What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
Parallel translations
- WEB What agreement has Christ with Belial? Or what portion has a believer with an unbeliever?
- KJV And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
- NKJV And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?
- NASB Or what harmony does Christ have with Belial, or what does a believer share with an unbeliever?
- NLT What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
There is no harmony between Christ and Belial, no shared portion between believer and unbeliever. Allegiance to Christ excludes partnership with evil.
Overview
Paul reinforces the call to separation with further contrasts, using 'Belial' as a name for Satan or wickedness. Christ and the evil one have no agreement, and so the believer and unbeliever share no common spiritual portion. The point is the deep incompatibility of competing spiritual allegiances.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- 1 Cor 10:20–21No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons.
- 1 Jn 5:11–13And this is that testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
- 1 Kgs 18:21Then Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him. But if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people did not answer a word.
- 1 Sam 5:2–4carried it into the temple of Dagon, and set it beside his statue.
- Acts 5:14Yet more and more believers were brought to the Lord—large numbers of both men and women.
- Acts 8:20But Peter replied, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!
- Mark 16:16Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
- Ezra 4:3But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the other heads of the families of Israel replied, “You have no part with us in building a house for our God, since we alone must build it for the LORD, the God of Israel, as Cyrus king of Persia has commanded us.”
- 1 Tim 5:8If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
In Christ all God's promises are 'Yes and Amen'; though rich, he became poor to make us rich, and in him God reconciles the world, making us new creations.
How 2 Corinthians 6:15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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