“Sketchy Cyclist”

Friday, August 31, 2012

     My husband has a guy friend he rides bikes with; he can be a little strange at times, and he scares me.  He hangs out with some people that have bad reps, but my husband looks past that and says I should be nice to him even though he scares me.  Would my heavenly Father want me to do the same?  I am not mean to him or disrespectful; he just scares me with some of the things he has done in the past, but I will do whatever my Father says.

Sincerely,
Nervous

Dear Nervous,

You should always be nice to everyone, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t also be safe.  When you say that someone “scares” you, without being given further details, that makes us think there might be a safety issue around this individual.  You know the details; we don’t.

Having said that, there is no reason you can’t be nice.  God says that we should love even our enemies (Lk 6:27).  When Saul was trying to kill David, David didn’t trust him, but David did show him great kindness.  Read 1 Samuel 26’s account of David sparing Saul’s life as an example of showing kindness to even those you can’t trust.  We should do good to all of mankind (Gal 6:10).

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