Unequally Yoked

Two 15-year-old brothers wanted to go see an R-rated movie with their friends. They went to ask their conservative father. They explained how the movie had only a little bit of violence, a little bit of nudity, and a little bit adult content. It was nothing terrible. Nothing too harmful. The father said he would think about it. A couple hours later the father called the boys downstairs. He had made brownies. He told the boys that they could go to the movie if they would eat one of his brownies. He explained that they were delicious brownies, but they had just a little bit of the family dog's poop mixed in, but not much- you couldn't even taste it.

II Corinthians 6:14 tells us to not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. We try to fight this verse. It's okay for us to hang out with unbelievers sometimes, especially when they're doing something fun. No, we may not go out all night drinking with them, but we go to a movie, shopping, or a party with them. It's no big deal. But here's the deal- it is a big deal. God wouldn't take time to put it in his Word if it wasn't. God doesn't want his people being hindered by nonbelievers. Even a little. This is hard to take in. I understand. Some of my best friends have made God the least of their priorities, but turned to other outlets like money, sex, drugs, or just apathy. I love them. I love to hang out with them. But I've got to separate myself if I want to stay true to God, and that's what's most important. I can still reach out to them, but I've got to make sure that leading them to God is my first priority, and have no other motivation. The best part of this is, God provides me with other godly friends. Jesus is the ultimate friend, but through prayer I've found that God will lead us to people that love us and love Him if we let him & we look for them. It's not easy to separate ourselves from those who don't love God, but if we truly believe that God is Lord, and we are proclaiming his name in all that we do, there's no reason that we shouldn't want our friends to do the same.