Be Careful the Company You Keep

Welcome to a brand new week fellow steemits, there's is always a lesson or two to pick out from this Post.

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Most of us have heard 1 Corinthians 15:33 many times: “Bad company corrupts good character.” It isn’t too hard to see how hanging around people who easily engage in sinful behavior and excuse it away as if it doesn’t matter can entice us to do the same. But can their sin impact us? Can the company we keep do more than lead us astray? Can it corrupt our future even if we do not indulge in their sin? Actually, that is kind of a trick question.

1 John 3:4-9 tells us: “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.”

These verses can be a bit confusing. We all know that none of us are perfect. In fact, John writes these verses just after saying: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us….If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His word has no place in our lives.” (1 John 1:8, 10) The key to understanding 1 John 3:4-9 lies in the last verse: “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.” If we know the truth and we have been born again, sin becomes distasteful to our senses. The closer we cling to God, the more the lawlessness – the rebellion and hatred toward God which is sin – makes our heart weep for the pain it causes our Heavenly Father. The truth is: bad company does corrupt good character, but good character should find bad company unsatisfying and repugnant.

James 3:11-12 asks, “Can both fresh water and saltwater flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.” We cannot be both righteous and comfortable around unrighteousness. We cannot reject sin and yet indulge others in their sinful behavior. When we understand the devastation of sin and how it separates us from God, we cannot stay silent when those we love embrace what will lead to their destruction. If we are entertaining sinful behaviors and not sharing the freedom of the gospel and the rejection of those sins, we cannot truly say we are righteous. If you find yourself habitually around bad company, ask yourself why? Have you truly and completely rejected the sin which attempts to ensnare you? If not, take it to the cross and continue to sin no more.

REMAIN BLESSED