Let’s talk about how friendship works. Friends are important. You need friends in life. God doesn’t want you to go through life all alone. He wants you to be around others.
When God made Adam, the first human, he said it was bad that Adam was all alone. So, God made Eve to be his companion. Adam had a relationship with God, but Adam was missing something in his life, until God created Eve. Friends make life better.
Now, think about why your friends are your friends. It’s probably because you like being around them, you trust them, and maybe you’ve known them for a long time. And this teaches us something important about friends.
Friends Have Lots of Influence in Your Life
You probably don’t realize it, but the people you hang out with influence the kind of person you are. You tend to care about the things your friends care about, watch the same kinds of movies, and listen to the same kinds of music. And this means that we need to be careful about the kind of people we hang out with.
Proverbs 13:20 Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble.
The point of this proverb is really simple. If your friends are good people, they will help you become a good person. If your friends are jerks, then you are going to become a jerk. Just like the kinds of movies and music your friends like rub off on you, their behavior rubs off on you too.
So, what does this mean for us?
Choose Your Friends Carefully
You need to think about who you hang out with. Remember, you should be kind to everyone. Jesus was friends with a lot of people of questionable character. So, we should love and care about all people. But the people that you spend the most time with should help you become a better person, not pull you away from honoring God. And if you don’t think you can be negatively influenced by a friend, the Bible has a warning for you.
1 Corinthians 15:33 Don’t be fooled by those who say such things, for “bad company corrupts good character.”
Hanging around people who make lots of bad decisions will probably cause you to make bad decisions too. As a result, you might even need to change who some of your friends are because of their influence on your life.
Friends are a blessing from God. We need other people to help us in life. And good friends will help you grow closer to God and be a person who honors him. So, be wise in the friends you choose and your life will be better because of it.
Discussion Questions:
- Watch the video together or invite someone to summarize the topic.
- What is your initial reaction to this video? Do you disagree with any of it? What jumped out at you?
- Who is your best friend, and how did you meet them?
- What is something that most of your friends have in common (for example, the movies you like, hobbies, etc.)?
- Read Proverbs 13:20. What does this verse teach us about the influence our friends have over us?
- What are some of the consequences of choosing good friends? What are the consequences for choosing bad friends?
- What are you looking for in someone to know if they will be a good friend or not?
- Write a personal action step based on this conversation.
