An exegetical look at 2 Cor 6:14 "Do not be yoked with unbelievers"

This question has been discussed many times and I recently was involved in a little debaete regarding this text. Here's my exegetical review and conclusion to this text :) Feel free to argue or question! Cheers!

2 Cor 6:14 is always quoted within churches (im particularly going to single out adventist churches)by pastors, elders and even youth who counsel their friends and peers of not entering relationships that are "mixed". What I mean by "mixed" right here is that one party is adventist and the other is not - he/she could believe in anything or nothing - aethist, buddhist, catholic... whatever.

"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" NIV - Does this text really point to relationships in particular or does it have a broader context?

Lets have a background check on the city of Corinth and Paul's association to the church.

PAUL
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1) Paul started the church at Corinth
2) He stayed there for about 1 1/2 years
3) Paul wrote 4 letters to the Corinthians. 1st Cor is the 1st letter and 2nd Cor is the 3rd letter.
4) Paul did not have a very good relationship with the church of Corinth
5) His letter to the Corinthians in 1st Cor was basically telling them of how bad they were - read 1st Cor to really get an idea of the relationship between Paul and the church of Corinth.
6) 2nd Corinthians is more of an apologetic writing to try and make peace

The City and church of Corinth
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1) It was a commercial hub - situated near Olympus and was 'sandwiched' between two seas - the Aegean sea in the east and the Sea of Adria in the west.
2) Being a commercial hub, the city was very prosperous
3) The city of Corinth held the largest temple in that day and age. It was, however, dedicated to the Goddess Athena (Diana), the goddess of fertility.
4) Along with worshiping the goddess of fertility came temple prostitution which was widespread in the city.
5) The city was also known as the "City of Sexual Pleasure"
6) Corinth was essentially a city of wealth and entertainment - they had so much money that they had something to the equivalent of the Olympics.
7) The church in Corinth was struggling with idolatry and immorality - refer to point 3 and 4.
8) Legal litigation (bringing someone to court) was common - Paul was very against this. - Read 1 Cor 6

Ok, now that we've looked at the backgrounds of Paul and the City and Church or Corinth, we can go on to find the start and end of this unit, where verse 14 is found. A unit is basically a bunch of texts that hold together as "one unit". One thing to note when reading Corinthians or other letters of Paul is that Paul was not a very structured writer. He wrote as inspiration came along and mostly wrote of personal experiences... almost all his writings are of his experiences. His thoughts usually wandered form one to another, then going back to the first. It is the same here and what we are looking for, to begin and end a unit are similar phrases that Paul mentions. Looking at the beginning of chapter 6 and reading on, I have placed the unit from 2 Cor 6:13 to 7:2.

6:13 reads "...open wide your hearts also" - Opening of unit
7:2 reads "... room for us in your hearts" - Closing of unit
Paul opens and closes with apologetics mentioning "... your hearts".

Lets break down the unit and summarize what we find in this unit from 2 Cor 6:14 - 7:2.

6:13 - Opening of unit
6:14 - 6:16 --> Comparisons - Compare/Contrast
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6:14 - Righteousness vs Wickedness
6:14 - Light vs Darkness
6:15 - Christ and Belial (another name for Satan in the NT)
6:15 - Believer vs Unbeliever
6:16 - Temple of God vs Temple of idols
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6:17 - 7:2 --> OT Quotations
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6:16 - Quotation from Leviticus 26:12 - Sanctuary
6:17 - Quotation from Isaiah 52:11 - Messiah
6:18 - Quotation from 2 Samuel 7:8 - David's covenant
7:2 - Closing of unit

Looking at the unit summary, i would like to put forward the two structures... The first idea that there is a concentric (chiastic) structure to the main point in this unit. For thos who don't know what concentric or chiastic is, think of a burger. The bread is on the outside and you've got lettuce and tomatoes and onions etc.. but the main part of the burger IS the meat. So here, the main point is in the middle! lets see...

-> Righteousness and Wickedness
----> Light and Darkness
--------> Christ and Belial <- main idea: holiness and unholiness cannot coexist.
----> Believers and Unbelievers
-> Temple of God and Temple of Idols

The Second idea is that Paul moves from an ABSTRACT idea "Righteousness vs Wickedness" to a CONCRETE idea "Temple of God vs Temple of Idols". Something that hit really close to home for the people in Corinth. Taking into consideration the lifestyles that the people in the church of Corinth were leading, the second idea of Abstract to Concrete makes more sense if applied to the situation then.

In the second part of this unit where Paul quotes the OT texts, Paul writes to the church reminding them of what he has taught. Reading the book of Acts, we can see that Paul was very aggressive in teaching - he made sure he got the message across. We can expect that he did the same for the 1 1/2 years in the church of Corinth too and hence, he was using these texts to remind the corinthians that holiness and unholiness cannot be mixed. Look at the contrasts... Christ and Belial cannot live in harmony, Light and Darkness is another classic example stated in the unit.

In CONCLUSION, this unit is basically telling us that our lives, our lifestyle has to be one which is that is lived like Christ. Singling out verse 14 of chapter 6 to throw at couples who are of mixed religious beliefs is very narrow minded. Sure, i beleive that this unit encompasses the need for people to know that it applies to marriage and relationships too, but one has to look at the broader perspective. This unit tells us that we should separate ourselves from unholiness in all aspects of our lives. It sounds impractical with "contextualization" techniques that we employ sometimes for evangelism, but give it a second thought.

In summary: This unit is summed up by saying... "No holiness with unholiness".

ps... i took a long time on this one! hope it's a good read! :)