They’ll Be Uncomfortable With You

There will be times—should be times—when those who are hostile to God are uncomfortable with us. Now we should not go out of our way to provoke their discomfort, as some do, but in the normal course of events, our faith will lead us into awkward places with unbelievers. Once in a while, if not a lot, our faith ought to lead us into a bit of trouble.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Samuel 29:6-7

So Achish, king of the Philistines, finally summoned David and said to him, “I swear by the Lord that you have been a trustworthy ally. I think you should go with me into battle, for I’ve never found a single flaw in you from the day you arrived until today. But the other Philistine rulers won’t hear of it. Please don’t upset them, but go back quietly.”

For some time, David and his men had been living among the Philistines, Israel’s arch-enemy. He had fled to Gath, the Philistine capital, to escape his own king, Saul, who was insanely jealous of David and was hell bent on killing him. Whether or not David should have put himself, his men and their families, along with the reputation of God at risk to live among God’s enemies is debatable. Be that as it may, he was among the Philistine when war broke out with Israel.

David was now in an awkward position: Fight for Achish, who had given him refuge, and go against Saul and the Israelites, or pretend to be with the Philistines but then turn on them in the midst of the battle to win back his status with Saul. We don’t know what he would have done, although I would like it to have been the latter. We will never know, because as they were getting ready to march out to battle, the Philistine commanders revolted and demanded that King Achish send David packing. They feared that indeed, David and his men would turn on them in the battle. So under protest, David and his men went home and sat out the fight.

That brings up a relevant question for you and me: Is there a time when those who are far from God ought to be uncomfortable with us because of our closeness to God? Should our loyalty to God rub them the wrong way at times? Ought not the stances we take for the ways of the Lord put us in an awkward position with the unbeliever ever so often?

Of course, we have to thread the needle here. Jesus, after all, was accused of being a friend of sinners. There was something about him that drew those who were utterly lost to his heart; he had something they didn’t, but desperately wanted. He didn’t go out of his way to condemn them or serve as a source of constant irritation when he was among them.

Yet he did call sinners to leave their lives of sin to follow him. He did call them to sell all they possessed in order to sell out for him. He did get killed, after all, because the dark cannot abide the light. And the man who knew Jesus as well as anyone, who walked more closely to him than any other human, John the Beloved, did sternly warn us, “ Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15). James, the Lord’s flesh and blood brother, said, “Don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (James 4:4)

The point is, there will be times—should be times—when those who are hostile to God (whether they are conscious of their hatred or not) are uncomfortable with us. Now we should not go out of our way to provoke their discomfort—there are some believers who do just that, who wrongly think that it is their Christian duty to be irritating—but in the normal course of events, our faith will lead us into awkward places with the world. Every once in awhile, if not a lot, our faith ought to lead us into a bit of trouble.

Yes, we are in the world, but not of it. So if you find yourself rubbing the non-Christian the wrong way for the right reasons, congratulations! You are in good company.