Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. -- 2 Corinthians 6:14-16
Yesterday we talked about our witness to an unbelieving
world, about hating sin while seeking to rescue those tangled in its
snares. We understand, too, that we each
have our individual weaknesses and have to watch ourselves around certain
situations. We want to reach out to
people, but can we be friends with those who reject Christ? Matthew Henry thought not:
The caution also extends to common conversation. We should not join in friendship and acquaintance with wicked men and unbelievers. Though we cannot wholly avoid seeing and hearing, and being with such, yet we should never choose them for friends. We must not defile ourselves by converse with those who defile themselves with sin.
I have to disagree with that interpretation. Too much in Scripture points a different direction. Jesus
was a friend of sinners. Now it is true
that those with whom He associated were often repentant seekers, or perhaps
people seeking to repent; nevertheless, He broke with the pharisaic view of
complete separation. At the same time,
those tax collectors and prostitutes were mostly Jews or sympathetic to the people
and faith of Abraham, with the possible exception of the Syrophoenician woman
whose daughter was afflicted (Mark 7:24-30).
In our case, when the overall culture was more permeated
with Judeo-Christian values, it was probably easier to be a friend of
sinners. At worst we were dealing “cultural
Christians”. I heard John Starnes, the
gospel singer, give his testimony. Before
he came to Christ, he had someone ask him if he was a Christian. He replied, “Of course. I’m an American.” That reminds me of a convict I was talking to
one time. He was a black guy, and he was
wearing a scarf over his head, kind of Arab fashion. Nation of Islam is extremely popular in
prison. I knew this guy, and we talked
all the time, but I’d never seen him with that headgear, so I asked him if he
was a Muslim. He said, “Hell no,
man. I’m a Baptist!”
However, it seems to me, perhaps because I am getting old
and because I don’t get out much anymore, that our nation is becoming less “Christian”
in its overall morals, ethics, and mindset.
The zeitgeist is not the Holy
Ghost. Our public discourse is saturated with lies and deception. We have become decadent. The most egregious immorality is excused when
it is not lauded and celebrated.
In this world, in this society, the idea of separation
starts to make more sense. We do risk
becoming contaminated when we allow ourselves to be immersed in vulgarity,
lust, and violence, baptized in nihilism.
Perhaps the balance comes in being open vertically only to
God while searching for kindred and lost treasures in the horizontal. It’s like being in a surface-supplied diving suit, tethered
and connected to a source of fresh air and power by a diver's umbilical giving us light and life as we explore the murky depths looking for that which may be saved. As long as we remain in the suit – having put
on Christ, the new man – and don’t break our connection, we can stay down here
and do our job. Our life is always,
though, above, and we can never forget that we are in -- but not of, this world.
