Dear—
One day when you were out here, you were looking over a magazine in which you noticed the following comment,
“No Christian can be healthy in his Christian life if he mixes with the world. Acquaintances among the unsaved we must and should have, but where there is friendship with the world, there is enmity with God. The only reason for making a friend of an unsaved person, is to lead that one to Christ. How can you be at one with those who hate your Lord?”
You asked my opinion on this comment. I had that in mind when I handed you the tract, “Love not the world,” along with a few scriptures I had copied.
You have much for which to be thankful, in that God has so graciously delivered you from a most trying situation and given you, so quickly, work more desirable, and pleasanter, and with a more promising future. Starting in with different people gives you a chance to start over, as it were, free from worldly entanglements, free to be a testimony for Christ.
Yesterday morning I was reading the second chapter of Jeremiah—just my regular reading—how the Lord was pleading with Israel to repent of her idolatry and return to Him. I was quite struck with her reply,
“There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.” (verse 25).
Satan likes nothing better than to occupy the Lord’s children with “strangers” —anything to turn their hearts away from the Lord. If the old adage, “Give him an inch and he’ll take a mile” was ever true of anyone, it is true of Satan. If he can get just the tiniest wedge in between me and my loyalty to the Lord, he knows how rapidly he can widen the gap, leading on to such serious consequences as the Lord only can foresee. It is the same principle that was illustrated on the calendar leaf that I gave you.
Worldly people and unbelievers want to go to worldly places and do worldly things. If you or I show any inclination to associate with such people, they will naturally want us to do the same things with them. The only safe way is not to form any such ties or companionships; or, if they are already formed, to break them.
When Peter and John were released after their imprisonment in Jerusalem, (Acts 4), they went to “their own company” and reported the experience they had been through. This “company” being Christians, they praised God.
In Acts 12, when Peter was released from prison by an angel, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, surnamed Mark, “where many were gathered together praying.” Again, Peter went to his own company.
When Paul and Silas left the prison (Acts 16) they entered into the house of Lydia, another Christian home (verse 40). They, too, went to “their own company.”
When work is over, and duties are performed, and we have spare moments for relaxation and recreation, if we desire companionship, let us seek it in those who love the Lord. There is a satisfying and uplifting joy in Christian fellowship that cannot be imparted by unbelievers. Satan may say,
“O, have a little fun with these jolly good people. A little won’t do any harm.” But the minute our eye is turned away from the Lord, we are in danger.
When once the believer completely surrenders himself to God, he will experience a deep peace and joy that he cannot possibly know while he is trying to please the Lord one minute, and do his own way the next. It takes many years for some Christians to learn this practically. How much easier and happier it would be if they would surrender themselves completely and without delay to the one who longs to fill their hearts.
You are young, my dear, and naturally desire companionship. We are all so busy and so widely separated that you have little opportunity to find this companionship in “your own company,” but you can pray to God about it. In prayer is found the solution of many a question.
Lovingly yours,