IF I HAVE FRIENDS WHO ARE NOT CHRISTIANS
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans
Translator: Robin Barker
When I read the below which was sent to me, I immediately thought about the advice which I gave someone about friends.
The following is my opinion:
The Christian should be friendly at all times with everyone and at inopportune and opportune times proclaim the Gospel.
2TIM 4:2-5
2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.
3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
If I have friends who are not professing Christians, I must make my first goal to bring my friends to Christ. If I do not do this, then I am not really their friend.
How can I be a friend and then I watch my friend walk towards hell, saying nothing?
If my friend does not want to accept Jesus Christ as his or her Lord and Saviour, then they are rejecting Him.
It is Jesus who is speaking here:
MAT 12:30 “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
LUKE 11:23 “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”
Someone may ask, “What if my friend remains neutral?”
No one who has ever heard of Jesus can remain neutral.
If you do nothing after you have heard the Gospel of Christ, you choose not to have a relationship with Him.
It sounds a little harsh to say that, but that is the way it is.
There is a saying in Afrikaans, I do not know if there is the same sort of saying in other languages but I think when it comes to the acceptance of Christ, the saying says, which is made up of only five words but says everything:
“It is do or die” (Dit is reg of weg – It is correct or gone)
REV 3:15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!
REV 3:16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
There comes a time when my so called friend, if him or her, does not want to repent, that I must re-evaluate my friendship with them.
MATTHEW 10:14-16
14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. (When you must leave them to their own destiny/fate)
15 Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
16 “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes (snakes are seen as intelligent) and as innocent as doves. (Without falsehood or anger).
Pay attention to the following:
MAT 10:14 … If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.
The reason why Jesus states this so strongly, that I must break completely, He Himself says it like this:
MAT 7:6 "Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.
"You were getting along so well. Who has interfered with you to hold you back from following the truth? It certainly isn't God, for He is the One who called you to freedom. But it takes only one wrong person among you to infect all the others — a little yeast spreads quickly through the whole batch of dough! (GAL 5:7-9 NLT)
Prayer: LORD, help me to guard my heart and mind so that nothing distracts me from the truth and from my relationship with You. I ask You for discernment and wisdom regarding those I allow to be in relationship with me. Help me to choose well, because the choice is my responsibility, whether I allow those in my life that edify or those that interfere. A little compromise goes a long way! I need Your strength that I may hold fast to the right decision. In Jesus' name, Amen."
Greetings,
Sakkie