Friendships:

Parting Ways for Spiritual

Reasons
 A Box
of
Friendship
Good friendships are built with
respect, trust, truthfulness,
courtesy, honesty,
understanding, sympathy, joy,
love, and a shared passion.
There can be no greater shared
passion than a love for Christ
and the hope of heaven.
Things that might cause friends to
separate for spiritual reasons:

• Weights
• Unhealthy dialogue
• Mistrust
• Compromise
• Temptation
• Sin
Weights
 Scenario:

Two women are best friends. One is married and

has children. The other is married and has
no children. The two love traveling together and
frequently have ventures to other cities.
The Christian mother begins to question the
length of time away from her family and church.

What should she do?

 Scenario:

A Christian lady and her friend love to play

card games. However, card night becomes
sacred, and more frequent.
She knows there are good works she
could do, but game nights
with her friend are such fun.

What should she do?

 Scenario:

A Christian lady and her friend share a

passion for shopping. Their shopping trips
have been a great source of enjoyment.
However, they spend more and more time
at the Mall, or outlets. Shopping
becomes the primary focus and passion.
Her friend will never give it up.

What should she do?

 In each case, the women are
involved in activities that, in and of
themselves, are not wrong. But
they gradually become weights that
draw their focus and energy away
from the Christian race.
 Weights can become sin!

Scripture tells us to lay aside every

weight that easily ensnares us
(Hebrews 12:1).
Unhealthy dialogue
 Scenario:

Two women have a good working friendship.

They share common interests (like crafts,
teaching, or creating lively bulletin boards). But
increasingly one woman realizes that the other
woman is apt to talk in very negative ways,
complaining about ‘this or that’ or about ‘him or
her,’ until she, too, begins grumbling.

What should she do?

“…Behold, the Lord comes with ten
thousands of his holy ones, to
execute judgment on all and
to convict all the ungodly of all their
deeds of ungodliness…these are
grumblers, malcontents…”

Jude vs. 14-16

 Paul admonished Christians,

“Do all things without grumbling

or questioning”

Philippians 2:14
Mistrust
 Scenario:

Unable to sort through a

difficult situation, a woman
confides in her friend.
Later she finds that the friend told one
or two others about the matter.
She feels wounded and betrayed.

What should she do?

“Whoever covers an offense
seeks love, but he who
repeats a matter
separates close friends”

Proverbs 17:9
Along with keeping confidences,
qualities like truthfulness,
courtesy, and honesty are key
ingredients that build
trust in a friend.
“Now Paul and his companions
set sail from Paphos and
came to Perga in Pamphylia.
And John left them
and returned to Jerusalem.”

Acts 13:13
“Now Barnabas wanted to take with
them John called Mark. But Paul
thought best not to take with them
one who had withdrawn from them
in Pamphylia and had not gone
with them to the work.”

Acts 15:36-41
 “And there arose a sharp
disagreement, so that they
separated from each other.
Barnabas took Mark with him and
sailed away to Cyprus, but Paul
chose Silas and departed.”
When there is seemingly no
resolution in a matter,
the best course may be that
friends part peacefully and
work separately.
Compromise
 Scenario:

A preacher and his wife become friends with

a coworker and his wife.
The coworker engages in an unethical
practice and talks openly about it when
they have couples’ night out.

What should they do?

 Scenario:

A group of Christian couples meet

regularly and value their friendship. But
one couple is concerned about
unChristlike gossip/slander during the
get-togethers. The group (4-5 couples)
considers this behavior normal.

What should the couple do?

One cannot straddle the fence
between good and evil,
because Satan owns the fence.
All too often unethical behavior,
gossip, and slander
are ignored among friends.
“They were filled with all manner of
unrighteousness…They are full of
envy, murder, strife, deceit,
maliciousness. They are gossips,
slanderers, haters of God,
insolent, haughty, boastful…
faithless, heartless, ruthless.”
 “Though they know God's decree
that those who practice such things
deserve to die,
they not only do them but
give approval to those who practice
them.”

Romans 1:29-32
Temptation
 Scenario:

A woman enjoys the blessings of friendship

with another woman,
until her friend asks her to “cover” for her,
or stretch the truth about a matter.

What should she do?

 Scenario:

Two women are friends.

One is a Christian, and one is not.
But lately, the Christian woman has
become entangled
in her friend’s social nightlife.

What should she do?

 Nothing is
hidden from God’s eyes.

Ps. 33:13
“Each one is tempted when he
is drawn away by his own
desires and enticed”

James 1:14
“Submit yourselves therefore to
God. Resist the devil, and he
will flee from you”

James 4:7
“Abstain from every form of
evil.”

1 Thess. 5:22
Sin
 Scenario:

Several Christian couples are

steadfast friends, until the husband
of one couple becomes attracted to
the wife of another couple.

What should they do?

 Scenario:

Two women are good friends. One

confides in the other that she
began talking to an old boyfriend,
and recently went to ‘visit’ him.

What should her friend do?

“When desire has conceived,
it gives birth to sin;
and sin, when it is full-grown,
brings forth death”

James 1:15
 Sin separates friends,
but more importantly,
sin separates one from God.

Isaiah 59:2
 “if anyone is caught in any
transgression, you who are
spiritual should restore him in
a spirit of gentleness”

Galatians 6:1
If a friendship is threatened with
weights, unhealthy dialogue,
mistrust, compromise,
temptation, or sin,
it is time for an assessment.
 Loyalty and emotion
should not guide our actions.
 God should be our guide
in all things, especially the
maintenance and care of our
very special box of friendship.