2. The “not that serious about God” friend
You know these friends. They usually attend worship on Sunday. They might go on a foreign mission trip. But they never give God their lives. These friends are lukewarm and think God is okay with having just some of the pie.
These friends are toxic because they model a dangerous approach to Christian living—the approach that says status-quo Christianity is okay. They maintain that you don’t need to be a Jesus freak. Jesus freaks don’t enjoy life. So go to worship on Sunday, read the Bible occasionally, but leave a piece of the pie for yourself.
And the moment you try to go “all in” for God, you’ll meet fierce resistance. Believe me. I’ve been there. Several times in my teenage and early adult years, I wanted to go all in for God. But my friends weren’t in the same place.
Because they saw my attempt to go all in as a threat to our Friday and Saturday nights, they said things like this: “Are you really going to stop partying, getting drunk, etc.? You know there’s no way you’ll stick to it. In two weeks, you’ll be back to your old self.”
And those examples of bad friends were right. After a few weeks, I was back to my old self. As long as “not that serious about God” friends are close enough to you to ask these questions, you’ll never give your full allegiance to God.
3. The “no ambition” friend
Francis Chan says, “Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.”
The next examples of bad friends have ambition—but only toward things that don’t matter, like completing two seasons of their favorite Netflix show in one day. If you mention Xbox, movies, the opposite sex, or the game plan for the weekend, these friends perk up like the time I poured water on my roommate when he was sleeping.
But if you mention serving in the community, studying for a test or attending a Bible study, you might as well be talking to a brick wall.
Surround yourself with people who want to make the world a better place. Surround yourself with people who want to do well in areas that matter.
God created you in his image. This means he created you to learn, grow and give. God created you to make the world a better place and to do things with excellence. Surround yourself with people who get this…and who practice it.
