Following the article authored by Margaret Mangani on whether believers should mingle with non believers herewith are some comments and contributions from our Readers ………………………………………………….

Hi Margaret ,
I will say it is our objective to get closer to non believers so that we may lead them to the path of righteousness..winning souls but my only advise to the Christians is that you have to be deeply rooted in the word of God .In addition remain stable that you are not shaken or led astray from your belief in christ.

Siankandu Chilala
Graphic artist..

Hello Margaret ,
I read your article in the Times of Zambia with interest. I should say that I totally agree with your dividing of the word with regard to mixing of Christians and non-believers.
Paul was certainly giving us an ethical standing as Christians on the limits of our relationship with non-believers.
Personally I believe that non-believers are not a problem but Christians are. Why do I say so? In my personal opinion non-believers are already lost and in a state of darkness.
What they need is to be led to righteousness. Some Christians ( I am avoiding to say most Christians because I have not conducted a survey nor have I come into contact with every Christian to categorise and quantify them) however, tend to conform to the ways of the world, they try to adjust Christianity to the ways of the world as long as they draw the name of God in it.
For instance because some of the world is accustomed to Rap music so Christians also acclimatise to have gospel rap; because the world dances suggestively in clubs Christians acclimatise to take the same dance in the Church; because most films shot contain sexual explicit content Christian movies also start to have explicit sexual scenes; because the world wears mini-skirts and boys sag their trousers below their bums so do Christians copy to form of dress code.
Some Christians seem more confused,dis-jointed and unsure of their faith. I believe this has made the Church somewhat ineffective to deliver the message of salvation to the non-believers and are not taken seriously.
For instance sometime late last year I lived in the same complex with a well-known talented gospel artist and Pastor.
Once we were riding in the same car and we started talking about evangelism. This brother in Christ said he sometimes went to the club just to listen to music and he sometimes went to night clubs to evangelise to people in those places. I asked if him he did not think that he did the right thing at the wrong time and place.
He defended his position and even quoted scripture to back it up. He spoke about an event when he would be singing alongside secular music artists and the event was being sponsored by a brewery of alcoholic beverages.
My attempt to make him see that the Bible can be interpreted to support any of our humanly opinions if we seek to interpret it ourselves ignoring the fact that we should let the BIBLE interpreted itself and just learn on what it says minus subtracting or adding our personal views but my advise fell on deaf ears.
I believe this is one way in which God wrote the Bible to give us the free will to choose life or death, to choose to believe wrong things or right things so if we wish.
When he disembarked my wife looked at me and said; ‘then how do people tell the difference between a believer and a non-believer if we can’t be differentiated ?’
My wife’s question remained ringing in my head and so I spent some time searching the BIBLE on what it said about mixing and the conduct of believers and non-believers.
I also wanted to search the things the brother in Christ said if indeed were written and supported in the Bible. This is because I know that the Bible is a diverse and complicated spiritual book that we continue to learn from as the Spirit reveals more secret things of God.
One thing I have come to appreciate is that the BIBLE never contradicts itself and so when I started finding scripture, patterns and typologies that contradicted what my artist brother said I knew there was a problem.
My Bible clearly states that Christians should live in harmony with non-believers (be love), Christians must conduct themselves in a way that separates them from the ways of the world (be holy), Christians should separate themselves from the ways of non-believers (be Righteous). Christians must not defile themselves with the customs of non-believers (be pure).
The mentality of Christians conforming to the ways of the world as though taking an apologetic stance for being a Christian is seen even in some of our spiritually mature believers in the church.
I recall an incidence when one learned MP and minister was making a speech in the presence of church leaders at the level of Pastors, Bishops, Evangelists, Apostles, Priests, whatever I can call them. The minister made the following comments and even quoted the Bible;
• Men and women are equal as stated in the Bible
• The church should stop preaching the message that women are second class citizens
• The fact that woman was made from the rib of man and God said let me make a helper shows that they are equal
I was shocked when none of the believers corrected the honourable minister and no one even wrote an article to the newspapers to correct the situation the following day.
Personally my BIBLE does not say men and women are equal in the sense the minister had put it and I have not come across a church that preaches that women are second class citizens.
With regard to the third reason it did not even make sense to me how being made from a rib and being a helper proves equality but rather the opposite.
The church leadership in this case was not bold enough like Moses, Elijah, Daniel and his three friends, Jacob, our Lord Jesus christ,or Paul to say you defile the name of our God, his word says this not as you say.
So as Christians as long as we continue to adapt to the ways of the world, to political systems, democratic philosophies forgetting that the God we serve is a King and therefore we need to have a kingdom mentality we will find it difficult to be the light of the world or salt of the earth.
If the world can see the difference in the way we relate, the way we live, the way we talk, the way we dress, and the way we behave it will be easy to accept the gospel as being the word of the kingdom of God.
Lastly, before you got into the topic, you mentioned that if the minds of the youths are kept busy through, maybe, providing of employment by government it can reduce the effect of them engaging in bad vices.
I tend to disagree with this view for the simple reason that I believe it falls within the category of the issue I have spoken of above of Christians adapting to the ways of the world.
If the youths are already immoral it does not matter whether there is employment for all of them or not their minds will remain immoral.
Lack of employment will just cause them to engage in certain immoral activities such as early sexual activity, drug and alcohol abuse etc.
Give them jobs and the immoral activities will just change. One will now be able to have many girlfriends or boyfriends and afford to pay for lodges to take them or their own homes; one will now drink after hours and be exposed to nightlife, gambling, abuse drugs etc.
So in the end the government may have sorted the unemployment issue but has not solved the morality issue.
This is why I say as long as we Christians have a government kind of mentality we contribute to creating a mess.The government will never solve the non-believer problem because the government does not change the hearts of men but only God changes the hearts of men.

Kennedy