FRIENDS:
RIGHT KIND

Who are your friends? It is important to make and cherish the right kind of friends.

I value friendship very highly. We can appreciate and honor one another in friendship, whether or not the other person is a believer. Because it is possible that friendships can be beautiful and helpful, I have always felt something like a churlish heel to insist that certain friendships must be broken off if you want to truly serve God. But our Lord Jesus said it more bluntly than I ever could say it. He told us that in being His disciples we must take up our cross and follow Him. He said there would be instances when we must forsake those who would hold us back—even if they were our own relatives and close friends. Jesus Christ must be first in your heart and mind. It is He who reminds you that the salvation of your soul is of prime importance.

Better to have no friends and be an Elijah, alone, than to be like Lot in Sodom, surrounded by friends who all but damned him. If you give your cherished friendship to the ungodly counselor and the mocker, you have given the enemy the key to your heart. You have opened the gate, and the city of your soul will be overwhelmed and taken!

Genesis 13:12–13; 1 Kings 19:10; Psalm 1:1–3; Matthew 10:34–39

Tragedy in the Church: The Missing Gifts, 136, 137.