Blog Article Tags
We love building relationships. Subscribe to our blog to receive weekly encouragement in your email inbox.
Search Blog Posts
- Details
Written by Beliza Patrícia, Brazil Coordinator for Iron Rose Sister Ministries
There’s a common saying in most parts of Brazil, “Tell me who you walk with and I’ll tell you who you are.” Repeated by mothers, grandmothers, and teachers, this saying has a very clear meaning: we are like the people we spend time with. But this understanding isn’t new. Amos 3:3 says, “Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?” (NIV)
Young Christians will hear 2 Corinthians 6:14 in innumerable Bible studies and classes. “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” A yoke is a piece of wood that connects animals enabling them to work together, pulling a cart, for example. This way, the weight is equally distributed between the two. However, if the animals are too different, the yoke will distribute the weight of the wood unevenly, causing one of them to carry a load that is too heavy. In other words, the yoke will be unequal.
This illustration is often used as an alert about the difficulties of a Christian marrying a non-Christian. And this makes total sense: the union of marriage isn’t just physical! It’s also a spiritual union! But does this illustration apply only to marriage? No! Whether we get married or not, we have relationships with others who participate in and influence our lives. Therefore, we need to be attentive and have clear criteria when choosing who we will walk with. But why?
Maybe you think, “I’m strong! I can carry the yoke!” Let’s look at the explanation that the scriptures provide about why we shouldn’t put ourselves in the position of being unequally yoked, showing the differences that make a Christian incompatible with the sin of the world that 1 John 5:19 tells us is controlled by the evil one.
What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people”. (2 Cor. 6:15-16)
- Righteous vs. Wickedness— Jesus came to justify (make us right), taking away sin; now whoever believes in Jesus lives for righteousness, not for evil.
- Light vs. Darkness — Sin and the lies of the world are darkness but the truth of Jesus illuminates the life of the believer.
- Christ vs. Belial — The term Belial was associated with Satan, as the expression in Hebrew means worthless; in other words, Christ’s adversary. The believer lives for Christ and is the devil’s enemy.
- Believer vs. Nonbeliever — The believer believes in Jesus and doesn’t reject Him.
- Temple of God vs. Idols — The believer has Jesus living within them, which is why they are a temple of God; therefore, they cannot worship other gods.
This biblical passage emphasizes all the things that we as Christians should not associate with. Second Corinthians 6:14 says, “Don’t team up” (NLT); in other words, we can be the ones who put ourselves in situations like this and decide to live unequally yoked. However, it is important to clarify that the passage does not refer to isolation. Avoiding an unequal yoke does not mean distancing ourselves from people who aren’t Christians, but rather from the wrong things they do.
We are called to build real and deep friendships with nonbelievers, spreading the love of Christ, but we cannot agree with sin, nor participate in it (John 17:15-18). When we are among people who are not Christians we should give testimony of Jesus Christ, and oftentimes this involves knowing how to say no in many situations. Jesus Christ always walked among corrupt people and gentiles, but He never contaminated Himself with their sins, He didn’t accept or conform to their behavior, and He showed them the path of light by preaching the gospel and repentance.
Are you choosing your associations wisely?
- Details
Written by Katie Forbess, President of Iron Rose Sister Ministries Board of Directors
Grace is defined as undeserved favor. “We love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19 NIV).
I wanted to tell you how saying and hearing, “I forgive you,” is an important part of the forgiveness process. But in the story I will tell, no one told us they were sorry, and we could not say, “I forgive you.” However, I can certainly tell you about the healing that can happen through forgiveness and the fulfillment of the ministry of reconciliation that Christ has called us to.
Grace is defined as undeserved favor, and it is very connected to forgiveness.
Last fall when someone did something unthinkable against my family, we sat at the dining room table and forgave them before we even knew who or what was going on. We knew the whole situation was based on a lie that God would have to bring to light. It was a serious “the truth will set you free” situation.
Why did we choose to forgive? We couldn’t have lived with the waiting and the stress and the unknown of what the following three weeks would bring if we hadn’t. We had been told every Sunday of our lives that Christ died for our sins and we are all sinners and no one is without sin and we must forgive others. Now we had to put it into practice, and we learned that like everything God does, He does it for the good of those who love Him.
The forgiveness we gave had nothing to do with who the offender was because we didn’t know who told the lie. We didn’t forgive because of how awesome we are, because we are not. The only way I can explain it is that the love we have for God and the desire we have to follow the example of Christ in our daily lives made forgiveness our first response. We felt the power of His forgiveness and knew that it was something that we were called to share.
Forgiveness doesn’t have anything to do with me or the other person. Forgiveness has everything to do with obedience and our true reconciliation with God.
Jesus is clear in the Lord’s Prayer regarding the connection between forgiving others and God forgiving us. We have to forgive others in order to be forgiven. I think this is because we can’t even start to fathom God’s forgiveness until we go through the process of forgiving others. The difference is that we are sinners just like the one we are forgiving, unlike God who is perfect and forgives us anyway, in the most complete way.
Can you remember the feeling of being forgiven of your sins when you came out of the waters of baptism? Can you remember the feeling of taking the Lord’s Supper for the first time as a member of the church?
Do you remember a time when you hurt someone and had to ask for forgiveness? Do you remember the worry of wondering whether they would forgive you or not? With God, we do not have to wonder. We are forgiven and we will be forgiven. What will we do with that within our other relationships?
“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matt. 6:12).