Monday, November 5, 2012

Boyfriend Refuses to Come to Church


My boyfriend refuses to come to church.  I really like him a lot.  What do I do?
Signed,
Searching for an Answer


Dear Searching,

Your question infers two things.  One is that you are a believer and understand the significance of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and a church family.  The second is that your question implies  that your boyfriend is either not a believer or is maybe someone who says he is a Christian, but is not obeying what the Bible clearly tells Christians to do:

“And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing  near”.  Hebrews 10:25 (NLT)         

Since you really care about your boyfriend you rightly should be concerned for his spiritual welfare.  Two words in this verse jump out to me:  encourage and warn.  Encourage him to come to a worship service or a youth event that the two of you can enjoy together.  Pray for him.  Even express your concern that he is missing out on something that would be tremendously beneficial to him.

However, for you it sounds like there may be a deeper issue here.  Have you read
II Corinthians 6:14-15a?  (Message)

Don’t become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong?  That’s not partnership;  that’s war.  Is light best friends with dark?

These are strong words, but God’s Word is always for our benefit.  Wrapped around a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship are powerful emotions.  And if Jesus Christ is the most important person in your life, and your boyfriend is not a believer (or even a weak believer) you are in radically different places in your life experience, and chances are that there will be difficult times ahead. 
 
The best thing I can share with you is to decide ahead of time to only date strong believers – a Christian young man who has a fire in his heart for God.  Your boyfriend will either draw you closer to God, or farther away.  Which will it be?  

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