Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 2 Corinthians 6:14

Although I am a Chicago baseball fan, I still find myself feeling sorry for the supporters of the New York Yankees.

And why would I exhibit such sympathy for the Bronx Bombers?

It seems that crooks have a propensity toward wearing Yankee hats, jackets, shirts, and sweatshirts when they're committing their crimes. According to a survey carried by the United Press International, it appears Yankee clothing is showing up disproportionately in witnesses' reports, on video camera surveillance tapes, and in police accounts.

Indeed, The New York Times reports that since 2000 more than 100 serious-crime-committing perpetrators have been arrested or arraigned wearing Yankee apparel.

The trend is becoming so widespread Yankee supporters are finding the trend downright embarrassing.

Speaking for many of his fellow New York baseball club enthusiasts, Chuck Frantz, president of the Lehigh Valley Yankee Fan Club in Pennsylvania said, "It makes us Yankees' fans look like criminals because of a few unfortunate people who probably don't know the first thing about the Yankees."

I doubt if Frantz knew when he gave vent to his pain, that he was expressing the same sentiment Paul shared when he wrote his second letter to the church at Corinth. Paul wanted to make sure the church in that great city understood Christians were not to live a life that identified them with the idolatrous, unbelieving crowd.

Paul warns that just as light and dark can't exist together, just as righteousness has no fellowship with lawlessness, so Christians ought not to be living a life of compromise and concession.

Out of gratitude for Jesus' suffering and sacrifice, His commitment and crucifixion, we who have been called out of darkness ought to avoid living in the twilight.

It's a lesson for our generation. Christ's people are different. The forgiveness Christ has won for us makes us special, unique and, as much as we are able, separate from the sinful world.

THE PRAYER: Dear Heavenly Father, as saints who still sin there are times when we hear the world's temptations calling to us. Today I ask that I may live these hours showing to all my identification with the Christ who has saved me. In His Name. Amen.

In Christ I remain His servant and yours,

Today's Bible Readings: Jeremiah 3-5    Acts 27:1-26

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