Friendship #2
The Bible has a great deal to say about the importance of the kind of friends we choose. I think the primary reason for that is that the company we keep affects us:
Proverbs 13:20 20 He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.
1 Corinthians 15:33 33 Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
Clearly, while it is not-good for us to lack relationships, it is also not-good for us to settle for the wrong kinds of relationships. God doesn’t just want us to have friends. He wants us to have particular kinds of friends. What kinds? Well, this passage from 1 Corinthians goes on to give us a pretty good clue:
1 Corinthians 15:34 34 Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God– I say this to your shame.
This is actually a difficult verse to translate. It literally says something like “righteously awaken” or we might say “awaken to righteousness, and stop sinning, for some don’t have the knowledge of God.” What Paul is saying is that too many people in Corinth were attracted to friendships with people who did not genuinely know God and therefore did not encourage godly living. Instead of encouraging, those relationships corrupted. And so Paul says, you need to wake up: stop being attracted to the kind of friends who drag you down and start seeking the kind of friends who build you up.
What kind of people should we be seeking as our friends?
1. People who genuinely know God.
2. People who honor God
3. People who seek God.
4. People who serve God.
So God not only wants us to have friends but also to choose those friends wisely.