You are Who You Hang With

Those of us raised in the church are most likely familiar with the phrase "unequally yoked". This is a concept that is repeated several times in the Bible. What we may not be aware of, is that the concept is first seen in the opening chapters of Genesis.

The first allusion to this concept is found at the beginning of the story of the flood: and the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and they took them as wives. Now, some people have tried to interpret this passage as angels falling in love with human women, but perhaps a better interpretation is that young men from families loyal to God fell in love with women from families no longer loyal to God.

Many more examples can be found in Genesis that illustrate the disaster that can result from believer marrying unbelievers (Abraham/Hagar, Ishmael, and Lot for example). But, as I said at the beginning, most of us are familiar with this concept. What I'd really like to focus on here is how this not only affects the new generations, but how it can affect any and all relationships.

"However pure and correct one's principles may be, the influence of an unbelieving companion will have a tendency to lead away from God." (PP, 174)

I don't think I could say it any better than that. Think about it, everyone's always talking about peer pressure, an a much as we'd like to think that we're strong enough to withstand it, there are times where we might find ourselves compromising our values in order to be accepted.

Now, before you get all offended and start arguing over the importance of "ministering" to our non-Christian friends, I'm not saying that you should only be friends with people who share your faith, I'm trying to open your eyes.

Think about it, how many times do we shrug off the language or actions of our non-Christian friends because they're not believers? We make excuses for them, claiming that they don't know any better, so how can we possible judge them? And that is exactly where the slippery slope begins.

Take a moment and think of your non-Christian friends. Now that you're thinking of them, take a moment and think about your own thoughts, words and actions since you've been around them. Have you changed? Have you changed for the better?

And that right there is what I'm getting at. We go into these situations believing that we can change them and the truth is that they're changing us more than we are changing them. In order to truly be a light to the world we have to be willing to stand out in the world, I not conform to those around us.

Someone is going to change when it comes to relationships/friendships between believers and nonbelievers...