Choose Your Friends Wisely

Unless you live in the middle of nowhere, you probably see other people at least once a week.

Maybe you see some of them consistently. Maybe you consider yourself friends with some of

them. We are supposed to spread the gospel and witness to others, of course, and that requires

being friendly with people, but being too friendly with un-saved people can be very dangerous.

This may seem like an exaggeration, but it isn’t.

Friends will influence your life and you may not even realize how they’re influencing you. This

could include how you spend your free time, how you speak, or how you dress. Solomon, who

was likely the wisest human being to ever live (in exception to Jesus, of course), fell to idolatry

because of who he surrounded himself with, and the kingdom of Israel split in two.

It’s easy to think,

‘Well, if we become friends, then I can help him/her with their sin’

. It’s a

mistake. You are a sinful human with a sin nature, meaning that if you become closely

associated with somebody who is clearly living in a way they shouldn’t, they are almost

guaranteed to drag you down instead.

Now, you may be thinking,

‘Well Jesus ate dinner with a bunch of not-so-nice people’

. Yes. Key

words ‘ate dinner’

. Jesus wasn’t afraid to be kind to or talk to a bunch of ‘not-so-nice people’

,

but do you see Jesus making a known criminal one of his disciples (yes, Judas stole money and

later betrayed Jesus, but that would likely be an entire other paper on Jesus’ behavior)? No. Did

he still love and care about the thief on the cross? He did.

That’s the key: you can, and should, still care about, be polite, kind, etc. to other people, even if

they’re not saved, but don’t surround yourself with them. You will come to regret it eventually.

Your friends are some of the biggest influences in your life, so make sure they’re good influence.

-John