Evil Company Corrupts Good Habits

The truth about this title quickens my heart to speak to us in this regards this morning. In the time of our meditation upon the word of God we recognize a very secret element and that is the choice of our close friends. Yes even among those who bear the name of the Lord unfortunately. Many times we being men of faith walk to the other extreme in trusting those whom the Lord has said to stay away. Apostle Paul had this admonishment to the Corinthians since their greatest treasure was endangered by the choice of their friends. As we all must know and admire that our faith in Christ although is a gift, but has become our most valuable treasure in this life.

As with earthly treasures which are usually kept in a safe place, so it is with our faith. Many of us care more for the earthly corruptible treasures

Than our treasure of faith in Christ. We as Christians have this naivety in us that makes us believe all are trustable and safe as long as they have named the name of Christ. In this we can soon be in for a shock. We come to find our eternal salvation through God’s revelation of Himself in His Son and then soon we forget the price which was paid by God for this so called free gift. We are endangering this gift by wrong associations and unlawful soul ties developed through these unholy relationships. The greatest of all dangers is being polluted by a life style of compromise and sin.

Some in the Church of Corinth had in error chosen this route, and Paul had to address this issue with them with words like this ….

“If in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise, “let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die!” Do not be deceived “Evil Company corrupts good habits”.

Why? What had happened that Apostle Paul had to address this issue in this way? Well some of the Corinthian believers had begun to doubt about their own resurrection, since in keeping the wrong friends around them they had defiled themselves by these men’s ideas about the eternal state of a Christian life. Paul knew that this kind of thinking had come through the bad choice of friends. You see he argues about this by bringing to them an earthly allegorical example of eating and drinking and ten perishing. Paul wants to tell these men that your compromised state of life, which is affected by your view of Christ’s resurrection, has tarred your faith. You have come amongst the company of wrong friends and their view of life has become yours. After being in friendship with the wrong people now it is not surprising that you have become just like your friends. Instead of them being influenced by you it is you who have become like them.

Here was the problem by being confused about the resurrection from the dead they had become sluggish in their minds in regards to living a godly life in faith. The understanding of the resurrection of Christ had previously given them hope for overcoming all obstacles of life. In resurrection of Christ was held the power of overcoming the sin nature and that was where they had victory before. That was also where the Devil was fighting them. If there is no resurrection then why worry about the manner of life we live after our conversion.  Satan knowing the hidden secrets of the spiritual life always comes as an angel of light the Bible says. He knows the power of influence in man’s life and that is why he brings us the wrong company to pollute that which is good in us. In Psalm 1 David speaks of this truth in a very profound way in it he says in this way. “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners; nor sits in the seat of the

Of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord.” Here by these words King David too reminds us that we must avoid the path of ungodly, especially in these days that they are seating amongst us in the Church as tares among the wheat. Unfortunately these ungodly people are no longer only found in the world, but right here among us. These men and women come in our path everywhere and can transform themselves as angels of light. Their purpose and their addenda’s are to derail us from our destiny in Christ. King David once sang this song about his close companion, the one with whom he would go to the house of the Lord. It was this one who had now become his enemy.

This is what David says in Psalm 55:12-14^th verses. “For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; then I could bear it.
Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; Then I could hide from him.

¹³ but it was you, a man my equal,
My companion and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together and walked to the house of God in the throng”. You see here David’s confidence in a good friend is broken. A believer, who once was a comforter to him, let alone a stranger who is deceitfully wicked. Many who do not share the same values and by that I mean Christian values come into close friendships with us and through these wrong and unholy ties we become defiled ourselves. That is why Paul in his 1^st letter to the Corinthian church in chapter 5 warns us about those in the company of the believers who are named brother or sister, but live a contrary life, these need to be avoided at all costs, how much more the ones outside of our Christian circles. Yes Satan knows the power and effects of a soul tie and he always binds men through its hidden snares. And many who claim to be wise in themselves have become the victims of this demonic snare in Church.

In a day and age where men are constantly walking away from the circle of the believer’s communion it is even more difficult to teach them about these truths.

Please Church hear and give heed, do not harden your hearts to the truth. Our faith is much more valuable than all we have. Do not keep company with unbelievers as you should with a believer. Do not enter into their council. Stay away even from those whom God has turned away from do to their stubbornness of sin. Remember King Jehoshaphat of Judea how he became the victim of his own wrong chose when he went to King Ahab for friendship. Yes he almost was killed due to his disobedient act of not adhering the voice of God. By giving his son to Atelaiah he even almost ruined the dynasty of the Messiah to come. Oh yes some are wolf’s in sheep’s clothing, so let us chose our friends by His leading and not our preferences of comfort and joy.

Apostle Peter talks like many other Apostles in regards to this wrong choice of friendships and warns his readers. In 2^nd Peter chapter 2 he even warns his brethren in the entire world about the deceptions of the false teachers in saying it in this way… “For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage”. (2nd Peter 2:18-19) You see in order to be deceived we do not need to look for an obvious and absolute rebel, but we need to heed the voice of the spirit in training our senses in discerning between good and evil and that only by use.

We therefore need to stop and think before we are influenced by anyone other than the Lord Himself.

Saints let us wake up before we are more into deception of this age. A wrong soul tie can bring us many dangerous and serious harms. The word says in 2^nd Corinthians chapter 6 “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? ¹⁵ And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “ I will dwell in them
And walk among them. I will be their God,  And they shall be My people.” Therefore,“ Come out from among them
And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.” ¹⁸ “ I will be a Father to you,  And you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the LORD Almighty.”