What agreement has Christ with Belial? Or what portion has a believer with an unbeliever?
Parallel translations
- KJV And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
- BSB What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
- 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 10:20–21But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God, and I don’t desire that you would have fellowship with demons.
- 1 Jn 5:11–13The testimony is this, that God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
- 1 Kgs 18:21Elijah came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you waver between the two sides? If Yahweh is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” The people didn’t say a word.
- 1 Sam 5:2–4The Philistines took God’s ark, and brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.
- Acts 5:14More believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.
- Acts 8:20But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!
- Mark 16:16He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who disbelieves will be condemned.
- Ezra 4:3But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ households of Israel, said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves together will build to Yahweh, the God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.”
- 1 Tim 5:8But if anyone doesn’t 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.