“I’m afraid that I cannot be a close, personal friend of yours. We can converse at times, but not at length, unless it is about the subject of your salvation, of your need to recognize the sin of your own life, and your need to repent and call upon the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation.
I will listen to any personal needs you may have and do all within my power to assist you when I can, but we will not be spending any time together conversing about the events of the world, other people’s problems and idiosyncrasies, or other temporal things. If you ask me to pray for you about a specific matter, know this, my only prayers for you will be that the Almighty would choose you for Himself, in whatever manner He best sees fit to.”
Tell me something my friends, is this a good and proper explanation of 2nd Corinthians 6:14.
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?”
Since we are in the light of God’s love because we are hid in Christ, does that mean that all who are not we are to see as those in darkness? And if that is true, how are we to act and react to them?
The verse is quite clear, along with many others in the same context, we are not to associate on a personal level with those still in darkness, those who have yet to either come into the light, if you will, or those who refuse to.
This is possibly one of the most difficult commandments for us who have been born again, because for many, loved ones and close friends are still in that darkness, and to follow this commandment of our Lord is to reject any close, personal relationships that we may still hold with them.
It is quite easy to drive past the biker bar, the local drinking establishment, the porn theater and know full well that darkness thrives in those places. But when you think on those whom you love dearly, those who you grew up around, those who the world would consider “good people,” seeing them as darkness becomes an entirely different matter.
“For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?” (1st Cor. 7:16)
Think here on that person who is married to one who openly denies the Savior, there is no promise that spouse will be saved because of their commitment to the Lord. How are they to live with darkness?
Cordial, friendly, kind, that is how we are to always treat those who are still in that darkness, but when the subject matter of a born-again wife is living with an unrepentant husband, the entire context seems to change, does it not?
Comparing the wife who refuses to even listen to the truths of the Word of God, to that second cousin twice removed, to that person at work, or the one you meet on the street occasionally. Closeness alters the commandment whether we want to admit that truth to ourselves or not.
I have no answer for you, and I know full well that for some of you the struggle is real, for we love some of those in the darkness.
I know what I have done in these situations, but I am not you, I can love them, but not at the expense of my love for my Savior.
“If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26)
I bring a message; the message has been given. You must follow your own heart as well as the Holy Spirit in these matters.
I pray that you hear Him clearly.
