Scripture cautions against forming close bonds with those who do not share our faith, as this can lead to spiritual compromise. In 2 Corinthians 6:14, Paul warns against being yoked together with unbelievers, while 1 Corinthians 15:33 notes that bad company can corrupt good character. The book of Psalms encourages us to avoid the counsel of the wicked, instead delighting in the law of the Lord, as described in Psalms 1:1-6. Similarly, Proverbs 13:20 advises that walking with the wise leads to wisdom, but 1 John 2:15 reminds us not to love the world or the things in it, lest we lose our focus on God.
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Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does. Not so the wicked! For they are like chaff driven off by the wind. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD guards the path of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
He who walks with the wise will become wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.
You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.
If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first. If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.
Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
And if anyone will not welcome you or heed your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.
Oil and incense bring joy to the heart, and the sweetness of a friend is counsel to the soul.
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of foolish men. Live in freedom, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.
For if you turn away and cling to the rest of these nations that remain among you, and if you intermarry and associate with them, know for sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become for you a snare and a trap, a scourge in your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the LORD your God has given you.
Do not make friends with an angry man, and do not associate with a hot-tempered man, or you may learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.