What does the Bible say about bad friends?
While good friends are a blessing, bad friends are a curse. In my life I have had two types of bad friends. I’ve had the fake friends who pretend to be your friend, but slander you behind your back and I had the bad influences. The friends that entice you to sin and go down the wrong path.
Most of us have been hurt by these types of people and God has used our failed relationships with others to make us wiser. Choose your friends carefully. Click here to learn more about fake friends and how to identify them.
Christian quotes about bad friends
“Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.” Booker T. Washington
“In life, we never lose friends, we only learn who the true ones are.”
“Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows you, or makes you happy.”
“Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.” Benjamin Franklin
“Avoid the friendship of those who constantly inquire and discuss the flaws of others.”
“Better a good enemy than a bad friend.”
Scripture has a lot to say about bad and toxic friends
1. 1 Corinthians 15:33-34 Don’t be fooled: “Bad friends will ruin good habits.” Come back to your right way of thinking and stop sinning. Some of you don’t know God. I say this to shame you.
2. Matthew 5:29-30 If your right eye makes you sin, take it out and throw it away. It is better to lose one part of your body than to have your whole body thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
They always talk bad about you behind your back.
3. Psalm 101:5-6 I will destroy the one who secretly slanders a friend. I will not allow the proud and haughty to prevail. My eyes are looking at the faithful of the land, so they may live with me; The one who lives a life of integrity will serve me.
4. Proverbs 16:28-29 A bad man spreads trouble. One who hurts people with bad talk separates good friends. A man who hurts people tempts his neighbor to do the same, and leads him in a way that is not good.
5. Psalm 109:2-5 for people who are wicked and deceitful have opened their mouths against me; they have spoken against me with lying tongues. With words of hatred they surround me; they attack me without cause. In return for my friendship they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer. They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my friendship.
6. Psalm 41:5-9 My enemies say bad things about me. They ask, “When will he die and be forgotten?” If they come to see me, they don’t say what they are really thinking. They come to gather a little gossip and then go to spread their rumors. Those who hate me whisper about me. They think the worst about me. They say, “He did something wrong. That is why he is sick. He will never get well.” My best friend, the one I trusted, the one who ate with me even he has turned against me.
Bad friends are bad influences in your life.
Having fun to them is sinning.
7. Proverbs 1:10-13 My son, if sinful men entice you, do not give in to them. If they say, “Come along with us; let’s lie in wait for innocent blood, let’s ambush some harmless soul; let’s swallow them alive, like the grave, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder.”
Their words say one thing and their heart says another.
8. Proverbs 26:24-26 Evil people say things to make themselves look good, but they keep their evil plans a secret. What they say sounds good, but don’t trust them. They are full of evil ideas. They hide their evil plans with nice words, but in the end, everyone will see the evil they do.
9. Psalm 12:2 Everyone lies to their neighbor; they flatter with their lips but harbor deception in their hearts.
Bible verses about cutting off bad friends
Don’t hang around them.
10. Proverbs 20:19 A gossip goes around telling secrets, so don’t hang around with chatterers.
11. 1 Corinthians 5:11-12 But now I am writing to you to stop associating with any so-called brother if he is sexually immoral, greedy, an idolater, a slanderer, a drunk, or a robber. You must even stop eating with someone like that. After all, is it my business to judge outsiders? You are to judge those who are in the community, aren’t you?
12. Proverbs 22:24-25 Do not be a friend of one who has a bad temper, and never keep company with a hothead, or you will learn his ways and set a trap for yourself.
13. Proverbs 14:6-7 Anyone who makes fun of wisdom will never find it, but knowledge comes easily to those who understand its value. Stay away from fools, there is nothing they can teach you.
Walking with toxic people will make you toxic and hurt your walk with Christ
14. Proverbs 13:19-21 A fulfilled desire is sweet to the soul, but turning from evil is disgusting to fools. Whoever walks with wise people will be wise, but whoever associates with fools will suffer. Disaster hunts down sinners, but righteous people are rewarded with good.
15. Proverbs 6:27-28 Can a man scoop fire into his bosom without burning his clothes? Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching his feet?
17. Psalm 1:1-4 Great blessings belong to those who don’t listen to evil advice, who don’t live like sinners, and who don’t join those who make fun of God. Instead, they love the Lord’s teachings and think about them day and night. So they grow strong, like a tree planted by a stream— a tree that produces fruit when it should and has leaves that never fall. Everything they do is successful. But the wicked are not like that. They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
18. Psalm 26:3-5 I always remember your faithful love. I depend on your faithfulness. I don’t run around with troublemakers. I have nothing to do with hypocrites. I hate being around evil people. I refuse to join those gangs of crooks.
Bad friends keep bringing up old matters.
19. Proverbs 17:9 Whoever forgives an offense seeks love, but whoever keeps bringing up the issue separates the closest of friends.
Reminders
20. Proverbs 17:17 A friend loves you all the time, but a brother was born to help in times of trouble.
21. Ephesians 5:16 “making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”
22. Proverbs 12:15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.
Examples of bad friends in the Bible
23 Jeremiah 9:1-4 The Lord’s Sorrow for His People “Oh, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, for then I would cry day and night for those of my people who have been killed. Oh, that I had a lodging place for travelers in the desert, so that I could leave my people and go away from them. For all of them are adulterers, a band of traitors. They use their tongues like a bow. Lies rather than truth fly throughout the land. They progress from one evil to another, and they don’t know me,”declares the Lord. “Beware of your neighbors, and don’t trust any of your relatives. For all of your relatives act deceitfully, and every friend goes around as a slanderer.”
24. Matthew 26:14-16 “Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests 15 and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. 16 From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.”
25. 2 Samuel 15:10 “Then Absalom sent secret messengers throughout the tribes of Israel to say, “As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpets, then say, ‘Absalom is king in Hebron.”
26. Judges 16:18 “When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, “Come back once more; he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands.”
27. Psalm 41:9 “Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.”
28. Job 19:19 “All my best friends despise me, and those I love have turned against me.”
29. Job 19:13 “He has removed my brothers from me; my acquaintances have abandoned me.”
30. Luke 22:21 “Look! The hand of My betrayer is with Mine on the table.”
