Biblical Literacy: Real Equal Yokeness to Save Your Marriage

Most Christian couples are familiar with the term "equally yoked." But the modern church has so blandly and ineptly described, defined, and discipled this that it has basically meant the two parties in the marriage have attended Church or, more likely, self-identify as a Christian. My contention in this episode is that even the definition of attending church and self-identification as a Christian is insufficient and can lead to problems. If you are dating, pre-engaged, and want a successful marriage, please listen to this. Even if you don't consider yourself a "sold out to Christ" Christian, it's still valuable.

1: Man and Women are Biblically Literate (Aligned and Ordered - The One Flesh Marriage)

2: Man is Biblically Literate, Woman is Not (Overruled and Controlled - The Eve Marriage)

3: Man is Not Literate, Woman is Biblically Literate (False version: Controlling; True version: Potential Conversion)

4: Neither are Literate (Bliss is Ignorance Till One Changes into 2 or 3)

"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" 2 Corinthians 6:14 (NIV)

Verses Before (2 Corinthians 6:11-13, NIV)

"We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. As a fair exchange—I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts also."

Verses After (2 Corinthians 6:15-18, NIV)

"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.' And, 'I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.'"

1 Corinthians 7:12-16 (NIV)

"To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. But if the unbeliever leaves, let it be so. The brother or the sister is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace. How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?"

1 Peter 3:1-2 (NIV)

"Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives."