Who's Influencing You?

“He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed” (Proverbs 13:20).

When one of my brothers was a teenager, my parents tried to get him to understand the correlation between the friends he had chosen and the trouble that inevitably found him. He was not willing to give up these friends until he matured to the point where he could weigh the pros and cons of their friendship. He eventually realized that the cost for their friendship was too high a price to pay. For better or worse, the people we hang around influence us. During my freshman year of college, I received a care package from home. I eagerly tore into the box to find soap, shampoo, and my favorite cookies. I greedily stuffed two cookies in my mouth and immediately spit them out. They tasted like soap! The close proximity between the cookies and soap had cross-contaminated them. The cookies absorbed the pungent fragrance of the soap to the extent that it had lost its own uniqueness. When we walk with wise men, they will invariably rub off on us. Similarly, if we walk with fools, they will negatively influence us and eventually overpower us. “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners” (I Corinthians 15:33). We can be in the world, intentionally witnessing to those around us, loving the lost with the love of God and still be separate. Jesus ministered to the sinners and publicans, but hand-chose his inner circle. We should follow the same example.