"Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together." Deut 22:10
This illustrates the intermingling of persons of diverse characters and tastes This intercourse is indispensible in certain relations. Men of all characters and orders have fellowship in different ways. It would not be desirable, if practicable, for the "children of light" to be separated outwardly from "the children of this world."
Christ moved with crowds but had fellowship only with few, contact and intercourse with evil, but no communion with it. He met with men to teach, heal, comfort, and save, but the means He used were words of truth and acts of love. In Christ there were no unseemly and unequal yoking.
The illustration refers also to service—the inviting of opposite characters and interests in a common cause.
The ox being stronger than the ass, two evils ensue. The stronger drags aside the weaker, and the weaker impedes the progress of the stronger.
Unequal yokes make bad ploughing and a crooked furrow.
The loss is seen in waste of time, labour, and ground.
"How can two walk together except they be agreed?" In secular life two men united in partnership cannot prosper without agreement. Each seeks his own selfish ends or unrighteous progress at the sacrifice of principle. In spiritual life, when a Christian unites with any whose thoughts, tastes and habits differ from his own, how can they walk harmoniously. Any good to be done is done defectively or left undone. Otherwise it must be done separately; the ox unyoked and freed from encumbrance. The liberation happens in obedience to the Divine injunction, "Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers."
This illustrates the intermingling of persons of diverse characters and tastes This intercourse is indispensible in certain relations. Men of all characters and orders have fellowship in different ways. It would not be desirable, if practicable, for the "children of light" to be separated outwardly from "the children of this world."
Christ moved with crowds but had fellowship only with few, contact and intercourse with evil, but no communion with it. He met with men to teach, heal, comfort, and save, but the means He used were words of truth and acts of love. In Christ there were no unseemly and unequal yoking.
The illustration refers also to service—the inviting of opposite characters and interests in a common cause.
The ox being stronger than the ass, two evils ensue. The stronger drags aside the weaker, and the weaker impedes the progress of the stronger.
Unequal yokes make bad ploughing and a crooked furrow.
The loss is seen in waste of time, labour, and ground.
"How can two walk together except they be agreed?" In secular life two men united in partnership cannot prosper without agreement. Each seeks his own selfish ends or unrighteous progress at the sacrifice of principle. In spiritual life, when a Christian unites with any whose thoughts, tastes and habits differ from his own, how can they walk harmoniously. Any good to be done is done defectively or left undone. Otherwise it must be done separately; the ox unyoked and freed from encumbrance. The liberation happens in obedience to the Divine injunction, "Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers."
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