Relationships

We were all young once. We all remember the days when we were looking for the one to spend the rest of our lives with, or maybe you still are. As a follower of Jesus, the Lord has given us some spiritual directions that we are to follow. We must also understand that these directions given to us by the Holy Spirit are for all bonding relationships.

If you have ever really paid attention to the writings by Paul to the church in Corinth, you know that there was a lot of sexual immorality being performed among the church members. For example, one guy was having relations with his father’s wife. Yeah, I know, gross. What we learn is that in the eyes of God, all sexual immorality is, well, gross.

The Lord’s point is that we are to be set apart, not to be like or act like those who belong to the world. We are given a commandment to help protect us from falling into the devil's immoral trap. We see this in II Corinthians 6:14-16, “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? 16 Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God.”

This is one of the most important lessons that we can teach our youth today. Sadly, we don’t do a very good job as parents to instill in our youth the importance of the text that was just read. We need to be reminded that as followers of Jesus, we have been set apart, we are the temple of God. Since we are such, we are not to be bound with an unbeliever. Now, this not only speaks of romantic relationships, but this also speaks of business relationships as well.

Now, why is the Lord against such things? This goes back to the Old Testament when the Lord commanded His people not to entangle themselves with the people from the land that they were entering. He knew that once Israel allowed these ungodly people into their lives, they would be led astray by them. This holds true with the Christian today. We are not to allow lost people to have intimate fellowship with us because the sad truth is that they are more likely to lead us away from the Lord than we are to lead them to Him.  This does not mean we are not to have lost friends, but there is great wisdom in how intimate we allow that friendship to become.

I have watched both boys and girls inside the church not be obedient to this command and see them walk away from Jesus and the church, all because their desire for love by a person overrides their faithfulness to the Lord.  Remember, being a follower of Jesus isn’t easy, but we all want to hear the words, “Well done good and faithful servant.”