Should We Attend Weddings or Accept Birthday Gifts?
Posted May 26, 2010
Hi Mike,
A brief testimony before I ask a question. Your last message on keeping days was very timely for me. Shortly before hearing it, I was engaged in a phone conversation with an old friend. I had told her that I no longer celebrate holidays and birthdays, to which she went on a virtual rant about how selfish I am being for the people who want to make that day special for me (She was obviously totally blind on who really is the selfish one!). Anyway, I tried as best I could to give her the scriptures as to why God brought me to that point, but of course to no avail, so I left it alone. After I got off the phone, it seemed like doubt started to creep into my head. Well, when I viewed your study, I was so surprised to see that you had spoken about the very thing I was talking about, and it was definite confirmation for me.
Thank you very much, Mike, and God bless you,
So, here's my question. If someone who doesn't now that I don't celebrate birthdays were to present a gift to me, how am I to respond? If I accept it, would I be putting my stamp of approval on it? And if I reject it, would I fail at bearing the infirmities of my weak brother/sister/friend? And also, what about weddings?
D____
Hi D____,
Thank you for relating your experience and for your question. We all waver at times, and we all need to be reminded of what is the example Christ left us and what the scriptures so clearly have to say on this subject.
You ask about receiving gifts and attending weddings. You could very well have asked about graduations, your son's ball game if you have children, or the birth of a child. It is all one and the same.
Christ is our pattern that we ought to follow. He attended the wedding in Cana, and He took His apostles with Him. There is nothing wrong with attending the birth of your child or the wedding of your child or anyone else's child. That is a one time event and does not fall into observing a day. Observing that birthday the following year does ignore the example of Christ. Christ attended that wedding, but he did not keep mother's day or the anniversary of His parents. We know that because we know that He broke the weekly sabbath and did not keep the feast days as commanded.
Joh 5:18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.
Joh 7:8 Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.
As far as accepting a gift is concerned, there is never a right time to be ungracious. If anyone gives you a gift, the first words out of your mouth should be "thank you very much". But then, as hard as it is to do, you should never pass up the opportunity to let them know that while you are very grateful for their selfless generosity, it is against your understanding of the scriptures to observe such days, months, times or years. Of course you will be regarded as weird and hateful and condemning of others. There are reasons why God's elect were warned that they could expect to be "hated of all men for my name's sake". Christ's "name" is His doctrine, which doctrine ignored the observing of the accepted "days" of His time. Those days were just as significant then to the people of His day as are the commonly accepted days we are expected to keep and observe today. We all must choose whether we want to be the friend of God or the friend of the world.
Jas 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.I hope these verses of God's own Word answer your questions. If not please let me know.
1Co 10:21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils.
Your brother in Christ.
Mike