The Bible says:
“I am a companion (friend) of all them that fear thee (God), and of them that keep thy precepts.” — Psalm 119: 63
We should have a standard for choosing our friends. We should not be friends with just anyone. We can be friendly toward everyone, but we usually have only a few true friends.
We should choose our friends wisely because our friends influence our choices. If our friends have the same values that we have then they’ll help us become a better person. But if our friends have lower standards than we do they’ll eventually drag us down to their level.
A Christian that loves the Lord and wants to serve Him and please Him must be choosy about their friends. Like the Psalmist they should choose friends that fear God.
That means they revere, worship, respect and exalt the Lord. Regardless of whether they are male or female and regardless of their race if they fear God they can be their friend.
We should choose as our friends those who are loyal to God’s interests and those we will be with for eternity. (Amos 3: 3) Like the Psalmist, we should make friends of those “that keep thy (God’s) precepts.”
We should make friends of those who are Christians and of those who as Christians are walking in obedience to God’s Word. We see very quickly that the circle of prospective friends is getting very small.
We should be very careful of being friends with a worldly Christian because they are walking away from God and are the friend of the world.
(James 4: 4)
If we have determined that we’ll be devoted, loyal, obedient and holy to the Lord, we need friends who are of the same spirit to encourage us along the way.
The Psalmist chose as his friends only those who feared and obeyed God, and so should the Christian. We can be friendly, respectful, helpful, and courteous to everyone but only those who meet our biblical standard for friendship get inside our inner circle of friends.
How many Christians would be better off if they’d used this standard choosing their friends?
The Christian who is a friend of Jesus because they have obeyed His Word (John 15: 14) would be wise to use this standard when choosing their earthly friends.
James H. Cagle is a Ray City resident who pastored several churches for a total of 11 years. Email him at pastorjameshcagle@ yahoo.com
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