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Unequal Yoking
Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello! He…… Sorry. My greeter got stuck there for a sec.
Anyway, are you up and at ‘em, yet? This is another absolutely delightfully blessed day. Got lots to talk about today, so let’s don’t dawdle.
Ever have an Expresso? Every so often I stop by a place in McAllen called Liquid Assets. It’s a little deli on the bottom floor of Texas State Bank. These ladies who run the place don’t even ask me what I want anymore. I can walk in the door with my Starbucks-labeled insulated cup (not sure it ought to be called a cup, the way its made) and just hand it to them.
Char gets the Expresso machine going and makes four shots of it. Four shots of Expresso nearly fill my cup, and she usually adds a little boiling hot water to top it off. Whewww!!! Talk about making the hair on your chest stand up! Your eyes stand up! That’s potent stuff, but, Man, is it ever good!
That’s not the way I usually start the day, though. French Pressed dark roasted Columbian is my usual aperitif for the morning starter-upper. And mine’s poured. Grab yours.
Ever read the verse of scripture that says, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?”
Read the rest of that passage in II Corinthians 6:14 – 18. It’ll wake you up. Read it in the Greek text, and it’ll open up a whole vista of understanding.
There are a whole lot of applications for that principle, and I don’t have time to explore all of them with you today, but let’s talk about one application where many of us have first-hand experience: MARRIAGE.
There are a couple of different ways we can discuss this. When two people don’t know the Lord, and one comes to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, they are – at least for the moment – unequally yoked. When a Christian marries someone, knowing beforehand that the person they are marrying is not a Christian, that’s unequal yoking.
Both situations can have wonderful results, and both situations can have disastrous results.
Let me talk about a few.
Some of you older folks (Yikes, did I say that? Ooops!) may remember hearing about a late nineteenth century-early twentieth century evangelist by the name of Smith Wigglesworth. Many years ago, Kenneth Hagin told a story that Wigglesworth had related to him about an experience he personally had. I’m relating what I remember from Hagin’s story.
A little background, first. Smith Wigglesworth was born in 1859 in Menston, England. Born to a family in near-poverty, he grew up to become a plumber. Unable to read until he was in his 20’s, he credited his wife, Mary Jane Featherstone (he called her Polly), with helping him to overcome his education handicap.
Smith Wigglesworth accepted Jesus Christ as his savior when he was eight years old, but without a Godly foundation in his home and access to good teaching, he drifted away from his early commitment. By the time Smith was in his 20’s, he was a hard-driving, drinking plumber. When he married Polly in 1882, he was a long ways from the commitment he had made to the Lord at age eight.
She, on the other hand, was vibrant in her faith and her walk with Jesus Christ. Her daily Bible reading, prayers, singing and praising the Lord became an irritation to Smith and to the wicked spirits in control of his life at the time.
It wasn’t long before the spiritual inequality began to manifest itself in Smith’s angry outbursts against her. Sometimes he would shove her out of the house into the cold and lock the door, only to feel bad later and let her back in.
Somewhere along the way in the midst of this spiritual battle, Polly began to claim Smith’s salvation.
She read a verse of Scripture in Acts 16 where Paul and Silas had been cast into prison. A great earthquake shook the prison and broke the doors open. The keeper of the prison, thinking the prisoners had all escaped was ready to commit suicide, but Paul stayed the man’s hand assuring him that everyone was still there.
Paul, of course, had been cast into prison for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The keeper of the prison fell to his knees and said,
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
Paul’s answer (see verse 31) was, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
They were, too!
Polly saw that and immediately applied that promise to Smith, believing that if she claimed God’s word for Smith, God was duty-bound to keep His word on Smith’s behalf. From that point on, she spoke the promise out loud. She quoted it to Smith, telling him that his salvation was God’s promise.
If Smith was sober, he just chuckled knowingly to himself and said, “Uh huhh. Sure.” If he was drunk, it enraged him to the point where he would beat her.
Polly’s attendance and involvement in a local church became a new and added source of irritation. One Sunday night, she announced that she was going to a special service.
Smith Wigglesworth already had more than his daily quota of booze, and was juiced to a fair-thee-well. “If you go to church again tonight,” he roared, “the door will be locked when you get home.”
The threat didn’t faze her in spite of the fact that it was almost winter, and the nighttime temperatures were bone-chilling. Out the door she went to the church service.
Sure enough, when she got home later that night, the door was locked. She pounded on the door to no avail. In all probability Wigglesworth was passed out.
So Polly huddled down on the doorsteps and covered herself as best she could for the night, trusting she wouldn’t get frostbite. Morning came. Smith woke up, realized Polly was not in the house and went to open the door.
She had hunched down on those steps all night and was thoroughly numbed from the cold. Nevertheless, she bounded to her feet with a smile and said, “Good Morning, Smith! Are you ready for breakfast?”
It broke him instantly. He fell on his knees asking Polly to forgive him, and then committed his life once again to the Lord. Polly’s faithfulness and steadfastness in holding to the promise in God’s Word paid off. She maintained a quiet and peaceable spirit toward Smith all the time she was being mistreated, manhandled, beaten and abused, never letting what she saw in the natural realm displace what she could see by faith: Smith’s salvation, his deliverance and God’s purposes being fulfilled in his life. And Smith was set free once and for all. That night, the Lord delivered him from drunkenness and alcoholism.
Smith Wigglesworth had always loved Polly, but the nature of their relationship changed dramatically from that time forward. She became his beloved. She was his counterpart, his other self. They were able to share things in the realm of the spirit together. She became the encouragement and source of strength he had needed, and could have used to build upon the original commitment at age eight.
When Polly died in 1913, it crushed Smith. He wasn’t about to let go of this woman who was his veritable life and breath. So he went to her bedside and commanded her to come back to life in the name of Jesus.
Astonishingly, she did. Just long enough to come back to life, sit up and explain to Smith that the Lord had ordained this as the time of her departure. She pleaded with him to let her go and told him that the Lord was going to use him even more mightily in the years to come. He agreed, she lay back down, and was gone instantly.
Despite his lowly beginnings, he became one of the most powerful evangelists and prophets of the late 1800’s, lasting to the time of his death in 1949. The dead were raised to life, demons fled, the lame were made to walk, limbs were restored, the deaf had their ears opened, the blind were made to see – all because one woman, a mistreated, manhandled wife refused to become a battered wife and quit on a disgusting, revolting drunk of a husband and hold to God’s promises on his behalf.
Mary Jane “Polly” Wigglesworth had learned what it meant to sow into the Kingdom of God. She was determined to keep on sowing – herself, her life, her all – into a life she knew God had a purpose for: a husband with whom she was totally incompatible spiritually, and unequally yoked. She never let that unequal yoke become a barrier to her faith or vision for what God could and would accomplish through a redeemed and restored husband. She reaped the harvest of that faith for more than twenty years, watching her husband become a force for the Kingdom of God to be reckoned with, and influencing generations of leaders to come.
It’s a story I’ve never forgotten. I wish I could tell you lots more stories just like the Wigglesworth story. I can tell you stories, however, of wives and husbands who are standing in faith whose faith is still unfolding.
Let me tell you an unfolding tale. It is happening as we speak. It is the story of a lady whose real name I won’t share – at least right now. We’ll call her Marie. We’ll refer to her husband as Leonard.
Della and I got to know these folks nearly fifteen years ago. At the time of this writing, they’ve been married for something like 35 years.
Marie and Leonard had what to all outward appearances was an idyllic marriage when they first married. Both had been through previous disasters for marriages. Both were licking the wounds of the past.
They seemed cut out of the same cloth. Both were spectacular dancers. Both loved the night life, and both loved to socialize. And both of them were lifetime academics. They thought alike, did things together, saw things pretty much the same way. Both were outdoorsy and loved to wander on horseback together in the countryside. You get the picture. Together they built a home and a prosperous business on the side in agriculture. For five years they lived to all appearances what was a heaven on earth.
Now, here’s the rub. Neither one of them had ever had any relationship with Jesus Christ. Although both had grown up in traditional, non-evangelical churches and been exposed to some preaching and teaching, neither one had ever made a commitment to the Lord.
A visiting evangelist came through the area one day. Marie received an invitation to attend a nearby church from one of her social friends to hear this evangelist. She thought, “Hey, why not?” and went along to the meeting.
The message of Jesus Christ came through to her spirit and she immediately responded, accepting Christ as her Savior and Lord. Not long thereafter, she was baptized in the Holy Spirit. Marie became a changed person – radically changed!
Leonard, on the other hand, felt that this was just some religious “thing” his wife was going through and that she would soon come back to earth. He wasn’t the least bit interested in things he saw as religious, and nothing in his upbringing or background had taught him that there was any difference between religion and reality.
For awhile he tolerated his wife’s changes. As the months following turned into years, her interests turned more and more to the things of God, and their once-close relationship became a now-constant effort at resolving the differences between light and darkness.
Leonard made periodic attempts to resolve the differences between him and Marie by going to church, going to the altar and “getting saved.” The problem was that his “salvation” wasn’t real: it was simply an effort to retrieve the relationship of the past. He thought if Marie saw him as being “saved,” it would change things back to the way they used to live their lives.
The problem was that night life, partying and dancing no longer held an appeal for Marie. She responded to Leonard’s invitations to go dancing, to go to the movies, to go out with old friends, but things just weren’t the same.
After fifteen years or so of tolerating an intolerable inequality of spirit between them, Leonard decided to take a different tack. If he couldn’t get Marie’s interest or attention with the things they used to enjoy, he was going to drive a wedge between her and her Christian friends. That only resulted in their old friends deciding that this marriage was going to disintegrate into divorce and backing away from both of them.
Another five years passed. Marie’s only son from her previous marriage was going through a nasty divorce. The trauma they shared together suddenly brought her and Leonard back together – at least emotionally.
Marie’s efforts to influence Leonard with the Gospel had spanned the gamut of personal expression, prayer, intercession, heart-to-heart talks and attempting to serve Leonard’s every conceivable need. During the emotional bonding that took place as they shared Marie’s son’s difficulties, Leonard was far more open spiritually than he had ever been.
One night the Lord gave him a vision. In the vision, he saw himself on the run for his life, and leading a lot of folks with him. The whole nature of the vision took Leonard wholly by surprise. The things he saw and experienced in the vision gripped him as nothing had ever done before. He saw his life being preserved at the last possible moment and avoiding certain death.
He shared that vision with all of us. There is no doubt we all thought he was on the verge of complete repentance and radical change. We were wrong. When the furor died down surrounding the divorce of Marie’s son, Leonard became almost paranoid concerning Marie’s activities. Before long, he was threatening her life, making attempts to poison her, destroying books and Bibles and Christian music CD’s, talking to her longtime friends and acquaintances and telling them the most bizarre stories you’ve ever heard. With the years of stress came health problems and susceptibilities to disease and sickness.
When things like this begin to happen, the natural instinct is, “Get your buns out of there!” Marie was on the verge of doing just that when the Lord spoke to her audibly and said two very simple words, “No divorce!”
Whewww!!! That’s when you’d better know you’ve heard from the Lord! It was hard for Della and me to stand by and watch everything unfolding and not make every effort to help her get out of the situation. Nevertheless, when you’ve heard a direct word from the Lord like that, you’re going to miss out on the most stupendous miracles and blessings you’ve ever seen in your life if you take what appears to be the natural course of action. We just couldn’t counsel her to do anything but stand on the word of the Lord and expect a miracle. God never makes idle promises, nor does He give instructions like that without making provision for one’s ability to continue until the promise becomes reality.
In the past couple of weeks, Leonard has done a 180. His spirit has changed. He has asked Marie to forgive him. He has yet to commit his life to Jesus Christ, but with what Marie has seen, wild horses couldn’t drag her away. She knows the word of the Lord. She knows His promises are absolute and inviolable.
So do we. Della and I stand with Marie and the declarations of faith she continues to make. Leonard’s transformation is just around the corner. This unequal yoke is about to be equalized!
Enjoy the rest of your coffee break.
Those of you who are in the midst of similar circumstances, take heart! Listen for the promise of God in your situation. Once you’ve heard it and gotten it locked in your innermost being, declare it night and day. You are sowing for a future of God’s blessings in a dimension you can’t even begin to imagine!
--Regner
Regner A. Capener
EKKLESIA HOUSE
RR-15, Box 6180
Mission, TX 78574-9589
(956) 583-5355
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This article may be reprinted, reposted, copied and re-used – in whole or in part – with proper attribution.
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