I Thought These Verses Were Interesting...

[DaveW]

Pro 22:24 Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go:

Pro 29:22 An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression.

Anyone care to add a thought or two?

[John81]

I've known many lost folks like that and some Christians too and neither are edifying to be around. In fact, the more time one spends around such people the more like them they become. Just as Scripture says when it warns us that bad company corrupts.

[EKSmith]

Amen brother John , I've proven this to myself many times and ended up putting myself into undue tribulations 

 

Prov 22:25 Lest thou learn his ways,and get a snare to thy soul

 

thanks bro Dave 

[John81]

Failure to pay heed to such has been and is the cause of many Christians to fall and many to be entangled in worldliness.

 

Notice how often we read of a Christian who once believed the Word of God but then (for example) they one day declare that since they have been friends with a homosexual they've come to believe homosexuality really isn't a sin.

 

Friendship with the world is enmity with God.

 

We don't really consider what forsake means when Christ calls us to forsake all for Him. Just as ancient Israel wanted to be like the nations around them and wanted their acceptance and approval, so many of us today don't want to stand out as different, we don't want to be a peculiar people, we want to be like the world, we desire the worlds acceptance and approval. This leads Christians to have lost sinners as their close friends, to dress like them, to speak like them, to act like them, to proclaim that one can be a "cool Christian" (which really means "worldly Christian").

 

If we are truly striving to follow Christ, to live for Him wholly, then lost sinners won't want to be our close friends; they won't want to be around us much at all.

[candlelight]

I've known many lost folks like that and some Christians too and neither are edifying to be around. In fact, the more time one spends around such people the more like them they become. Just as Scripture says when it warns us that bad company corrupts.

 

I try very hard to stay away from these people.  Sadly, many of them are saved.  I found myself in a friendship with a Christian woman, like this, and ending up feeling angry after we spoke.  Her negative comments only furthered me to stay positive.  Thankfully, I stopped our friendship.

[Ukulelemike]

Failure to pay heed to such has been and is the cause of many Christians to fall and many to be entangled in worldliness.

 

Notice how often we read of a Christian who once believed the Word of God but then (for example) they one day declare that since they have been friends with a homosexual they've come to believe homosexuality really isn't a sin.

 

Friendship with the world is enmity with God.

 

We don't really consider what forsake means when Christ calls us to forsake all for Him. Just as ancient Israel wanted to be like the nations around them and wanted their acceptance and approval, so many of us today don't want to stand out as different, we don't want to be a peculiar people, we want to be like the world, we desire the worlds acceptance and approval. This leads Christians to have lost sinners as their close friends, to dress like them, to speak like them, to act like them, to proclaim that one can be a "cool Christian" (which really means "worldly Christian").

 

If we are truly striving to follow Christ, to live for Him wholly, then lost sinners won't want to be our close friends; they won't want to be around us much at all.

Interesting concerning the gay frineds. This result, however is not an issue of the friendshi[ but the lack of willingness to hold to truth.

 

I have had manyhomosexual friends, and co-workers, male and female and even one of daighters did what I would call a 'stint' as a lesbian, (reaction to a bad relationship), but even though we actually had a nice relationship with her girlfriend AND my daughter,  and my relationships with the others, there was never any doubt in either of their minds what we firmly believed. But I still loved them, and the relationships were alright, and I never changed my beliefs.  If a man will let relationships decide their doctrine, they are a weak Christian, but we are called to love the lost and have relationships with them, so as to win them to Christ.

 

Now, when they are in clear sin and claim to be saved, we should separate from them, except perhaps the immature who need to hear and learn the truth so they might mature. But if they hear and learn and over time maintain their positions of sin, then separation should happen.

[Pastor Scott Markle]

As a pastor, I often counsel our single young ladies (and their parents) to apply the Biblical principle of Proverbs 22:24-25 in relation to their "search" for a godly husband.  If a young man can be Biblically characterized as "an angry man," then the young lady ought not to seek (think and feel) after him as Biblically appropriate for "husband-material."  My dear young lady, FLEE AWAY!  My beloved brethren, as parents, keep your daughters AWAY!

[GraceSaved]

If we are truly striving to follow Christ, to live for Him wholly, then lost sinners won't want to be our close friends; they won't want to be around us much at all.

I don't think that's always the case.  True Christianity is being a light.  Light illuminates and attracts.  We should be attracting the lost to something we have in us that they need.  Jesus.  It's not about what we abstain from or how we dress, what we do and don't do. Although those things are important, those are external.  When we have joy in the midst of suffering, peace in the midst of pain, courage in the midst of tribulation.  That is what truly separates us.  If we retreat into our own subculture, how do we reach anyone? 

[John81]

Light exposes darkness. This is the reason if we are truly living for Christ so that our light is shining, the lost scurry away towards darkness. Oftentimes simply being in the presence of a godly person will be enough to cause a lost person to feel conviction and if they fight the conviction they don't want to be around the light.

 

Even if we aren't forming close associations with the lost around us, if we work around them or otherwise near them often, they do take notice of the differences. This is why it's not uncommon for a lost person to seek out a Christian tragedy strikes their life or they are in a crisis. They know the true follower of Christ has something they don't and that can draw them to the Christian for prayer, counsel or even to come to Christ.

[GraceSaved]

Light exposes darkness. This is the reason if we are truly living for Christ so that our light is shining, the lost scurry away towards darkness. Oftentimes simply being in the presence of a godly person will be enough to cause a lost person to feel conviction and if they fight the conviction they don't want to be around the light.

 

Even if we aren't forming close associations with the lost around us, if we work around them or otherwise near them often, they do take notice of the differences. This is why it's not uncommon for a lost person to seek out a Christian tragedy strikes their life or they are in a crisis. They know the true follower of Christ has something they don't and that can draw them to the Christian for prayer, counsel or even to come to Christ.

I get that to a certain degree.  I'm not the one people call to invite to a party.  I'm the one they call when they need a ride or someone to talk to.  But they only do this because they know me personally and trust me.

[swathdiver]

A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump GraceSaved.  We should not befriend the lost so as to protect ourselves and families if such applies.  That being said, that's not an admonition to not invite them to dinner or lunch or church and share the Good News with them.  Being friends with a drunkard or riotous person will only bring those around them down and away from God.

[GraceSaved]

A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump GraceSaved.  We should not befriend the lost so as to protect ourselves and families if such applies.  That being said, that's not an admonition to not invite them to dinner or lunch or church and share the Good News with them.  Being friends with a drunkard or riotous person will only bring those around them down and away from God.

If I invite them to my house to eat or vice versa, then we're friends.

[John81]

This is one of the difficult aspects of such a discussion, that's the fact the term "friend" is so loosely defined now as compared to other times.

 

A friend is someone we've established a close relationship with, someone we are bonded with (yoked, as Scripture terms it).

 

A person we may work with, get along with and are friendly with, but we are not bonded with, we aren't sharing much time together outside work, we aren't having intimate (meaning deep) conversations with, is a work associate, not a "friend, which implies a much deeper bond.

 

Notice how Jesus would have a meal with known sinners where He would share the Word of God with them, and then He would move on. Jesus wasn't forming friendships with these people.

 

Those I've worked with over the years have known they can come to talk with me or ask for help but they also know I'm not going to be going to the bar with them after work, I'm not going to be hanging out with them on weekends. We have very friendly relations at work, but that's as far as it goes, there is no yoking as our lives are very different, with mine centered upon Christ and their centered upon sin.

[candlelight]

A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump GraceSaved.  We should not befriend the lost so as to protect ourselves and families if such applies.  That being said, that's not an admonition to not invite them to dinner or lunch or church and share the Good News with them.  Being friends with a drunkard or riotous person will only bring those around them down and away from God.

 

My oldest brother is a drunkard.  He lives in my home.  It is difficult to separate myself from him.  He does keep to himself though.  He wakes up at 4:15 A.M. to work and many times he isn't home until 5:30 P.M.  The remaining evening he spends watching T.V. in the main room of the house by himself.  I am preparing dinner, cleaning up the kitchen and spending time with my husband.  We also due our Bible study in the evening.  

[John81]

CL, you are keeping a measure of separation by not participating in your brothers sins, not hanging out with him watching TV and by maintaining your walk with Christ.

 

I see my Dad almost every day, he's lost and his speech is filled with cussing with much foul use of God/Jesus. It's really difficult to be around him so I do limit my time with him. Others in my family are similar so while we still have contact and are on good terms, there is no joining with them in much at all.