Finding Great FriendsSample

Unfortunately, we haven’t yet discussed all the people within the walls of the church. After Jesus explains the meaning of the seeds to the disciples, Matthew records another parable Jesus told in verses 24–30. This time, a farmer’s enemy went through his freshly sown field and planted weeds.

Satan, the enemy of our souls, has gone through the church and planted weeds. Sometimes these people look and act spiritual. Sometimes they are inspirational and proclaim things that sound appealing. 

Your enemy is very good at deception. Sometimes the Christians who fall prey to these weeds are new to the faith. Sometimes they lack the discipline to read God’s Word for themselves, or they negate its importance in our lives. 

Paul gives us strict instructions to guard ourselves in Colossians 2:8. He says, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” 

Paul says that these people take all the focus off of Christ. Instead, they focus on  “human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world.” What does that mean? Let’s look at other versions of the Bible to help us understand:

• Good News Translation: teachings handed down by human beings and from the ruling spirits of the universe
• Amplified Bible: the tradition [and musings] of mere men, following the elementary principles of this world

The Message might be my favorite translation of verses 8–10: “Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that’s not the way of Christ. Everything of God gets expressed in Him, so you can see and hear Him clearly. You don’t need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without Him. When you come to Him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything.”

Some of you may be wondering why I chose to spend so much time focused on this. After all, the main idea is to find good friends, right? Yes, and we’re getting there, but we must balance our goal with wisdom. We want to be aware of the enemy’s schemes so he does not outwit us.