Bible Strands
2 Corinthians 6:14
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Paul writes to the Corinthian church, pressing them to reciprocate his openness (v.13) with full commitment. This command is the hinge between that appeal and the rhetorical questions that follow.
The words — ἑτεροζυγοῦντες (heterozugountes) compounds hetero- (different) with zugos (yoke), picturing two mismatched animals harnessed to pull the same load. The image is agricultural: a yoke forces two creatures to move as one, so a mismatched pairing produces dysfunction.
The thread — The same incompatibility logic runs through 1 Corinthians 10:21 (cannot partake at both the Lord's table and demons' table) and James 4:4 (friendship with the world is hostility toward God). 1 Corinthians 15:33 adds the practical warning that bad company corrupts good character.
Why it lands — It demands a boundary: not a ban on contact with unbelievers, but a refusal to enter binding partnerships that force incompatible commitments. The rhetorical questions (v.15) make the point that this is about structural alliance, not social proximity.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
Cross-references
- 1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
- 1 Corinthians 10:21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot partake in the table of the Lord and the table of demons too.
- James 4:4 You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.
- Ephesians 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.
- Leviticus 19:19 You are to keep My statutes. You shall not crossbreed two different kinds of livestock; you shall not sow your fields with two kinds of seed; and you shall not wear clothing made of two kinds of material.
- Psalms 26:4 I do not sit with deceitful men, nor keep company with hypocrites.
- 1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
- Deuteronomy 22:9 Do not plant your vineyard with two types of seed; if you do, the entire harvest will be defiled—both the crop you plant and the fruit of your vineyard.
- Psalms 139:21 Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD, and detest those who rise against You?
- Ephesians 4:17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.