Introduction
     Upon witnessing several people in the Body of Messiah with whom I am acquainted becoming unequally yoked in marriage with those outside of the faith, I have felt compelled to address this issue.
    We are told by the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:14, Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? (The New American Standard Bible used throughout, unless otherwise noted.)
    Why does Paul tell us this? What does it mean to be unequally-yoked? How does it injure us, and impair our witness? These are questions needing address.

Echad
     First, let us examine the model Yahweh ordained in the beginning.
    Then Elohim said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Elohim created man in His own image, in the image of Elohim He created him; male and female He created them. Elohim blessed them; and Elohim said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth, Genesis 1:26-28.
    Notice the Scripture talks about male and female being created as if they are one. We find further understanding of this in Genesis 2:18-24:
    Then Yahweh Elohim said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Out of the ground Yahweh Elohim formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought [them] to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So Yahweh Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. Yahweh Elohim fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
    In this narrative, we read woman was to be a help for the man which supposes that the man and the woman must be able to work well together. While it may seem simple, there is a deep meaning to “they shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24).
    The word translated “one” is Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, H.259, echad which means to be united, one, together, alike, apiece. When Scripture says that they are to be “one flesh,” it means they are to be “one” body, much like the Body of Messiah is to be “one” in mind, goal and purpose. Each works together to the benefit of every other. This is integral to a proper working relationship. After all, how can two walk together, except they be agreed? Amos 3:3, KJV.
    A couple must be in agreement with each other, or they can’t be effective in whatever task they seek to accomplish. For example, if two people tied together by a rope are trying to go in opposite directions, little progress (or none at all) will be made.
    Consider the analogy used by the Apostle Paul. In 2 Corinthians 6:14 of the King James Version, he uses the word “yoke” … that is, a wooden beam to harness animals together for labor, particularly in plowing. It would be difficult to plow a field with the animals resisting each other or which cannot function together.
    (Incidentally, Yahweh in Deuteronomy 22:10 commands, You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. Yoking an ox and a donkey, each having a different capacity of strength, is unfair to both species. The differing strengths and temperaments of the animals would stress both animals, resulting in inefficient plowing.)
    Moreover, Leviticus, chapter 11, defines what’s clean and unclean among beasts of burden. Clean animals chew both the cud and have split hooves. Oxen have split hooves and chew the cud. Donkeys, on the other hand are unclean, because though they have split hooves, they do not chew the cud. Thus, the Law against yoking them can be seen as part of a broader prohibition against mixing clean and unclean things in a way that defiles the holy,  
    Likewise, in a marriage relationship – especially in the Body of Messiah – apart from the man and the woman embracing the same fundamental faith and practice of moral behavior, the marriage will be fraught with stress.
    For I am Yahweh who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your Elohim; thus, you shall be holy, for I am holy, Leviticus 11:45 and which is further corroborated by a second witness in Matthew 5:48: Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
    What purpose therefore does a believer have seeking to be bound with an unbeliever? What partnership does light have with darkness, or clean with unclean? Or what harmony has Messiah with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of Elohim with idols? For we are the temple of the living Elohim; just as Elohim said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people. “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says Yahweh. “And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you. And I will be a Father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” says Yahweh Almighty, 2 Corinthians 6:15-18.
    Seeing that “bad company corrupts good morals” (1 Cor. 15:33), why invite into your life, someone who is not set apart? For if you while being in the Faith yourself pursue a relationship with someone who is not in the Faith, your faith will be challenged with compromise. You may not think so, but consider what Paul said concerning marriage. Often enough, when a married couple are both believers, they can become distracted by the rudiments of the world. How much more so, when one of them is not a practicing believer?

Excuses, Excuses
     There are two common excuses – put off as reasons, incidentally – why people seek a partner outside the Faith.
    1. Some say they can’t find anyone inside the Body, though it could just be one is not willing to look … maybe even farther, and longer, than what is desired. Sometimes one has to search diligently – even beyond one’s own Assembly perhaps, to larger Assemblies to potentially meet a partner in the Faith. For if you are unwilling to put forth an effort, Yahweh may not work with you in return. Yahweh calls us to be proactive. We must be workers together with Him (2 Cor. 6:1).
    2. Others seek relationships outside of the Faith under the pretense of proselytizing them. If one cannot make even one hair on his/her head white, how can one think that he/she can compel the other to become a believer? While one can plant and water seeds, the providence of increase is reserved to Yahweh, and until what is planted and watered begins to flower, fruit will not become the end product.
    More often than not, a believer will be drawn away by an unbeliever than a believer properly influencing an unbeliever. This is especially true if the believer is a man and the unbeliever, a woman. The account of Adam and Eve are proof of woman’s influence on men to do wrong (Gen. 3:6).

Danger Zone
     Many risks attend believers pursuing a relationship with those outside the body of Messiah. One of the most difficult things an unequally-yoked couple may struggle with, is rearing children … both, in regarding discipline and matters of faith-practice. And neither are exclusive of the other. Proverbs 22:6 instructs parents to train up a child in the way he should go, even when he grows older he will not abandon it.
    The Apostle Paul brings “training” into sharper focus, saying, And fathers, do not provoke your children to anger; but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of Master (Yahshua), Ephesians 6:4.
    Scripture tells us to raise our children in the way he should go. What way is that? Yahweh’s way (Deuteronomy 11:13-28)! We should teach our children to know Yahweh and His ways/commands. That is hard to do if one parent doesn’t believe in keeping Torah, or even believe in Yahweh at all.
    Concerning this “training” of children, we read further:     • Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of discipline will remove it far from him, Proverbs 22:15.
    • Do not withhold discipline from a child; though you strike him with the rod, he will not die. You shall strike him with the rod, and deliver his soul from Sheol, Proverbs 23:13-14.
    • He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently, Proverbs 13:24.
    • Discipline your son while there is hope … Proverbs 19:18.
    • The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother, Proverbs 29:15.
    • Correct your son, and he will give you comfort; he will also delight your soul, Proverbs 29:17.
    • A wise son makes a father glad, but a foolish son is a grief to his mother, Proverbs 10:1.
    Some are opposed to exercising physical discipline, even citing psychiatric studies supposedly proving spanking provides no benefits and is detrimental to the emotional development of the child. Yet Yahweh Himself through His word says not to spare the rod. Nevertheless, the knowledge of fallible man pales in comparison to Yahweh’s infinite wisdom.
    The Apostle Paul enjoins his protégé Timothy, to avoid worldly, empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge” (1 Tim. 6:20) and in another place, concludes, “yea, let Elohim be true, but every man a liar” (Rom. 3:4).
    Even Father Yahweh disciplines us, and declares in His Word, that he who will not be disciplined, is none of His (Heb. 12:5-11). Parents then, should be in agreement in the way to discipline their children so that they can be raised consistently.
    Being equally-yoked in marriage will go a long way to assuring consistent disciplining of the children and providing a home environment that is safe from the intrusion of Satan. On the other hand, however, an unequally-yoked relationship will deliver an invitation to Satan to disturb family harmony. Keep in mind, that those who are not of Yahweh are, by default, in bondage to do service to Satan.
    So, if you companion with those who are in bondage to Satan, you have by extension invited Satan as well.
    Be of sober [spirit], be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour, 1 Peter 5:8.
    Why then, give your adversary any more opportunity to tempt by being unequally-yoked? (Eph. 4:27). Satan can, and will, turn you from Yahweh, and an unbelieving partner can become his best tool to effect your reversion. This is why Yahweh commanded the sons of Israel not to take wives of foreign nations to themselves.
    “You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of Yahweh will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you” (Deut. 7:2, 3-4). Take note of the reason Yahweh commands this. He commanded it so that we would not be turned away from obeying Yahweh’s commandments to paying homage to other mighty ones.
    We have examples in Scripture of men whose unbelieving wives or partners turned their hearts away from Yahweh.
    Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which Yahweh had said to the sons of Israel, “You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, [for] they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.” Solomon held fast to these in love. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to Yahweh his Elohim, as the heart of David his father [had been]. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites, 1 Kings 11:1-5.
    Solomon, of whom it is written, that Yahweh had given a wise and discerning heart, “so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you” (1 Kings 3:12) … despite all his wisdom, he acted foolishly in this matter.
    Such a legacy, he left that hundreds of years later, Nehemiah is found chiding those who had returned from the Babylonians captivity, So I contended with them and cursed them and struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by Elohim, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take of their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. Did not Solomon king of Israel sin regarding these things? Yet among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was loved by his Elohim, and Elohim made him king over all Israel; nevertheless, the foreign women caused even him to sin, Nehemiah 13:25-26.
    Let us not make the same mistakes as they by inviting such trouble on ourselves and our posterity after us. Maintenance of a loving relationship in marriage requires work, and an unequally-yoked marriage will exacerbate that effort.
    ’Tis better to live in a corner of a roof, or in a desert land than to dwell in a house shared with a contentious and vexing spouse (Prov. 21:9, 19).
    So, why invite contention? Samson was worn down by the women in his life … the first, daily weeping during the 7-day festival celebration of their marriage, and whining, “You only hate me, and you do not love me; you have propounded a riddle to the sons of my people, and have not told it to me” (Judg. 14:16) and the second, Delilah, who had entered into covenant with the lords of the Philistines to learn the secret of his great strength (Judg. 16).
    So, why be unequally-yoked? It’s not a risk worth taking, as it may wear you down till you are either miserable or until you cave to the other’s demands. And their demands may make you compromise your Faith.

Damaged Witness
     As we have already posited, being unequally yoked invites compromise into the relationship. This can be especially harmful in regards to the Faith. Yahweh expects us to give Him complete authority and unyielding loyalty which benefits both us and those around us. Couples should be representative of the body of Messiah in their day-to-day walk. Doing less can bring a reproach.
    And so, compromising Yahweh’s truth damages the witness of the couple and by extension the witness of the Assembly. Because people in the world and Satan will use any opportunity to malign and shun the Name of Yahweh and His ways. Consider King David’s sin with Bathsheba and the rebuke of the Prophet Nathan who charged that the king had by his miscreant behavior, “given occasion to the enemies of Yahweh to blaspheme” (2 Sam. 12:14).
    The Apostle further corroborates the Prophet’s reproof, saying, “You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor Elohim? For the Name of Elohim is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you” (Rom. 2:23-24).
    Compromise, like sin, can spread like gangrene. A little leaven of compromise between an unequally-yoked couple can leaven the whole of the Assembly (Gal. 5:9). Truth-compromised couples can lead to other couples compromising Truth. An unequally-yoked couple can become a stumbling block to others.
    Yahshua had sharp warnings regarding those who cause stumbling. Woe to the world because of [its] stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes! Matthew 18:7 saying further, “it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea” (Mark 9:42). Yahshua takes this seriously and so should we. An unequally-yoked marriage affects more than the partners to the marriage, potentially influencing others’ relationships in an Assembly and more immediately, producing such lawlessness that is replicated and increased among a couple’s own progeny.

Benefits to being Echad!
     The benefits to being echad in the Faith are that there will be less difficulty and strife with one another as the couple will agree on the Fundamentals of the Faith that’s been delivered to them. A couple in the Faith who build their relationship on Yahweh’s Truth will endure the storms of life, because they’ve built their house on the Rock.
    Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and [yet] it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock, Matthew 7:24-25.
    Moreover, we understand from Scripture that unless Yahweh builds the house, they labor in vain who build it (Psa. 127:1). So, it is important for a couple to build their house on the Rock, and that Rock is Messiah (1 Cor. 10:4).

Conclusion
     “Iron sharpens iron” (Prov. 27:17. As the couple grows together in the Faith they will sharpen each other’s faith, and help each other to grow in the Master. When a couple are working together in agreement, they are building each other up, and by extension becoming a light to others. This especially impacts their children as children tend to follow examples more than verbal instruction provided them by their parents.
    A second benefit of being echad, is that the couple can rely on each other and not bear everything alone.
    Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm [alone]? And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three [strands] is not quickly torn apart, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12.
    Note well: These Scripture verses convey a benefit of being echad. Three working together is beneficial to, strengthening the union. But note well: These Scripture verses also present the danger of being unequally-yoked.
    Yahshua our Master wants all of us in the Faith to be echad with one another, so that we can be echad with Him and His Father (John 17). As a couple draws closer to Yahweh, they draw closer to one another, and all have benefit.
     He who has ears to hear let him hear, Matthew 11:15.