Should I be friends with him/her?

~Friday for Friends~

You adulterous people,[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. James 4:4 (NIV)
a. James 4:4 An allusion to covenant unfaithfulness; see Hosea 3:1.

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Okay, so the first thing I’d like to say is that this passage does not mean go and hide in some dessert or forest and never make friends with people who are not Christian. Because:

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? Romans 10:14 (NIV)

Really, being friends with the world isn’t about having a friend or two who’s not Christian. It’s about being so ‘in love’ with this world’s ways and doings that you prefer them to God’s. That’s what we shouldn’t do. And sometimes this means saying “no” to friendships with people we know who are tugging us down deeper and deeper. But not necessarily.

It’s a balance. It’s a case-by-case thing. “Are we influencing them for Christ or are they influencing us for wrong?” is a question we should ask about each of our friendships. We should also pray the Lord guides us in this.

How about you? Do you have friendships that keep sucking you into wrong things? What are you going to do about it?