14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 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.”
John 1:35-42
Jesus’ First Disciples
35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?”
39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).
Luke 6:12-16
The Twelve Apostles
12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. 13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: 14 Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Mark 2:13-17
The Calling of Levi
13Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.
15While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
17On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
John 13:31-35
New Command
31When he was gone, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. 32If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
33"My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
34"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Matthew 28:16-20
The Great Commission
16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
When St. Paul wrote not to yoke ourselves with unbelievers, I thought about Jesus picking His disciples and their original belief in Him or not in Him...How was these Twelve different men going to work together, to get His message out...Simon the Zealot would have had a little different background on what he thought about the Messiah that the rest...Did all of the Twelve believe and have faith in Him in the beginning, or did their faith grow as they got to know Him?...The Twelve were all different people with varying interests...Jesus did select two sets of brothers for no reason....And He definitely had a reason for choosing the two sets of brothers...Jesus did not do anything without a reason...Jesus knew there would be diversity and some debate among the group, but generally speaking, brother follows brother and this would help when Jesus would ascend to heaven...I think this is evident when Andrew after seeing Jesus, quickly goes and finds his brother Peter...
As you read about the disciples, Jesus knew they would have their differences between them...That is a reason He gave them a new command, even though it was what He continually taught for three years -to Love one another...He was reminding them...The Twelve were all sinners, but sinning and sinners are and is different than not believing or unbelievers...Jesus has a way with bringing people together, and yes, He could be linked with an unbeliever and make much and good headway with them...But we know He still had much opposition, and His opposition did hang Him on the cross, until His death...(An interesting side not here, is that this hanging on the cross was part of God's own and very plan...The opposition had the choice to free Jesus or arrest Him...And they had the choice to hang Him from the cross or not hang Him from the cross...But God's Plan all along was to have Jesus die for our sins on the cross, which shows we are both fated and have free will at the exact same time -and all the while God is in control)...
The King James version uses the term unequally yoked...So many think St. Paul means you cannot yoke two different animals, so they work in harmony...I use the work purposely, because the early followers of Christ had work to do...Two different animals have different gaits and sometimes, if not always, want to go in different directions...The believer goes in one direction with his Christian roots and the non-believer another direction..Some think the verse is about marriage, but the Bible does not say one cannot marry an unbeliever...(And cannot the power of Jesus help bring two who do love one another together)...But Paul does not want us to shun the unbeliever on his first meeting -as you read the Acts of the Apostles...Like he did, he wants us to convert him, to a believer...
So, I have read somethings into this "yoke" passage...When we meet people for the first time, we do not know even if they are believers or unbelievers...Everywhere Paul went he was trying to bring the message of Jesus to the Gentile, and many had not even heard of Jesus, let alone Him being the Son of God and resurrecting from His death and dying for our sins...So, we too must try and make every effort to make disciples out of all the people we meet...This may be our sole purpose in life while we are on earth, to be apostles for Jesus...So, I think, St. Paul wants us to try and try to make disciples of everyone and of all nations...But once you have tried and tried to do what you can with the unbeliever, it is time to move on and get unyoked with the unbeliever and continue on with the Great Commission of Jesus and the gospel, if you cannot get them to change their mind and believe...So, this maybe what St. Paul might have meant, in that once you have the ability to help others in increasing their faith, do not yoke yourself with an unequal believer that might hurt your and other believers in teaching about the good news, while the yoked non-believer is pulling against you...