Brothers and Sisters in Christ

We asked our readers to comment and tell us what they would like to read about on our blog.  You commented and asked several questions about guy/girl relationships.  We will spend the next few weeks covering those questions.

Our first few questions involved how girls should act around guys and whether or not it was okay to be friends with them.  I recently read a book by Joshua Harris titled I Kissed Dating Goodbye.  He covers this question well.  He says that guys and girls should be friends “Because God tells us that as Christians we have a built-in level of commitment to each other as ‘brothers and sisters’ in Christ (1 Timothy 5:1-2).  We’re family.”

In one of his letters to Timothy, Paul gives him instructions regarding his various relationships with the people around him.  He tells Timothy: “Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and with all propriety, the younger women as sisters.”  Paul doesn’t tell Timothy to get rid of his relationships with girls, but rather to treat them as he should, as his sisters in Christ!

God wants us to look to the example of Jesus Christ for what our human relationships should look like, whether they’re guy/girl relationships, family relationships, or friendships.  Joshua Harris sums up well the purpose of relationships: “They’re not to be about getting, but giving.  Every relationship for a Christian is an opportunity to love another person like God has loved us.”