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Friday, February 16, 2007
Article: The Unequal Yoke - Seperation unto the glory of God
Here is an interesting article by C.H. Mackintosh linked by Paul Walker on the topic of seperation. Food for thought....
Just a comment to make about his second point regarding commercial yoking.
I understand the danger of wanting to justify ourselves in order to do what we want to do.
However it seems to me the idea that a christian can never be commerically yoked with an unbeliever is inconsistent with examples from the bible like that of Daniel and Joseph, who willingly served pagan empires and kings. Note that Daniel and his friends drew the line at bowing to the idol or stopping prayer, so they viewed that as sin, not the act of serving the Babylonian empire per se.
And many other examples could be given from the bible.
I was posting this as it is thought-provoking, and thus there are certain thoughts which I may not at the moment adhere to. However, let me try to formulate the thrust of the author's argument against such commercial yoking.
According to the article, I think what the author was getting at is commercial yoking in such a way that you must need acquiesce and compromise your Christian principles in the way the company do business. In other words, let's say your comapny decided to cut corners, to violate the law, conduct unethical practices etc. What do you then do as a Christian? If you are interested in your job, would you then "allow" your company to get away with such practices, or do you stand up for what is right, and thus jeopardize your job? I would guess for far too many Christians, they just go along and reason that as long as they are not the one doing the unethical practice, they are fine. However, is that ok?
In the examples of e.g. Daniel and his friends, we have no record of how they run their business. However, from what is stated in the Scriptures, they ran it honestly. If such is the case, then obviously there is no problem. In fact, if I may just add, I have read in an article that being unequally yoked only applies in cases whereby you would be somehow influenced (negatively - to compromise) by unbelievers through such an alliance. Therefore, if you are in a position to enforce ethical behavior in the company, then that would not be an instance of being unequally yoked, I would guess.
2 comments:
Just a comment to make about his second point regarding commercial yoking.
I understand the danger of wanting to justify ourselves in order to do what we want to do.
However it seems to me the idea that a christian can never be commerically yoked with an unbeliever is inconsistent with examples from the bible like that of Daniel and Joseph, who willingly served pagan empires and kings. Note that Daniel and his friends drew the line at bowing to the idol or stopping prayer, so they viewed that as sin, not the act of serving the Babylonian empire per se.
And many other examples could be given from the bible.
Thoughts?
Hello Mark,
I was posting this as it is thought-provoking, and thus there are certain thoughts which I may not at the moment adhere to. However, let me try to formulate the thrust of the author's argument against such commercial yoking.
According to the article, I think what the author was getting at is commercial yoking in such a way that you must need acquiesce and compromise your Christian principles in the way the company do business. In other words, let's say your comapny decided to cut corners, to violate the law, conduct unethical practices etc. What do you then do as a Christian? If you are interested in your job, would you then "allow" your company to get away with such practices, or do you stand up for what is right, and thus jeopardize your job? I would guess for far too many Christians, they just go along and reason that as long as they are not the one doing the unethical practice, they are fine. However, is that ok?
In the examples of e.g. Daniel and his friends, we have no record of how they run their business. However, from what is stated in the Scriptures, they ran it honestly. If such is the case, then obviously there is no problem. In fact, if I may just add, I have read in an article that being unequally yoked only applies in cases whereby you would be somehow influenced (negatively - to compromise) by unbelievers through such an alliance. Therefore, if you are in a position to enforce ethical behavior in the company, then that would not be an instance of being unequally yoked, I would guess.
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