[which] looks back to the Old Testament prohibition of ‘mixtures’ (Lev. 19:19, where a related word for double harness is used…Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together…Just as ‘one kind of cattle with another, one kind of wild animal with another, wild animals with cattle, one kind of unclean beast with another, one kind of clean beast with another, an unclean beast with a clean, a clean beast with an unclean—it is forbidden to plough with them, draw with them, or drive them’, so Corinthian Christians must not unite themselves with unbelievers. Is this consistent with what Paul says about unbelievers elsewhere? Is it perhaps rather a Qumran attitude? The relevant material in 1 Corinthians is as follows: 5:9 f. (I wrote to you in my letter that you should not mix with people guilty of fornication—not in the absolute sense that you should avoid contact with the fornicators of this world, or the rapacious and thieves, or idolaters, since then you would have to come out of the world); 6:1–6 (Does any of you dare, when he has a suit against his fellow, to go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?… Has it come to this, that there cannot be found among you one wise man, who can decide between his brothers, but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?); 7:12–16 (If a Christian brother has an unbelieving wife (and vice versa), and she is content to live with him, let him not divorce her … the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through the Christian brother …), 39 (… if her husband falls asleep she is free to marry anyone she chooses—remembering only that she is a Christian); 8:10 f. (If someone sees you, who have knowledge, sitting at table in an idol-shrine …); 9:21 f. (To those who were outside the law I became as if I were outside the law … in order that I might win those who are outside the law … I have become all things to all men); 10:21 (You cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons), 27 (If any unbeliever invites you, and you wish to go, eat everything set in front of you, and make no inquiries based on conscientious scruples), 32 (Be men who lay no stumbling-block before Jews, or Greeks, or the church of God); 14:23 ff. (If then the whole church assembles together, and all its members are speaking with tongues, and unbelieving outsiders come in …). It is not easy to summarize this material. Paul did not ask his converts to come out of the world; he did not even ask them to abstain from non-Christian dinner parties, though he was aware that these could constitute a problem. He did not expect marriages to be broken up on the ground that only one of the partners had become a Christian; Christian and non-Christian (unless the latter took the initiative) should continue to live together. A widow, remarrying, should, however, exercise a Christian choice. Paul could, in the interests of the Gospel, live like a Gentile, and it was possible for unbelievers to find their way into the Christian assembly. On the other hand, Paul warned his readers against the practice of taking part in meals in idol-shrines, and expected them to settle their own disputes without making use of non-Christian courts; and one must remember the moral break made by conversion (1 Cor. 6:9 ff.), and the separate existence of the church as the community of God’s elect (1 Cor. 1:1–9). The position was anything but simple. The Christian was in the world, but must remember that the outward shape of this world is passing away (1 Cor. 7:29 ff.). He could not but live in the midst of unbelievers, and must live in contact with them since in this way he might hope to save them (see 1 Cor. 7:16 for a special case); but he himself was a member of the holy people, who would judge the world (1 Cor. 6:2 f.).
Does ‘You must not get into double harness with unbelievers’ express this, or a different view? At first sight it appears to forbid any kind of relation with unbelievers…[but] In fact, what the paragraph requires is that those addressed should avoid idolatry and moral defilement. This is no more than Paul requires in 1 Corinthians…[emphasis added]
Quote from David Garland
David Garland takes Barrett a few steps further:
For Paul it is an either/or situation. Fellowship with God excludes all other fellowships—particularly those associated with idolatry. The Corinthian Christians were surrounded by pagan values and practices. Just because they have been sealed by the Spirit does not mean that they can be careless about their relationships and associations with the world.
Paul’s clarification in 1 Cor 5:9–10 makes it clear, however, that he is not asking them to shun pagans altogether. He assumes that they will shop in the market (1 Cor 10:25) and encourages them to go to dinner at a pagan’s home if they are invited and disposed to go (1 Cor 10:26). But he does want to form their spiritual identity so that they are distinguished from the pagan society surrounding them and will realign their values accordingly. Christians hold values dear that others reject. They must not allow themselves to be hitched to the same yoke as those whose beliefs are hostile to Christian faith. Therefore, Paul pleads with them to withdraw from these unholy alliances.
My Thoughts
Many Christians hold to a bumper-sticker theology that Christians should not go into business with non-Christians. But this issue is more nuanced that this. To my way of thinking, Christians should look at values, patterns and practices as several factors which would cause one to be “unequally yoked”:
- Obviously, if the partnership is producing a product or service which is sinful
- If the partnership will cause you to sin
- A partnership which advocates for values inconsistent with those of the Bible
- A partnership which would keep you from pursuing your stewardship responsibilities or place limits on you fulfilling God’s call on your life
- A partnership that funds activities inconsistent with Biblical values
- Partners who don’t mind stretching the truth or can live with a bit of lying as part of their business dealings
- Any partnership which lacks the recommended legal and governance elements above can devolve into one in which you’re unequally yoked
Here’s the thing: partnerships change over time. What you start out with in a partnership likely will be different than what you have when it ends. And it will end. All partnerships end. Nothing is forever. This is why having agreements on how to end partnerships when they are formed is so important. If the partnership moves in a direction which causes you to sin, creates an imbalance or deters you from fulfilling God’s call on your life, then you need the protection of an agreement that gives you a legal way out of the partnership.
It seems to me that the imbalance comes down to spiritual authority and giving the enemy a foothold in your business. Sin always gives Satan a foothold. Alignment with another who is not aligned with Christ may give him a foothold. But what about investors? What about venture capitalists? What about stock option plans, ESOPs, buy-outs by employees or other arrangements in which some or most control is given away as part of the larger deal? Can a Christian be a minority owner?
Having Christ as our savior and Lord is the foundation of the relationship, not the total definition of it. Business values can vary widely between Christians who read the same Bible.
For example, I know of one partnership in which one partner borrowed $110,000 personally from the other partner for a venture that eventually failed. When the borrower-partner was unable to pay his lender-partner, he simply started another business and never paid his partner back even though his second business was successful. Why? Because the borrower considered it a debt within the first business and did not consider that debt something to be paid out of the second business. He had a different set of values. They also had entered into their partnership on a handshake, so they didn’t have a buy/sell agreement.
Needless to say, the partner who lent the money felt betrayed – even more so because he felt his partner, as a Christian, had an ethical obligation to pay him back. My friend went through deep waters trying to find the grace to forgive his partner. It was difficult to watch.
What if Your Partnership is a Family Business?
This is even more difficult when you’re working in a family business. Leaving the “partnership” – the family business – may also mean you’re leaving your family. I’ve met my share of founders who loved their business more than their family, even though their words said otherwise. When the family business is in the middle of every family relationship, those relationships suffer.
This is why I highly recommend that adult children who want to work in their family business first spend at least five years working elsewhere. This will give everyone involved new perspectives on the talent, abilities and fit of the adult child for the family business as well as importing better methods, ideas and (perhaps) culture from the adult child.
This five year period also gives the adult child an elegant way out of the family business if s/he learns that s/he would rather not spend their career in the family business. Success inside or outside the family business should be equally celebrated by the family. Each adult child should be given the opportunity to establish themselves as their own person before returning to the family business.
Final Thought
Hearing the voice of God in choosing whom to partner with is an important aspect of Christian Stewardship. This is why I can’t and won’t give a hard and fast set of principles for entering a partnership. What I will say is this: choose your partners wisely, under the direction of the Holy Spirit and make sure you have a legal way out of the partnership if things head South or when you know it’s time to leave.
Bill English, Publisher
Bible and Business
