Wise Christian friends will build you up, help you, and bring wisdom. A bad friend will lead you to sin, encourage ungodly traits, and would rather see you fall than do good in life.
God uses friendship as an instrument of sanctification. It is important that all Christians carefully choose their friends. In the past I used to have trouble choosing friends and I’ll tell you from experience friends can either bring you up in life or bring you down.
Being a loving and forgiving Christian doesn’t mean that you are to hang around with bad friends who bring peer pressure in your life.
Bible Verses About Choosing God Over The World
Sometimes you have to know when friendship with another person is leading you away from the Lord. In this case, you must choose Christ or that friend. The answer is always going to be Christ.
Just like a good parent tries to remove negative influences from their child’s life, God will remove bad influences from our life and replace them with godly friends.
Ask God for wisdom when choosing friends in your life and remember bad company ruins good morals so choose your friends wisely.
Quotes
- “Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone then in bad company.” Booker T. Washington
- “You become like the 5 people you spend the most time with. Choose carefully.”
- “You don’t need a certain number of friends, just a number of friends you can be certain of.”
- “Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.”
What does the Bible say?
1. Proverbs 12:26 The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.
2. Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.
3. Proverbs 13:20 Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble.
4. Proverbs 17:17 A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need.
5. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 Two people are better than one because together they have a good reward for their hard work. If one falls, the other can help his friend get up. But how tragic it is for the one who is all alone when he falls. There is no one to help him get up.
6. Proverbs 18:24 One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Good friends give wise counsel.
7. Proverbs 11:14 Without wise leadership, a nation is in trouble; but with good counselors there is safety.
8. Proverbs 27:9 Ointments and perfume encourage the heart; in a similar way, a friend’s advice is sweet to the soul.
9. Proverbs 24:6 For through wise counsel you will wage your war, and victory lies in an abundance of advisors.
Good friends tell you what you need to hear rather than trying to flatter you.
10. Proverbs 28:23 Whoever rebukes a man will later on find more favor than someone who flatters with his words.
11. Proverbs 27:5 Open criticism is better than hidden love.
12. Proverbs 27:6 You can trust what your friend says, even when it hurts. But your enemies want to hurt you, even when they act nice.
13. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing.
Do not choose bad friends.
14. 1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
15. Proverbs 16:29 A violent person entices their neighbor and leads them down a path that is not good.
16. Psalm 26:4-5 I did not sit with liars, and I will not be found among hypocrites. I have hated the mob of evildoers and will not sit with wicked people.
17. Psalm 1:1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
18. Proverbs 22:24-25 Do not be a friend of one who has a bad temper, and never keep company with a hothead, or you will learn his ways and set a trap for yourself.
19. 1 Corinthians 5:11 Now, what I meant was that you should not associate with people who call themselves brothers or sisters in the Christian faith but live in sexual sin, are greedy, worship false gods, use abusive language, get drunk, or are dishonest. Don’t eat with such people.
Reminder
20. John 15:13 No one has greater love than this—that one lays down his life for his friends.
Being friends with Jesus
You don’t gain friendship with Christ by obeying. You must recognize that you are a sinner in need of a Savior. God desires perfection and you cannot meet the requirements. Out of His love God came down in the flesh. Jesus lived the life you couldn’t live and was crushed for your sins.
He died, He was buried, and He was resurrected for your transgressions. You must repent and trust in Christ. You must trust in what Christ has done for you. Jesus is the only way. I’m going to Heaven because of Jesus.
Obeying the Bible doesn’t save me, but since I truly do love and appreciate Christ I will obey. If you have truly been saved and if you are truly a friend of Christ you will obey Him.
21. John 15:14-16 You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because the slave does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have revealed to you everything I heard from my Father. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.
Bible Verses aboutChoosing God
John 15:16 ESV / 46 helpful votes
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
Deuteronomy 30:19 ESV / 45 helpful votes
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,
Joshua 24:15 ESV / 39 helpful votes
And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
1 John 4:19 ESV / 32 helpful votes
We love because he first loved us.
John 3:16 ESV / 32 helpful votes
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Ephesians 1:4 ESV / 31 helpful votes
Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
Romans 10:9 ESV / 29 helpful votes
Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
2 Peter 3:9 ESV / 26 helpful votes
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
Romans 8:28-30 ESV / 25 helpful votes
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Studying the Bible is essential because of how important God is.
We should give our full attention to the Bible since it contains God’s message to humanity. We need to get in touch with him. Since we aim to take his words to heart, we will be giving them our full and undivided attention.
What a priceless piece of advice! A biblical passage describes them as “more to be desired than gold, even much fine gold; also sweeter than honey and drippings of the honeycomb” (Psalm 19:10). More than the biggest joys that our world wants—money and food—the Bible satisfies us.
Paul told young pastor Timothy that “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). As you speak, God “breathes out” each individual word in the Bible. It is absolutely original in this respect. That statement is true of the Bible but not of any other literature.
Reading the Bible is not the same as studying it.
The Bible is just another document, therefore we read it as quickly as possible. In contrast, we don’t rush through Bible study. We search for answers to the world’s mysteries as we attempt to make sense of it. What they say is given serious consideration.
Ephesians 1:1-14 can be read in 30 seconds, yet the lessons it contains will last you a lifetime. The Gospel of John can be read in its entirety in roughly two hours. But its complexity ensures that you’ll never get bored exploring it.
Revelation 3:20 ESV / 24 helpful votes
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
Luke 1:37 ESV / 23 helpful votes
For nothing will be impossible with God.”
John 6:44 ESV / 21 helpful votes
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
John 1:12 ESV / 19 helpful votes
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
Matthew 22:14 ESV / 19 helpful votes
For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV / 18 helpful votes
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
John 14:6 ESV / 16 helpful votes
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Romans 8:28 ESV / 15 helpful votes
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Acts 13:48 ESV / 15 helpful votes
And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
Romans 6:23 ESV / 14 helpful votes
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 John 1:9 ESV / 13 helpful votes
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Romans 9:20 ESV / 13 helpful votes
But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”
John 1:14 ESV / 12 helpful votes
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Proverbs 27:17 ESV / 12 helpful votes
Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
Hebrews 11:6 ESV / 11 helpful votes
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
John 15:19 ESV / 11 helpful votes
If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
2 Thessalonians 2:13 ESV / 10 helpful votes
But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.
Ephesians 1:11 ESV / 10 helpful votes
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
John 6:65 ESV / 10 helpful votes
And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
Psalm 23:1-6 ESV / 10 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful
A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. …