The Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week after Trinity

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Our readings for today leave us with a tension. The Apostle says in the Epistle:

“Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers” (1 Corinthians 6:14a).

And our Lord tells us in the Gospel that a mingling of the sons of the kingdom and the sons of the wicked one is inevitable (Matthew 13:37-39). This raises an important question: What kind of association ought Christians have with unbelievers?

On the one hand, the Apostle is clear that association with unbelievers is dangerous. He says:

“What fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?” (1 Corinthians 6:14b).

Consider the Israelites of the Old Testament. Their father Abraham had been called out of a pagan land. He was called to leave his family and to devote himself fully to the worship of the one true God. And his descendants, the nation of Israel, were likewise called out of the pagan land of Egypt. They were given the Promised Land, wherein they would live as the Lord’s covenant people. But under Joshua they were to drive out the inhabitants of the land, lest those idol-worshippers draw them away from faith in their God. And what happened when the Israelites failed to drive out the pagans from their midst? Their pure religion slowly descended into idol worship. Their third king Solomon’s reign typified this fall from grace. Solomon was born as the son of the man after God’s own heart. At his birth, the Lord called him Jedidiah, which means “The Beloved of the Lord.” And yet, through Solomon’s ill-conceived political marriages, he and Israel with him were led into the worship of false gods until the kingdom of Israel was divided after Solomon’s death, and the inevitable exiles under the Assyrians and the Babylonians came as punishment from the hand of God for those who had failed to distinguish themselves from the pagans.

And so, the warning is clear: a close association between believers and unbelievers is dangerous for Christians. Thus, the Apostle says:

“Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers” (1 Corinthians 6:14a).

This means that a Christian entering into marriage with a non-Christian is at best ill-advised and at worst is outright sinful. This also means that close friendships with pagans are unwise. This is because the people we spend time with influence us significantly, as the first Psalm warns:

Blessed is the man

Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

Nor stands in the path of sinners,

Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

But his delight is in the law of the LORD,

And in His law he meditates day and night (Psalm 1:1-2).

Therefore, the Christian would do well to recognize the warnings of Scripture that faith can be lost. And so, close associations with unbelievers are dangerous.

On the other hand, however, how else will an unbeliever be exposed to the Gospel if not by a Christian? Again, consider Old Testament Israel. Their father Abraham was called out of his paganism so that the Lord could bless the nations through him, as He had said to Abraham:

“I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).

And after Abraham’s descendants were called out of slavery in Egypt, the Lord said to Israel at Mount Sinai:

“You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6a).

Now, a priest is one who represents God to another. Therefore, Israel was called to be the Lord’s representative to all the nations of the earth. Through their witness, others were to come to faith, as happened with Rahab and Ruth. And the New Testament is clear that our Lord Jesus Christ came for all men. For God so loved the world that He gave is one and only Son (cf. John 3:16). Jesus died for the sins of all men. Therefore, Christians are called to represent God to the world and are therefore compelled to associate with unbelievers.

And so, our Lord is clear in the Gospel that association with unbelievers is inevitable in this life. This is true not only because it is what Christians are called to do. It is also true because within the church itself believers and unbelievers will be mingled until judgment day. Our Lord illustrates this by the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares. He tells of a man who sowed good seed in his field. But in the night, the man’s enemy snuck into the field and sowed tares in the same field. These tares are a false kind of wheat—a plant that looks like wheat but is not. And so, they are weeds. The genius of the enemy’s sinister plan is that the tares did not become visible until it was too late to do anything about it. They were only discovered after the roots were so intertwined that pulling up the tares would also pull up the wheat. And so, the master commanded that the tares remain in the field until harvest time, when they would be gathered together and burned. This is a metaphor for the Christian Church. To be sure, the Holy Christian Church consists only of believers in Christ. But in the outward association of the church on earth, there are both believers and unbelievers alike. And this is necessary until judgement day when Christ will separate the wicked from the righteous. Until then, they remain mingled.

And so it is that within the church, there will, no doubt, be pious believers, and there will, no doubt, be false Christians who merely pretend and also cause problems for the Christians. This is inevitable. But it also must be handled with care and caution. We must be careful who has power and influence in the Church. We must hold our leaders to a higher standard because if the wrong man gains power, a repeat of Solomon’s leadership in Israel could occur here. And so, in the Church, we must hold our leaders to a higher standard. We must firmly cling to the pure Gospel and doctrine of Christ. And we must trust that Christ always remains Lord of His Church.

Life in this world is messy. As Christians, we must learn to balance the ideal with what is realistic. As the saying goes, we must learn to be in the world but not of the world. So, what kind of association ought Christians have with unbelievers? The Christian must balance his own need for Christ with his duty toward his neighbor. We must recognize that the world is messy. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to the Christian life. But if we remain grounded in Christ’s Church by His Word and Sacraments, and if we seek to faithfully carry out the Great Commission and the vocations which the Lord has given us, the Holy Spirit will guide us.

God grant it.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.