"Be evenly yoked"

Now I know the specific association given biblically but what does it mean to YOU? Everyone likes to say scripture is always a matter of interpretation. So interperate por favor

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to see that it refers to some kind of device that joins oxen in a team. If we use the term outside of this context but without going to the biblical context, it presumably would mean involuntarily joined.

        But the adverb throws me – “evenly.” I think the best I could do would be to say that ,outside of the biblical context, the phrase  means that if one is involuntarily joined to an undertaking, make sure you have the same rights and obligations as your partner. But if the joining is “involuntary” you could not do this. So my interpretation does not work unless we dispense with the “involuntary” aspect and just interpret “yoked’ as “joined.

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both oxen of relatively the same size and strength or you can't plow a straight row.

the Bible means in your relationships, a believer and non-believer is not equally yoked according to the Bible.  That is why some Christians seem very clichish when they only hang around with people that believe the same as them.  I always thought it contradicted spreading the good news to only be with those you believe to be equal.  Why wouldn't all living beings be equal and deserving of love and kindess??  

I use to waitress years ago and I absolutely hated working on Sundays.  I would literally be harrassed and shaking at a table when these "hell fire" Christians would come in and want to witness with me that hell is real.  And then have the audacity to barely leave a tip for excellent service.  So when I started attending church later in life, I joined a ministry of riding motorcycles.  And we would go out to eat, and ask the manager which server was "in need".  We would ask to sit in her station and every person would leave $20 tip.  It would make these young girls cry when we would give her hundreds of dollars.  We never talked about being equally yoked or hell!  I am sure we were much more like Christ than I ever experienced waitressing

and I'm not sure I have ever actually seen an ox, but I'll take your word for it.  

But what does the phrase mean outside of the plowing context?

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On the homestead my great aunt and uncle had, it was too rugged to use a tractor so we used work horses. Nothing like learning were a phase comes from, from a real world experience. Unfortunately, many of these sayings and concepts will soon be lost to many, not just you, as more and more of the worlds population moves from rural to urban lifestyles.

The saying merely means, to my understanding, that if you have a goal that you desire to reach, and you enter into a partnership with someone to reach that goal, you would be wise to be yoked to a person who has the same goal, and the same degree of passion in reaching that goal, as you yourself have. Otherwise, you may not reach your goal, or the effort to do so may be much more than it needed to be due to conflicts in purpose, plan and implementation in reaching that goal.

Or, in your case better than most other Christians!  

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Six months of forced hard labor for YOU. Shame! SHAME! Lol.

However, I DID need to look up the complete passage so I could properly contextualize the phrase. Despite my status as an unrepentant ex-Catholic, I find myself inextricably drawn to these types of conversations. I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment.

First let me say, I freaking hate Saint Paul, but that's a conversation for another day. In this passage, Paul is making a bit of word-play. The Hebrew name of the demon, Belial, has several possible translations: "worthless" ("Beli yo'il"), "yokeless" ("Beli ol"), "may have no rising" ("Belial") or "never to rise" ("Beli ya'al"). Paul is making a clever pun- anyway you translate it- Belial is the diametric opposite of Jesus, who Paul believes is valuable and has been saddled with a great burden AND has risen from the dead!

Back to OSP's exact question, when two oxen are unequally yoked together, it is both painful and ineffective. The friction and weight is not being distrubuted equally, thus the skin on the oxens' neck gets bruised and abraded, until there are raw, weeping, open wounds. Because of the pain and lopsided movement, the field will most likely NEVER be fully plowed. In the same way, according to Paul, followers of Jesus will only struggle and suffer; never to reach salvation; if they "bind" themselves to unbelievers.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18  

14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

“I will dwell in them
And walk among them.
I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.”

17 Therefore
“Come out from among them
And be separate, says the Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean,
And I will receive you.”
18 “I will be a Father to you,
And you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the Lord Almighty.

in an afterlife.  I reap and sow in the here and now

Hookerwhogaveagoodanswerbutonthewrongquestion and he asked what does the phrase mean to you, not what did it mean to Paul.

      Further, since OSP said he knew the biblical reference, I don't thinking he was asking what did it mean in the Bible.

      Finally, Paul's interpretation -problems for believers if they bind themselves to unbelievers- is invalid on its face as you stated it, because oxen are involuntarily yoked. They can't choose to whom they are bound. The plower makes that decision and applies the yoke.  

      The involuntary nature of being yoked is what makes this phrase almost incapable of interpretation, Hookerwhoneedstoreadthewellwroughturn.

     In fact, any attempt at a literal interpretation means the phrase is an oxymoron (pun intended). If the yokees had any choice in the matter, they would not be yoked

that Jesus is going to come quickly, when we are obeserving the elites WWIII?

I always thought we were the ones we were waiting for, but we do seem to be powerless over the destruction of earth.   I can't believe it, we are actually alive at this time to witness something big.

Ever ask those suppossed Christians why people were serving them on the Sabbath? Lol

So unless you think Constaintine is God, I don't think she has much to worry about. Furthermore, you're confusing your Old Testament with your New Testament.

Colossians  2:16-17  Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These were a shadow of the things that were to come, the reality however, is found in Christ.

Roman 14:5-6 One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord.

Galations 4:9-10 But now that you know God — or rather are known by God — how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years.

So stop being an ass. Lol. Just kidding.

The plow, yoke, and oxen are viewed as an extension of the farmer. They function as a joint entity.  

In the Old Testament-

Amos 9:13-15- “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, and I will bring my people Israel back from exile."

“They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine;  they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God.  

In the New Testament-

Luke 9:62- Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”  

 

The Bible is a canon of religious writings than span many decade and build on one another. You can't view a single passage in a vacuum and hope to accurately interpret the meaning. Remember what we were saying about those "extended and prophetic metaphors?"

You may remember this quote from our "gun" debate:

"Those who hammer their guns into plowshares will plow for those who do not."  

Jefferson was making an illusion to THIS biblical passage-

Isaiah 2:4- He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.  

And both Jefferson AND Isaiah were also alluding  to THIS passage-

1 Samuel 13:19-21- Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, “Lest the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears.” But every one of the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his axe, or his sickle, and the charge was two-thirds of a shekel for the plowshares and for the mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening the axes and for setting the goads

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Interesting interperatation lol

Don’t know what it all means and don’t care to know.