Relationships

‘Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness?’ 2 Cor.6:14

Does loving God mean giving up or cutting off friends who are of other religious beliefs regardless of how long the friendships have lasted? This is a struggle for a lot of people especially because of the strength of their emotional ties to these friends. They want to know what happens to those ties when they give their lives to Jesus.

Like in every situation we come across in life, we must defer to the Word of God as Christians. First things first, you must work out your own salvation by the grace of God with fear and trembling [Phil.2:12]. What that means is that you have to work at standing first. In other words, let your first priority be getting yourself grounded in the Word and in your walk with God. In the process you will lose time with your friends but it is totally healthy. You may even need to deliberately separate yourself from your friends in order to spend quality time with God. In my university days I had a group of friends that I used to hang out with before I fell in love with Jesus.  When I got saved, I didn’t condemn them, or look down on them, or treat them as though they were inferior to me. I just made sure that every interaction I had with them, I talked to them about Jesus even though they laughed me to scorn. I had t declare my new position. But guess what taking that stand was possible because I had taken time out by myself to spend time with God. Today some of those my friends are serving Jesus passionately. So my advice is that you should talk to your friends and let them know that you have decided to follow Jesus and there is no turning back for you. If they can’t respect your decision, you need to think twice about that friendship. Again the times you hung out with them, where did it lead you? Closer to God or farther from God, you need to decide. More often than not God will use you to reach them for Christ so you cannot afford to cut them off but you have to stand your ground. God has everybody worked out; our job is to reach out to those that are far from God. But you must first work out your own salvation.

Prayer: Father, I ask for the grace to stand tall for Jesus in all of my relationships. And in interactions with people help me make Jesus the focus, in Jesus Name.