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This passage is fairly familiar among believers and plainly restates God's Old Testament prohibition against the union of believers with unbelievers.  This principle extends beyond marriage.  In this passage there is no limitation to marital union.  The same principle would apply to any binding union of a believer with a non-believer, such as a business partnership.

So, WHY does it matter -- both in the Old Testament and the New Testament?  At a surface look, it doesn't seem like it is really that big an issue.  For instance, in a romantic relationship it is easy to justify a marriage because "we have so much in common; he doesn't mind my religion and won't stop me from attending church; we're so much in love; we're soul-mates," etc.  But you can have every imaginable ingredient for a perfect marriage or other partnership, but if this ONE detail is not in order you WILL have problems.

The reason this is true is stated clearly in the New Testament.-

I Cor. 6:15-17-
Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.-

What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.-

But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.-

James 4:4-
Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.-

This principle is also vividly illustrated in the Old Testament story of Hosea and Gomer.  God told Hosea to take a harlot as his wife SPECIFICALLY to show the parallel between sexual adultery and spiritual adultery.  God equates the two as being the same in significance.  Romans 6 gives us more insight into why this is true.

Romans 6:4-7-
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.-

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:-

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.-

For he that is dead is freed from sin. -

Romans 6:13-18-
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. -

For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.-

What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.-

Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?-

But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. -

Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.-

The bottom-line issue is not compatability or the potential for marital problems.  The basic issue is about spiritual authority.  When you are joined to someone who is not a believer, you are tying yourself to someone who is under the spiritual authority of Satan -- that's all there is to it.  This other person can be the nicest, most moral person who ever walked the earth.  But the unbeliever is under the absolute spiritual authority of Satan and is in bondage to sin.  The believer is under the spiritual authority of God.  And the Word says that no man can serve two masters (Mt. 6:24). 

The union of a believer with an unbeliever forces a believer into a position of spiritual adultery - it is as simple, and as significant, as that.  This fact WILL be a hindrance to the believer's walk with God and will create strain in his or her relationship with the non-believer.  Two perfectly "compatible" people would have problems because of the spiritual battle that would be going on between them, even without their knowledge.  We tend to overlook the literal nature of this battle.  Satan is real and he WILL take advantage of any opportunity to harm, hinder or otherwise distract a believer from following God wholeheartedly.  This will result, to a greater or lesser degree, in some measure of disobedience in the life of the believer and a lack of blessing that God would like to be free to give.

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