2 Corinthians 6:14
Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship is there between light and darkness?

Reflection
This passage is typically interpreted to mean that Christians should not respect, relate to, or work with people of other wisdom traditions. To better understand the text, remember that Jesus preached the Kindom of God in the domination culture of the Roman Empire. The Kindom of God was emerging within the Kingdom of Rome. Paul suggested that Christians living out the values of the Kindom need to be careful not to marry people or partner with people committed to the values of the Kingdom of Rome. It’s like a person who works for racial equity marrying a member of the KKK.
Christians work with Christ to engage the larger culture because Jesus engaged in public leadership. The message of 2 Corinthians honors the hard reality of living out a value system of love, justice, and respect for all humans in an unjust system. We need an adequate support system from our family, friends, and church to engage in public leadership. Jesus himself sought support from God, his larger group of disciples, and his inner strength by taking time to rest and refresh himself.
Some people use this text to imply that Christians should isolate themselves, but this is not what it says. Paul calls us to live out a ministry of reconciliation for people divided from and harming each other. We are called to be “in but not of” a culture of domination and seek its healing.
Jesus resisted his disciples’ assumption that they were part of an exclusive in-group by reminding them that “Whoever is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:40). In 1 Corinthians, Paul writes that Christians should not spend their energy judging people of other traditions because only God knows the full truth of anyone or any tradition (1 Cor 5:12-13). Further, in Acts 10, we see how God helps Peter begin to understand that people in other traditions love God and do what is right.
This text is not suggesting that Christians cannot work with people of other traditions, rather, that we should not look for support from people committed to or captivated by a Domination culture. It follows, then, that if we find people of other traditions that have values similar to the Kindom of God, we could know, respect, and work with them. In faithfulness to Jesus, a leader in the Abrahamic tradition, we are not called to wall ourselves off from others. Rather, we are called to be a blessing to all tribes, clans, cultures, and traditions and offer our best with humility and find that they will have blessings for us too.