THE COMPANY WE KEEP

1 Corinthians 15:33

Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."

                My son Adam sat across the table from me as our hostess placed plates of food on the table. We were seated in a small room in the home of our host family in Ukraine. I had stayed in this same home for six consecutive summer visits. We were in the village as a part of a yearly mission experience called Love Lift for Ukraine. I had developed a positive relationship with this family. I had also discovered a few things about village life in Ukraine.

                One of the items that was placed on the table was a small bowl of local honey. Our host kept bees and was very proud of their honey. After we were alone, I told my son not to eat the honey. I explained to him that they stored the honey in the root cellar under the barn and that it tasted like cow manure.  My son looked at me skeptically and replied, Dad, how do you know what cow manure tastes like? Cautiously he avoided the tempting honey.

                Later that night, our entire team was invited to another host home for the evening. A large table was set up in the courtyard and was laden with all kinds of treats. In the center of the table were several large bowls of tempting chocolate pudding, which had been cooled in the root cellar. Eagerly, my son took a large spoonful of the pudding and deposited it into his mouth. A funny look came over his face as he turned to me and said, Dad now I know. We both burst into laughter, sharing the private joke.

                Ultimately there was nothing intrinsically wrong with the honey or the chocolate pudding. The problem was that they had been tainted by their environment.

                Paul warns us in I Corinthians 15 that bad company corrupts good character. Paul is alerting us to the reality that our environment has the ability to taint our lives. The people that we choose as our closest friends, the places that we most often frequent, will have a major influence in our lives. If we choose to hang out in the world’s root cellar, we will inevitably be tainted by the atmosphere.

                As we journey through life as followers of Jesus, we will constantly be in contact with the influences of the world. We cannot live totally separated from the world. In fact, like Jesus, we have been called to reach out to the people around us with love and compassion, leading them to the Savior. But we always need to be careful that we do not take up residence in the world. Peter reminds us that we are to live distinct lives within the world, lives that reflect who we are in Christ.

                But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

                Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. (1 Peter 2:9-12)

                Psalm 1 reminds us that we have a choice about which path we will travel in this life.

Psalm 1:1-6

    Blessed is the man

        who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked

    or stand in the way of sinners

        or sit in the seat of mockers.

    But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

        and on his law he meditates day and night.

    He is like a tree planted by streams of water,

        which yields its fruit in season

    and whose leaf does not wither.

        Whatever he does prospers.

    Not so the wicked!

        They are like chaff

        that the wind blows away.

    Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

        nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

    For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,

        but the way of the wicked will perish.

                Throughout the Bible we are warned to choose our companions wisely. The company we keep will shape who we become. That is why God has given us the Church, the Body of Christ. The Church is our safe harbor in this wild world. Spending time regularly with other believers can be a positive buffer to taking on the flavor of the world.

Hebrews 10:23-25

    Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.