Hearing God's Voice for Decisions Oil and Water An Object Lesson

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 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. Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." 2 Corinthians 6:14-18

When we become Christians, our lives change. But before this happens, we have friends with which we do non-Christian things. We may begin to feel uncomfortable while in the company of our friends who aren't Christian after we become Christians. The Bible tells us to not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. When oxen are yoked together, they go everywhere together and do the same things together. They are bound together. When we become a Christian, we should share our new Faith with our old friends, that they might be yoked together with us.

Oposites do not mix. A good example of this is an experiment with oil and water. Place a partially filled glass of clear water on a table. The water in this glass will represent someone who is not a Christian. Add a little more clear water to the glass to show how other non-Christians can mix well with this unbeliever.

Pour in a little water that has been tinted with food coloring and stir. This represents non-Christians doing things that are sinful and not good. Can you see how easily the colored water mixes with a non-Christian group?

Now add some oil to the glass of water. This represents a Christian in a non-Christian group of people. They don't mix. A Christian is a new person now, with different values. Pleasing Jesus is very important to us. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we read, "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold all things are become new."

As Christians, our bodies remain the same, but we are now different on the inside. Because of this, we probably will not enjoy our old friends as much, or even doing the things we used to do with them. The stuff they do will not be as much fun as we once thought. We still may have some fun with our old friends, but in our hearts, we know that we can't mix with them as we did before. If they cannot hang with us and do things that are pleasing to Jesus with us, then we need to begin to not see them as much. This is a hard thing to do.

Stir the oil and water, trying to mix them together. Notice that no matter how hard you try, the oil doesn't mix with the water. That is as it is with us, as Christians. We should not stop being friends with non-Christians altogether, but we cannot enjoy the same things any longer. We will find friends with similar interests, those that want to follow God.

If you pour oil into oil, they will mix with no problem, which represents how well Christians mix with other Christians. This doesn't mean that we should avoid non-Christians completely, for we are to bring them to God's saving grace. But most of our time, doing everything together, should be spent with other believers - to give us Christian support and guidance. Non-Christians will have a tendency to pull us away from God and His desires for us, and that is not the direction we should be going. Christian friends will help us stay on the right path, the one leading to a closer walk with God.