06/15/16 BAD COMPANIONS CORRUPT GOOD MORALS
There is no way in this world i can get you to understand the gravity of this concept.
This is true whether your companions are local or on the Internet. The closest friends you have better be closer to Jesus than anyone else. If you are closer to selfish, proud, carnal, shallow people, you will become like them and you will not seek out, or heed the counsel of godly leaders.
Your friends will either lift you higher or drag you down. If your pastor does not lead you into perfection, get a new pastor.
You must decide that you are going to be the godly influence on friends and family. You will either show them the love, kindness, patience, joy of Jesus or you will impart to them your unChristlikeness.
(There was some discussion and the following are my responses)
* This is not about loving or reaching the lost or ministering to the weak. This is about choosing spiritual friends and leadership. It is not my opinion, but Biblical directive.
1 Corinthians 15:33 (ASV)
(33) Be not deceived: Evil companionships corrupt good morals.
* We are either righteous or unrighteous, good or evil. Those are Biblical terms. If a person is not saved, he/she is a sinner. Only sinning religion refers to Christians as sinners.
The Bible tells us that evil, unsaved companions, friends, corrupt our morals. It is God's position, and I subscribe to it. "Just lost" is an interesting phrase. How about, "Just damned." The unsaved are lost, and using pleasant terms, euphemisms, to describe them will not reduce the sentence or the punishment one degree.
But remember, I was not primarily referring to the unsaved. I was talking about the believer choosing to align with their unsaved or shallow friends. It is wrong. In fact, a Christian and a sinner cannot be yoked together without it taking a toll on the Christian.
It does not matter whether your unsaved friends have an agenda or not. Their god (Satan) does have an agenda, and he has a more willing vessel to flow through than God does, when it is a Christian who does not guide his life by the word of God.
The last statement about the, "dinner guest list" is a false narrative. Not only is it not what I was saying, your comment implies that I was saying such a thing.
I am not sure why anyone Christian would be bothered by what I said. It is not unloving, it is not an attack on sinners, it is not untrue.
Could it be that we have heard so many who have watered down the message that when we just read what the Bible says, it sounds unreasonable and unkind?
