The Bible tells several stories about false friends, people who pretend to be friends but have malice or greed in their hearts. There are many lessons to be learned here.
Samson and Delilah
Delilah pretended to love Samson while using all she learned to plot his destruction. Her betrayal eventually led to Samson’s humiliation, imprisonment, and his death.
Love makes you vulnerable. False friends will take advantage of that. They are using you, and in your simple trust, you fall for their pretended love and respect.
King Jehoshaphat and King Ahab
People sometimes form friendships for mutual gain, as in this case. The thought is that we both gain from our friendship. Still, Jehoshaphat’s friendship with Ahab almost cost him his life and damaged his reputation, showing how toxic relationships can corrupt even good leaders.
Jonadab and Amnon
False friends may offer you a corrupt solution to a problem or challenge you face. They are not worried about what is right but what works. True friends do not enable your worst impulses.
Judas and Jesus
Jesus and Judas spent a great deal of time together. They shared meals, traveled, and lived alongside each other. Only thirty pieces of silver purchased Jesus’s betrayal.
Judas even betrayed him with a kiss. Finances over friendship corrupted a very close friendship.
Cautions
Watch for red flags you may generally choose to ignore.
The real person’s character eventually reveals itself, whether through personal suffering, anger, bitterness, or a desire for recognition.
Make sure you share the same values, not just shared interests. False friends are often looking for convenience over character.
False friends do not necessarily seek to challenge us, to be our best, or to seek our highest good.
False friends will step on previous friendships to further their narrative.
Lessons about False Friends
Looking for your weaknesses like Delilah did with Samson.
Manipulating you for personal reasons or goals
Using friendship as a means of personal gain
Friends that would lead you away from God and living out the love of God
False friends use intimate knowledge against you.
Actions speak louder than words – observe what people do rather than what they say, as shown by Judas’s kiss of betrayal.
The damage from betrayal often extends beyond the immediate relationship to affect entire communities.