I. The friendship of wicked men is one of the most dangerous social temptations to which Christians are subjected. Modern life in cities illustrates it with special force. (1) The wealth of the world is very largely in the hands of men who are not the friends of Christ. (2) In many communities intelligence and culture also are possessed mainly by the irreligious. (3) The interests of business sometimes create a similar peril. (4) In a higher circle of life professional success often tempts a young man of aspiring mind to seek to ally himself with those who love not God.
II. Of this trial of Christian principle, it should be further said that the Christian religion requires no narrow or ascetic seclusion from the world. The thing which Christian principle forbids is the seeking of worldly friendships and alliances for selfish ends, and to the peril of religious usefulness and religious character.
III. The irreligious friendships of religious men violate the ruling spirit of the Scriptures. It is a policy of life which starts wrong; therefore it threatens catastrophe in the end.
IV. Entangling alliances with the world often involve an immense sacrifice of Christian usefulness.
V. Christian alliances with the wicked do not command the respect of the very men for whose favour they are formed.
VI. Loving those that hate God inflicts a wound of great severity on the feelings of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is from Calvary that the voice comes to each one of us in our solitude, "Shouldest thou love them that hate the Lord?"
A. Phelps, The Old Testament a Living Book, p. 55.