Relationships – Part 4
July 13, 2003
Dear Friends,
The last relationship we would like to consider is the believers relationship to the world. Whereas most believers would agree with the necessity of strong relationships between believers as well as a strong relationship between the believer and God and Christ, the believers relationship with the world is more controversial. Some would cite the advice of James where he tells us “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.” (Jas. 4:4) They would say that we should avoid contact with the world as much as possible. We should have few, if any, friends outside of our brothers and sisters in Christ. On the other hand, there are those who would cite Jesus’ admonition to “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Mt 5:16) It is nearly impossible to shine a light to those with whom you don’t come into contact.
Just like so many other principles that are in Scripture, there needs to be an appropriate balance. Those who completely cut themselves off from the world are hiding their lights under a bushel while those who partake of the ways of the world will find themselves as an enemy of God. If our relationship with God and Christ is right, our relationships with the world will be based on Truth.
There is an inherent danger in a relationship with those in the world. We can fool ourselves. We can tell ourselves that we are really shining our light when in fact we are using that as an excuse to partake in sinful acts. Jesus had worldly friends, but did not sin. He would attend the dinner parties of the tax collectors while the self-righteous Pharisees stood indignantly outside. Yet Jesus was always about his Father’s business. You can rest assured if Jesus was anywhere it was to preach the Gospel whether in word or in deed.
If you ask most believers how they came to know the Gospel, most would say they came to know it from a friend or a member of their family. In other words, most people came into covenant relationship with Christ because of a relationship with someone they knew. We can think of this in very natural terms. When we come into contact with a new friend in the world, it is our natural inclination to want to introduce them to our closest friend, Christ. If we are truly being transformed by the Word, then it will be difficult if not impossible for these new friends to understand us apart from our relationship to Christ. Without having to bang the proverbial drum about our belief in God and Christ, people should know that we are different (set apart or holy is the Biblical phraseology for “being different”). It has been my experience that you don’t have to put up artificial barriers to people in the world to separate yourself, the people in the world will put them up quickly enough once they find out what you are all about. All we need to do is look at Jesus in the New Testament for the truth to this. After the crowds has satisfied their idle (idol?) curiosity about this new, miracle-producing teacher, they quickly left when he started telling them what the essence of discipleship entailed. They counted the cost of a continued relationship with this Jesus of Nazareth and found the price too high. Not too much has changed in this regard over the last two thousand years.
Let me close these thoughts about relationships by asking you to consider the relationships in your life. What relationships could you improve to make an important spiritual impact on the life of someone else? How would you go about improving them? What relationships are “broken” that are impacting your spirituality or their spirituality? How can you fix them?
I think that you will be amazed at how little effort in specific relationships can produce amazing results to the honor and glory of God. God bless us in this effort.
Have a great week!
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