Have you heard it said that you can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your relatives? Everyone is familiar with this saying, and your relatives, like the poor, are with you always. When I was asked about my own family I replied that they were those who did the will of God, implying that spirit is thicker than blood. Do you find more in common with your spiritual brothers than your blood brothers? Yet you may recall that one of my brothers did become my disciple. If you make the effort to develop relationships with your relatives so that you would choose them as friends then your brother can be your brother in more ways than one.

Are you familiar with the Biblical teaching about meat offered to idols? Do you think it has any validity today? Suppose that you are selective about what you eat and your host offers you ‘junk food’. If this is what they routinely eat then they are not trying to intentionally poison you by offering it to you. It has not been offered to idols but the same principle applies. Can you see the parallels and the tradeoff between your preferred practice and not wanting to offend your brother? If you choose to decline the hospitality of your host find a gracious way to do it that doesn’t cause a division between you.

Do you like doing business with Christians? Have you ever had a fellow believer suggest that he should get a discount because he is your brother? This is to suggest that you would have greater prosperity if you dealt with unbelievers. Have you ever had a fellow believer think that he should pay you more, out of generosity to a brother? You should not be reluctant to do business with your fellow believers, but you should be aware that the dual relationship creates the potential for strain and strife. But you can see this from a positive perspective and realize that it also creates the potential for concrete expressions of grace.

Do you see yourself the way you really are? Your true self is a spiritual being, but you are immersed in a culture that values superficial appearances, and so you can become alienated from the truth of your own being. Yet part of my promise of redemption and transformation is to learn to see things the way they really are. He who is spiritual judges all things. In this process you will learn to see others as they really are as well, even if they have the same problem of not knowing themselves. This opens the door for you to minister to them with truth and love and light to their real self.