Choosing Confidants and Counselors – Ephesians 5:8

For you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light.

Love and serve all, but choose your confidants and counselors well.

Be they royalty or beggars, lovely or hard to take, Jesus teaches us to be kind to those He brings into our lives on our journey with Him. He instructs us to love and serve them, laying ourselves down, so we might lift Him up. Our love for Him impels us to consider others as more important than ourselves. Our desire to be like Him drives us to follow His example by befriending the lost and seeking those unlikely to be in our circle of friends, just as He fellowshipped with the rich and poor alike, even dishonest tax collectors.[1] Our ministrations to seeking souls and hurting hearts, performed in loving-kindness, should have one magnificent ambition, that is, to draw our fellow travelers closer to Christ, so they might enter into His salvation or grow stronger in faith.

While Jesus calls us to offer our friendship without consideration for ourselves, in choosing those to whom we will bind our hearts in intimate Christian relationship, we must be wise. Since we thrive only when standing in the light of the Lord, we need to choose our confidants, counselors, and role models from among those who dwell in the light, who revere God and obey His statutes.[2] For those who walk with the wise, grow wise, but those who make fools their companions suffer from these unwise associations.[3] We need to be wary of those who would attempt, even subtly, to entice us away from our God to follow false gods or to travel into forbidden territories,[4] for friendship with the world is tantamount to hostility toward God, and those who tread on this dangerous course become enemies of God.[5]

Therefore, exercise wisdom regarding who you tell your heart’s secrets, take advice from, or follow as examples, and spurn close association with anyone professing Christianity while living in a manner that pours contempt on Christ’s teaching.[6] Rely on those who seek, though imperfectly, just as we do so imperfectly, to imitate God, to extend mercy, to demonstrate humility, and to live righteously, those who guard their hearts against immorality, covetousness, dishonesty, idolatry, and impurity.[7] Trust people who know and love God, who strive to walk as children of the Light, and they will be as lights upon your path as you travel together along the Highway of Holiness.

Sparkling jewel in Jesus’ crown

Righteousness the golden gown

Worn to reflect the brilliant light

Shining through the darkest night

Abiding love in Christ the Lord

A heart that with the angels soared

To heaven’s heights solely reserved

For those who honorably have served

Sharing joy as others gain

And at last their dreams attain

Trusting God through thick and thin

For hope is rooted deep within

Talents used, not to enrich

But to share the blessings which

Her thirsty soul gladly received

Abundantly as she believed

Ambitious not for glory, fun

But for those she loves to know the One 

Who loves them more than any could

Who all their questions understood

Eyes to see God’s loving-kindness

Too often missed by worldly blindness

Strength and faith that cares transcend

Loyal and devoted friend

[1] Mark 2:15

[2] Psalm 119:63

[3] Proverbs 13:20

[4] Deuteronomy 13:6-8

[5] James 4:4

[6] 1 Corinthians 5:11

[7] Ephesians 5:1-4, 15