“I am a companion (friend) of all them that fear thee (God), and of them that keep thy precepts” (Psalm 119: 63 KJV).
We should have a standard for choosing our friends. We should not be friends with just anyone. We can be friendly toward everyone, but we usually have only a few true friends.
We should choose our friends wisely because our friends influence our choices. If our friends have the same values that we have, then they’ll help us become a better person. But if our friends have lower standards than we have, they’ll eventually drag us down to their level.
A Christian that loves the Lord and wants to serve and please Him must be choosy about their friends. Like the Psalmist, they should choose friends that fear God. That means they revere, worship, respect, and exalt the Lord. Regardless of whether they are male or female and regardless of their race, if they fear God, they can be their friend. We should choose as our friends those that are loyal to God’s interests and those we will be with for eternity (Amos 3:3).
Like the Psalmist, we should make friends of those “that keep thy (God’s) precepts.” We should make friends of those that are Christians and of those who, as Christians, are walking in obedience to God’s Word. We see very quickly that the circle of prospective friends is getting very small. We should be very careful of being friends with a worldly Christian because they are walking away from God and are the friend of the world (James 4:4).
If we have determined that we will be devoted, loyal, obedient, and holy to the Lord, we need friends who are of the same spirit to encourage us along the way.
The Psalmist chose as his friends only those that feared and obeyed God, and so should the Christian. We can be friendly, respectful, helpful, and courteous to everyone, but only those who meet our biblical standard for friendship get inside our inner circle of friends.
How many Christians would be better off if they had used this standard when choosing their friends?
The Christian that is a friend of Jesus because they have obeyed His Word (Jn. 15:14) would be wise to use this standard when choosing their earthly friends.
