2 Corinthians 6:14

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

Unequal Partners Do not become partners with those who do not believe, for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship does light have with darkness?

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

Μὴ γίνεσθε ἑτεροζυγοῦντες ἀπίστοις: τίς γὰρ μετοχὴ δικαιοσύνῃ καὶ ἀνομίᾳ; τίς δὲ κοινωνία φωτὶ πρὸς σκότος;

Transliteration

Not ginesthe heterozygountes with apistois: what for metochē for dikaiosynē and anomia? what de koinōnia for phōti pros skotos?

Grammar Details

• *ginesthe*: present imperative, middle, 2nd person plural - become/be
• *heterozygountes*: present participle, active, nominative, masculine, plural - unequally yoked/mismatched
• *apistois*: dative, masculine, plural - unbelievers/unfaithful ones
• *metochē*: nominative, feminine, singular - partnership/participation/sharing
• *dikaiosynē*: dative, feminine, singular - righteousness/justice
• *anomia*: dative, feminine, singular - lawlessness/iniquity
• *de*: postpositive conjunction - but/and/now
• *koinōnia*: nominative, feminine, singular - fellowship/communion/association
• *phōti*: dative, neuter, singular - light
• *pros*: preposition + accusative - with/toward
• *skotos*: accusative, neuter, singular - darkness

Word Meanings

• *ginesthe*: become/be/happen to be
• *heterozygountes*: unequally yoked/mismatched/paired with something different
• *apistois*: unbelievers/unfaithful ones/non-Christians
• *metochē*: partnership/participation/sharing/association
• *dikaiosynē*: righteousness/justice/rightness
• *anomia*: lawlessness/iniquity/wickedness
• *koinōnia*: fellowship/communion/association/partnership
• *phōti*: light/illumination/brightness
• *skotos*: darkness/obscurity/ignorance

Referenced Verses

• 1 Cor 15:33 : 33 Do not be deceived:“Bad company corrupts good morals.”
• Eph 5:6-9 : 6 Live in the Light Let nobody deceive you with empty words, for because of these things God’s wrath comes on the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be sharers with them, 8 for you were at one time darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live like children of light– 9 for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth– 10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For the things they do in secret are shameful even to mention. 13 But all things being exposed by the light are made visible. 14 For everything made visible is light, and for this reason it says:“Awake, O sleeper! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you!”
• 1 Cor 10:21 : 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot take part in the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
• Deut 22:9-9 : 9 Illustrations of the Principle of Purity You must not plant your vineyard with two kinds of seed; otherwise the entire yield, both of the seed you plant and the produce of the vineyard, will be defiled. 10 You must not plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together. 11 You must not wear clothing made with wool and linen meshed together.
• Jas 4:4 : 4 Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy.
• 1 Pet 2:9-9 : 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 You once were not a people, but now you are God’s people. You were shown no mercy, but now you have received mercy.
• Ps 139:21-22 : 21 O LORD, do I not hate those who hate you, and despise those who oppose you? 22 I absolutely hate them, they have become my enemies!
• 1 Thess 5:4-8 : 4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the darkness for the day to overtake you like a thief would. 5 For you all are sons of the light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness. 6 So then we must not sleep as the rest, but must stay alert and sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 8 But since we are of the day, we must stay sober by putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet our hope for salvation.
• 1 Kgs 18:21 : 21 Elijah approached all the people and said,“How long are you going to be paralyzed by indecision? If the LORD is the true God, then follow him, but if Baal is, follow him!” But the people did not say a word.
• Ezra 9:11-12 : 11 which you commanded us through your servants the prophets with these words:‘The land that you are entering to possess is a land defiled by the impurities of the local residents! With their abominations they have filled it from one end to the other with their filthiness. 12 Therefore do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons, and do not take their daughters in marriage for your sons. Do not ever seek their peace or welfare, so that you may be strong and may eat the good of the land and may leave it as an inheritance for your children forever.’
• Ps 26:4-5 : 4 I do not associate with deceitful men, or consort with those who are dishonest. 5 I hate the mob of evil men, and do not associate with the wicked.
• Eph 4:17-20 : 17 Live in Holiness So I say this, and insist in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. 19 Because they are callous, they have given themselves over to indecency for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. 20 But you did not learn about Christ like this,
• Mal 2:11 : 11 Judah has become disloyal, and unspeakable sins have been committed in Israel and Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the holy things that the LORD loves and has turned to a foreign god!
• 1 Pet 4:2-4 : 2 in that he spends the rest of his time on earth concerned about the will of God and not human desires. 3 For the time that has passed was sufficient for you to do what the non-Christians desire. You lived then in debauchery, evil desires, drunkenness, carousing, drinking bouts, and wanton idolatries. 4 So they are astonished when you do not rush with them into the same flood of wickedness, and they vilify you.
• Mal 2:15 : 15 No one who has even a small portion of the Spirit in him does this. What did our ancestor do when seeking a child from God? Be attentive, then, to your own spirit, for one should not be disloyal to the wife he took in his youth.
• John 7:7 : 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I am testifying about it that its deeds are evil.
• John 15:18-19 : 18 The World’s Hatred“If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you do not belong to the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you.
• Acts 4:23 : 23 The Followers of Jesus Pray for Boldness When they were released, Peter and John went to their fellow believers and reported everything the high priests and the elders had said to them.
• Rom 13:12-14 : 12 The night has advanced toward dawn; the day is near. So then we must lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the weapons of light. 13 Let us live decently as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in discord and jealousy. 14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to arouse its desires.
• 1 Cor 5:9 : 9 I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.
• 1 Cor 7:39 : 39 A wife is bound as long as her husband is living. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes(only someone in the Lord).
• Ps 119:63 : 63 I am a friend to all your loyal followers, and to those who keep your precepts.
• Prov 29:27 : 27 An unjust person is an abomination to the righteous, and the one who lives an upright life is an abomination to the wicked.
• Phil 2:15 : 15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without blemish though you live in a crooked and perverse society, in which you shine as lights in the world
• Ps 26:9-9 : 9 Do not sweep me away with sinners, or execute me along with violent people, 10 who are always ready to do wrong or offer a bribe.
• Ps 44:20-21 : 20 If we had rejected our God, and spread out our hands in prayer to another god, 21 would not God discover it, for he knows one’s thoughts?
• Neh 13:23-26 : 23 Also in those days I saw the men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 24 Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod(or the language of one of the other peoples mentioned) and were unable to speak the language of Judah. 25 So I entered a complaint with them. I called down a curse on them, and I struck some of the men and pulled out their hair. I had them swear by God saying,“You will not marry off your daughters to their sons, and you will not take any of their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves! 26 Was it not because of things like these that King Solomon of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. But the foreign wives made even him sin!
• Ps 16:3 : 3 As for God’s chosen people who are in the land, and the leading officials I admired so much–
• Ezra 10:19 : 19 (They gave their word to send away their wives; their guilt offering was a ram from the flock for their guilt.)
• 1 Sam 5:2-3 : 2 The Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the temple of Dagon, where they positioned it beside Dagon. 3 When the residents of Ashdod got up early the next day, Dagon was lying on the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and set him back in his place.
• Exod 34:16 : 16 and you then take his daughters for your sons, and when his daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will make your sons prostitute themselves to their gods as well.
• Lev 19:19 : 19 You must keep my statutes. You must not allow two different kinds of your animals to breed, you must not sow your field with two different kinds of seed, and you must not wear a garment made of two different kinds of fabric.
• Deut 7:2-3 : 2 and he delivers them over to you and you attack them, you must utterly annihilate them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy! 3 You must not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,
• Neh 13:1-3 : 1 Further Reforms by Nehemiah On that day the book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people. They found written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite may ever enter the assembly of God, 2 for they had not met the Israelites with food and water, but instead had hired Balaam to curse them.(Our God, however, turned the curse into blessing.) 3 When they heard the law, they removed from Israel all who were of mixed ancestry.
• 2 Chr 19:2 : 2 the prophet Jehu son of Hanani confronted him; he said to King Jehoshaphat,“Is it right to help the wicked and be an ally of those who oppose the LORD? Because you have done this the LORD is angry with you!
• Ezra 9:1-2 : 1 A Prayer of Ezra Now when these things had been completed, the leaders approached me and said,“The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the local residents who practice detestable things similar to those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. 2 Indeed, they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has become intermingled with the local residents. Worse still, the leaders and the officials have been at the forefront of all of this unfaithfulness!”
• Prov 8:18-19 : 18 Riches and honor are with me, long-lasting wealth and righteousness. 19 My fruit is better than the purest gold, and my harvest is better than choice silver.
• Prov 22:24 : 24 Do not make friends with an angry person, and do not associate with a wrathful person,
• Ps 101:3-5 : 3 I will not even consider doing what is dishonest. I hate doing evil; I will have no part of it. 4 I will have nothing to do with a perverse person; I will not permit evil. 5 I will destroy anyone who slanders his neighbor in secret. I will not tolerate anyone who has a haughty demeanor and an arrogant attitude.
• Ps 106:35 : 35 They mixed in with the nations and learned their ways.
• 1 John 1:5-7 : 5 God Is Light, So We Must Walk in the Light Now this is the gospel message we have heard from him and announce to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him and yet keep on walking in the darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
• 1 John 3:12-14 : 12 not like Cain who was of the evil one and brutally murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, but his brother’s were righteous. 13 Therefore do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have crossed over from death to life because we love our fellow Christians. The one who does not love remains in death.