| Yorick |
12-28-2002 07:13 PM |
This is the passage you were referring to Attalus:
Quote:
Do Not Be Yoked With Unbelievers
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? 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."
"Therefore come out from them
and be separate, says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
and I will receive you."
"I will be a Father to you,
and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."
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You could apply that to marrying. You could also apply that to a job or a business partnership. It's up to the individual when they enter a situation as to whether the verse applies to them. I've been about to enter music agreements where you sign contracts etc, and felt this verse apply.
I ignored it.
My Christian beliefs became a constant issue with them, as I would not do certain things like lie about my being married for example. There were some lyrics I just would not sing. In short it became very problematic.
Thus when another situation came up I heeded the advice, and with hindsight, avoided being tied to a particular place doing something I wouldn't have really wanted to do. I wouldn't be here in NYC now for example.
Regarding relationship partnership, it can be an issue. It depends on the people. Technically, a Muslim or Jew believes in God - even if the path is a different one, and aspects known of God are different. You could stretch the definition and say that they are still "believers". Muslims even believe in Jesus Christ, just not that he's God the Son like Christians do. They too believe he will return and judge the living and dead also.
It comes down to this thinking, summed up that, in certain areas, if you think something is wrong, and do it, you're sinning, but if not, you're not, because Jesus is looking at the heart, the intent and the motive, not the letter of the law.
Quote:
Romans 14
The Weak and the Strong
Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.
One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him.
Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike.
Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.
For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. It is written:
" 'As surely as I live,' says the Lord,
'every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will confess to God.' "
So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.
Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way.
As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.
If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.
Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.
So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
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[ 12-28-2002, 07:17 PM: Message edited by: Yorick ] |
