Hi! Welcome to CC! I’m sorry you are facing this struggle right now. It is very important for a Christian to be part of a community, but they must be part of a Christian community that follows Biblical principles and encourages living a godly lifestyle.
Unfortunately, when a Christian befriends and hangs out with nonbelievers (outside of the context of only sharing the gospel with them/work/school/etc.) the Christian can be influenced to participate in sin and an ungodly lifestyle displeasing to god with the nonbelievers. The temptations will only continue to grow and the likelihood of sinning increases.
Here is a hypothetical example, say you continue having friendships with these non believers who are already influencing you to date a non believer. Say you start dating the nonbeliever and continue to hang out with the nonbelievers. Soon you will be tempted and encouraged/peer pressured to do the sins that most non believers do: sex outside of marriage, drinking, smoking, partying, participating in other spiritual practices, etc. You could wind up having children out of wedlock with a nonbeliever, and even marrying that nonbeliever, and possible divorce down the road. (Marriage and children with a nonbeliever is a whole different issue by itself!) Eventually, after living such a sinful lifestyle and leading an ungodly lifestyle with unbelievers, you may lose all faith and become an unbeliever yourself after persuasion from the unbelievers. You could even wind up in legal trouble from drinking/partying/possible drug usage. Death is also a possibility with sins like drinking/partying/drug use.
You could potentially end up leading a sinful and miserable life by choosing the wrong community to fellowship with and to encourage you. Unfortunately, many more people are turning away from God every year, or turning to false gods and idols. It is getting much harder to find a community of Christians and a Christian spouse in 2021, and it will only continue to get worse..This means it will take us more time to find the right people to commune with. However, we have the advantage of the internet where we can search for and reach out to communities of Christians to join where we live and online (Like CC!)
I think a good idea would be to search online for churches close to you and contact/email the church leaders to see if they have members your age. Also, there is nothing wrong with having friends that are older than you. In fact, older friends can be a blessing because they are much wiser and have more life experience that they can share with you.
And sorry for the length of my reply….my replies tend to be long, but I hope it is helpful. I hope that you find a community of believers to be a part of and fellowship with very soon! And don’t forget, the members of CC are here to fellowship with you as well! I also included a few verses from The Bible that speak on having relationships with nonbelievers.
1 COR 15:33 “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company ruins good morals.’”
PROV 14:7 “Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge.”
PSALM 26:4-5 “I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites. 5 I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked.”
PSALM 1:1-4 “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.”
2 COR. 6:14-18 “ Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, 18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.‘”
1 COR. 5:11 “But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one.”
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