Bible-Prayer-Europe Equipping Center
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Bible-Prayer-Europe Equipping Center
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12 Killers of the Christian by Bobbie Powers Chapter 3 Your Friends "...The friendship of the world is enmity with God..." James 4.4 True friends are a blessing from God. A wonderful friendship can be encouraging, inspiring, secure, loving, and yet full of freedom. However, a wrong association and friendship can be destructive or even fatal. Our prisons are full of people who made wrong friendships. Sadly, the price of this wrong friendship was not just their life. Innocent lives were also lost. God is very well aware of the importance of friendship.He created it. Not only did God create friendship but, He is very much interested and involved in friendship. For example, in Genesis Abraham was called the friend of God and in Proverbs 18.24 Jesus is referred to as " the friend that sticketh closer than a brother." Our Heavenly Father knows the power involved in friendship. Therefore, He set guidelines for choosing and building right friendships. Friendships that are not harmful to His children. The Bible is very clear in warning Christians about making friends with the wrong people. God is aware that if His children get involved with evil people that they will be injured and that certain things in their lives will die. In addition to hurting the believer, wrong friendships can destroy a believer's influence for Christ. For example, a person that claims to be a Christian, but hangs around with people who practice all the things that God hates, appears to be saying to the world, "I don't care what God hates-- I just make my own rules." Remember, to the non-believer, our actions many times speak louder than our words. Strangers will believe that a Christian is like who he "hangs around with" and may never bother to see if the Christian really is different. Furthermore, the Bible is very definite that we as Christians are not just to "pal around" with someone in order to "reach" them for Christ. The Scripture gives valuable guidelines for us to follow in witnessing. As we follow these guidelines we find that they work through the power of the Holy Spirit and people are won to the Lord. We as believers cannot afford to be ignorant of God's rules. His rules are there to protect us and bring us blessing. So many times we have gotten "sloppy" in our endeavor to serve the Lord. "It seems like a nice thing to do, so God must approve of this method." Wrong thinking. The only "method" that God approves of is the method found in the Bible. If anything we do does not line up with the Word of God--it is sin, and the wages for sin is death. Something in our lives will die.For example, friendship with the world will cost us our friendship with God. The Bible states that friendship with the world is enmity with God. We as Christians should not have "worldly" friends that we hang around with daily. The Bible says that we should come apart and be separate from the world. We are in the world, but not of the world. The Holy Spirit will open the door for us to witness to the lost, but while they are lost they are not to be embraced as "friends". As Christian parents we are always telling our children not to be in company with or make close friends with non- Christians. We always warn them to select their friends carefully because the name of the crowd they spend their time with is the name that they will carry. It is important that we as believers be counted in the "Jesus" crowd and be the representatives that carry "the Name above all names". We always warn our children as they grow up of the importance of marrying a Christian. The Bible says that they are not to be unequally yoked with a non-believer. We try to raise our children according to God's standards because we know this is the only way that our offspring can be blessed and avoid many harmful and costly lessons. We send our children to Christian colleges and pray that God will bring that special friend into their lives to become their spouse. We take special care in order to surround our children with the right friendships. We feel that it is a matter of life and death. We feel as Christian parents that we must protect our children, no matter what it costs. God's rules will be followed. Why then do we assume that when we become adults that God's rules no longer apply to us? Is it because we think that adults can surely make their own rules about friendships and not be harmed. Maybe we think that God's rules stop with adulthood. That we are "mature" and can make friendships correctly. Do we rationalize that the Bible's rules change with our age. To think that God's rules change or don't apply to us at a particular time or in a particular situation is deception. God's rules always apply, and to break God's rules always brings serious consequences to the believer. There is safety to the believer who knows and follows God's rules about friendships. Here are some basic rules for friendship taken from the first chapter of Psalms that help a believer understand the importance of choosing friends using God's standards. First, Psalm 1:1 states, "Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly..." If we have ungodly friends we can expect ungodly counsel from them. When trials come to the believer the ungodly will not be able to encourage the believer in the Lord. The unsaved can only give worldly advice about the situation. The last thing that a Christian going through a testing time needs is advice that is worldly based. When the Christian gives heed to the advice from his "caring", but non-believing friend the believer will go down in defeat. We need to remember that an unsaved person is not capable of giving us Godly advice. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. Without the Holy Spirit's control in their lives the non-believers can only give fleshly or worldly wisdom. Second, Psalm 1:1 further states, "...nor standeth in the way of sinners...". Ungodly friends can influence or lead a Christian into ungodly ways or activities. Non-Christian friends can pull a Christian "down" from Godly standards by simply getting them to "change" a little here or "give in" a little there in their religious convictions. In other words, the Christian will begin to compromise their values, standards, and walk with God. This is dangerous! We need to remember that the devil will work and wait years if necessary to bring a believer to the point of giving in and being defeated in what God has called him/her to do. The devil knows that if he can get a Christian to "hang around" with the unsaved the Christian will lose his witness and his power. Third, Psalm 1:1 ends with, "...nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful".
Christians beware! God does punish the scornful. Don't be sitting in the same seat with them when God sends the punishment! Furthermore, Proverbs says that the scoffer is an abomination to men. The compromising Christian, the believer who "sits" with friends that are scorners and scoffers will be in trouble with God and men. Christians are not supposed to be "sitting" with the scorners and scoffers that oppose God through their unbelief. Instead, Christians are to be "standing" for God and against the devil and his kingdom.
The ungodly will not prosper. They have no eternal riches and all earthly wealth that they possess the Bible states is laid up for the righteous. They can't take it with them when they die. What can a man give in exchange for his soul? In contrast, a Christian is redeemed. The Bible says, "let the redeemed of the Lord say so". A believer can't witness that God saves from sin when he is "wallowing around" in sin with the sinner. The Christian needs to be the light of the world as stated in Matthew 5.14 allowing the Holy Spirit to convict the sinner of sin, righteousness, and judgment. A believer's life needs to show that "old things" are truly passed away. Psalm 1:2-6 explains, "But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night". "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth it's fruit in it's season;..." "...It's leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." There are blessings in serving God and being obedient to His commands. A Christian who seeks God's rules in establishing friendships will enjoy God's favor on those friendships. However, the Christian who "walks, sits, or stands" with people that God says not to be friends with will not be blessed of God. These Christians will experience many problems in their lives. They will not prosper because they are submitting to an ungodly lifestyle. These Christians will be unstable and will begin to suffer because of their ungodly friendships. Psalm 1 explains the reason: "The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away." "Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous." "For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; but the way of the ungodly shall perish." |
