When I first accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, for the next ten years I tried to keep my friendships with those who were lost. I justified those friendships by claiming that I was trying to witness to them. The problem is that when it comes to our friendships, who we choose to fellowship with, the apostle Paul made it very clear: Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? (II Corinthians 6:16). Too many of us, including myself, have or have had friendships that we know are spiritually unhealthy, that cause us to stumble, and are a hindrance to our spiritual growth. David had those types of friendships too. He had people in his life, whom he willingly had fellowship with, who did not love God the way that he did. They had no desire to love the Lord, and they had a tendency to be a bad influence on him. By the time that David penned Psalms 101 he had reached the point that he understood that he had to end those friendships and separate himself from them.
When we choose to have fellowship and friendships with those who do not know or love the Lord Jesus Christ, we are inviting darkness to have fellowship with light, for unrighteousness to have fellowship with the righteous. We are setting ourselves on a course for hardship. We are opening ourselves up to further temptations, more difficult trials of our faith as we try to mold ourselves to fit better with those who surround us. It is better to surround ourselves with godly friends, to fellowship with godly people than it is to spend even an hour in fellowship with someone who does not know the Lord. Does this mean we should not share the gospel with the lost? No, there is a difference in sharing the Lord with a lost person and fellowshipping with them. It is a difficult decision to draw a line and judge our friendships and who we let into our inner circle of friends based on their relationship with God. It is difficult to face the ridicule and objections that we’ll hear because no one likes to hear they are intolerant or they are being judgmental. Does our friendships matter that much? Absolutely. Does it really matter who we choose to fellowship with? Absolutely.
