facebook was created to help you share and connect with the people in your life. One of the concerns people have when being on-line is security. How secure is the information that I am putting out there? I want to share and connect with those in my life, but not share all this information with those not in my life. I was actually talking to someone last Sunday about that. This person’s sister, I think, had her identity stolen, so they were hesitant to put information onto internet places like facebook. It is a very real concern and something to check into.
facebook has a couple of features that offer some information on their security. They have a facebook security page which offers updates on how to be safe on facebook. There is also a tab that shares their desire to be as safe as possible. They also have a policy that says, if someone finds a security vulnerability and shares that with the company they will not press criminal charges. So if you got into some information you were not supposed to and let them know how. They would say thank you for letting them know and they would fix the problem. Instead of accusing you of doing something illegal. They would rather know of the problem then let it remain there.
facebook also has a safety page that you get to through the Help Center. Here you can see safety tips for general use, parents, educators, teens, and law enforcement. It recommends never giving your password out to others. There are also sections about on-line bullying and what do if someone you don’t know repeatedly tries to contact you.
After reading some of this information I changed my privacy settings which you control to say if you want anyone to see your information, only your friends to see it, or your friends and anyone that is a friend of theirs to see your information. I had not really paid much attention to it, but noticed the different levels I had. And I figured people that are not my friends do not really need to see my facebook page, so I set everything to friends only.
On-line security issues are important. They keep your information safe and they help keep you safe. To stay safe we have to make choices about whether to use on-line places like facebook, but we also have to decide what information we put on-line and who we allow to see it.
In our Christian faith there are choices we have to make when it comes to who we associate with and who we are connected to as well. You could say these are security issues. There are choices you need to make about who you are connected to in your life. The people you connect to are people you will influence and they are people who will influence you.
This is the focus of this passage from 2 Corinthians. I enjoyed the first part of that passage. Paul says he opened his heart to the people in Corinth. He loved them and now he wants them to be open to him. What I hear Paul saying is, this is not easy to say or easy to hear, but I want you to receive it because it comes out of love. Have you had one of those conversations before? What I am about to say you may not like to hear, but hear it with an open heart.
So I say that to you as well. This idea of choosing wisely who you connect to on facebook or in life can be touchy. You may not like where this leads you, but hear it with an open heart. Pray about it and see where God leads you. Choosing the people you are connected to and especially choosing to disconnect from someone is difficult, but sometimes it is what is needed.
Paul says here, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.” How many of you have heard this passage or this idea before? I have heard this connected often to marriage, as in, do not marry someone who is not a Christian. I can see the connection there because you are yoked to your spouse, but this verse is not specifically about marriage. This verse is about any relationship you have.
First we need to look at what being yoked means. A yoke is something used to connect two animals to combine their strength to do work. (SHOW PICTURE OF YOKE.) The two animals together make the work they will do easier on both of them because they will work together. They may be pulling a cart or plowing a field. But they work together.
The picture Paul has in his mind is of two animals yoked together but they are different animals. Normally you would use a yoke for two of the same animals. Two oxen or two horses, something like that. What Paul is warning against is yoking two different animals together. You might just picture a horse and an ox yoked together. What is going to happen? Well, the ox is bigger and stronger than a horse. But the horse is faster. The horse may try to speed up the ox and pull on him, but the ox probably will hold the horse back. They probably would not work well together.
As different as Paul sees a Christian and a non-Christian saying one is light and one is dark, those two things don’t go together very well. So you might picture some crazy combinations of a cat and dog yoked together. How much work will get done there? A tortoise and hare. A kangaroo and a hippo. Can you see that combination working at all? It will just not work putting those animals together. Nothing productive will come from that.
Paul is saying that when we connect our lives to non-Christians like a yoke this will not be productive either. Now let me be clear. I am not saying you should not have friends or be around people that are not Christians. Jesus was most often around people that did not believe. We should have non-Christian friends because that is an opportunity to show them the importance of our faith in our lives.
What Paul is warning against is being yoked to non-Christians, meaning being so connected to a non-Christian that they influence your life and your direction. If your best friend or the person you go to for advice is not a Christian that is going to create some pull in your life that will distract you from your destination. No matter how good of a person your friend is, it just does not work. Our focus as we live is to allow Jesus to live in us. Even if a non-Christian has good goals and a good focus in their life, their focus is not going to be Jesus, and He should always be our focus. And whether we want to believe it or not, that will not help us be productive. The two of you will be pulling in different directions. There should be different standards and goals for Christians than the world or our culture holds.
facebook is a place I see the ideas of Christians tug on the ideas of the world. Of my 450 friends, not all are Christians or living the Christian life. And when I compare the posts that my Christian friends put up it is very different. I have friends that post Scripture verses. Friends who ask for prayers. Friends that will encourage others and praise God. Then I also have friends who post rude and negative thoughts. Friends that use foul language in their posts. Friends that tell about their destructive behavior. And when you see those two different kinds of posts next to each other you can really see the pull of the Christian life verses a non-Christian life. The pull is in different directions.
It is fairly easy to see on facebook, but it is just as real in our lives as well. I imagine you all have friends who will pull you towards God and living the way God wants you to live. And you have friends who will pull you away from God saying you don’t need to go to church all the time. You don’t need to read your Bible. Or live a little, you don’t always have to do what God wants you to do
Paul is lovingly pleading with us to recognize those yokes that will lead us away from God and get out of those yokes. Again this does not mean not to be friends with that person, but you have to decide if you can be friends with them and yet not let them influence the direction of your life. You have to be wise enough to see the difference they make in your life. Is that person someone you influence or are they pulling you away from your focus on Christ?
When I became a Christian I made some tough decisions about the people I would hang out with. It is not that I thought some of my friends where bad people, it was just that they were doing things I did not want to do. If they were doing something illegal or destructive I just decided not to go. Now that meant eventually I stopped getting invited because they figured I would not come, but I was okay with that. I wanted to keep my focus on Christ.
And the cool part of this now is that many of these friends that I was unyoked from in high school because we chose different paths, we have reconnected through facebook. If they have facebook accounts I have found them or they found me and we are friends again. Several of them have asked me for advice and direction because they know I am now a pastor. I have even driven to Marion to see them and talk and hang out. Because I am now at a place in my faith where I feel strong enough to be there for them and I know they will not lead me astray because my focus is clearly on Christ. I was not at that place in high school in my faith and I could have been pulled off the path. Well honestly I was pulled off from time to time, I was not perfect. But now I can be friends with them and not be yoked to them.
In your faith life you also need to be safe and wise in who you are connected to. If a person or relationship has come to your mind during this message pray about how God might work in that relationship. Maybe you need to take some time away from that person. Or maybe you just need to talk to that person about it. Let them know that you love them and care about them. You want the best for them and God has made a difference in your life and God can make a difference in their life as well. I know this can be difficult, but it really helps your life move in the direction of Christ.
Or maybe you have thought this message does not really apply to you because you do not have friends who are not Christians. To you I would say, you are playing it a little too safe. Don’t get yoked to unbelievers, but you need to have relationships with some unbelievers to be able to share with them about Jesus. Again, Jesus spent a lot of time with those who were considered “sinners.”
On facebook and anywhere on-line you need to be careful with security issues. Be safe in the information you share and who you are sharing it with. Be wise in the sites you visit and the influence things on-line can have on you.
In your faith life, be friends with people who do not know Christ, but do not be yoked to them. Hear this message with an open heart. Be wise and honest about your relationships. Pray that God would guide you in how to have all of your connections to others be safe and productive for the kingdom of God.
