Young people love to hang out, and they are often queried by parents regarding who their friends are.
This note however is not about our kids. Rather it’s about adults and parents, and it raises questions about with whom they are socializing. Too often we lose sight of the fact that the company we keep influences our lives for good or not so good and reveals how these relationships affect our walk with the Lord. Witnessing to unbelievers is our biblical mandate. Camaraderie with them, i.e., friendship among people who spend a lot of time together, at least begs the question, “Who is influencing whom?”
Psalms 1:1-6 KJV
(1) Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
(2) But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
(3) And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
(4) The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
(5) Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
(6) For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
(9) I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
(10) Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
(11) But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
(12) For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
(13) But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
1 Corinthians 15:33 KJV
(33) Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
These and other Scriptures include a few of the warnings related to the company a believer is to keep and not to keep.
This also includes fellowship with professing Christians and even true believers whose worldly lives and beliefs don’t seem to reflect biblical Christianity. The ultimate check regarding a believer’s association with unbelieving friends is whether or not they feel free to share about their love for Jesus and His love for them. If there is a restriction against such sharing that they are willing to accept for the sake of keeping the relationship viable, that temporal relationship will end very likely with eternal separation-—the believer from them and they from God.
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” —1 John:2:15-17
T. A. McMahon
TBC NOTES
TBC NOTES
March 1, 2017
revmike reese
cross lanes, WV.
revmike reese
cross lanes, WV.
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