Evil Company Corrupts

"Do not be misled: Bad company corrupts good character. Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame." 1Corinthians15:33-34

As a young man growing up I was blessed to have lived in two worlds. My house was in the North Tustin area where basically everyone except me grew up with the proverbial ‘silver spoon’ in their mouth. I had to work hard for all that I had but my friends were given new cars, new motorcycles-basically whatever they wanted was given to them. The second world and the world I claim to be from was the inner city of Santa Ana. My father’ garage and gas station was at 1st and Daisy in Santa Ana. I started helping my father at age 4 picking up trash and emptying parts on the shelf and when I was 17 years old my senior year in high school I would open and run the garage when my dad was sick or went on vacations. During this period of time my mom always told me that I would be known by the friends I kept. My actions along with my friends would speak volumes compared to what I verbally said.

In today’s passage of Scripture we are told that we need to be very careful of the company we keep. In fact the verse tells us “Evil Company corrupts good character…”. My mom was so right. It is like she paraphrased this verse to me as a child growing up so that I would understand. In both my worlds I saw this. In North Tustin, people I knew got involved with people who drank, did drugs, smoked cigarettes, and cut school. Well, the next thing I saw happening was a guy I knew since third grade was doing all of the above. What broke my heart was the guys I knew since I was four years old in the inner city of Santa Ana were either dead or in jail because they were overwhelmed by the peer pressure and joined the F-Troop Street gang. Oh yeah, this didn’t stop at age 18. When I began managing auto repair shops I saw assistant managers fall to the pressure of the managers and did things that cost them their jobs and taken to court. Bottom line is not matter how old we may get the company we keep can and will corrupt us.

This is why the Apostle Paul was so persistent about making this point. It is said that the city of Corinth would make Sodom and Gomorrah look like Disneyland. He was so committed to get the Christians in Corinth to understand what was going on and what they needed to do to live a life worthy of the calling of Jesus Christ. Paul is awesome! He is very direct and to the point. In our Scripture today, he tells us two key points that will benefit us.

The first point Paul makes is “Do not be deceived. Evil Company corrupts good character…” Wow! That is so totally true and doesn’t need much more explanation other than what my mom said, “Our actions speak louder than words,” The people I knew who were influenced by their friends totally illustrates this point. Bottom line, if you go out with people who influence you to do things you normally won’t do, expect negative consequences.

Now, the second and most important thing that the Apostle Paul is telling us is this. “Awake to righteousness and do not sin!” That is completely and totally awesome! Why? If we allow our spiritual being to wake up and seek God’s righteousness we won’t be prone to sin. Amazing, right? This means we will seek Jesus with all our being to become all that Jesus wants us to be. In other words, we want to become Christ-like with every breath and move we make. We want to bring honor and glory to God through His son Jesus Christ.

Take time today and ask God to show you what relationships are causing you to sin. Then ask Him to show what you need to do in getting into righteous relationships. Then you can be a child of God that is truly Christ-like.

In Him,
Pastor Rick

Tweet