Articles
Choose Your Friends Wisely
Sometimes we need to just stay away from certain people. I think we all have had people
in our lives that we knew weren’t doing the right thing. What happens to our reputation when the
people we hang around with most of the time have a bad reputation? What usually happens to
our behavior?
“A man of violence entices his neighbor and leads him in a way that is not good”
(Proverbs 16:29). “Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one
easily angered, or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared” (Proverbs 22:24-25).
“Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good morals" (1 Corinthians 15:33). “Do not be
bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or
what fellowship has light with darkness” (2 Corinthians 6:14- 15)? “Now I urge you, brethren,
keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which
you learned, and turn away from them” (Romans 16:17).
Bad behavior wears off on you and you will be influenced over time. “But actually, I
wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous,
or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler-- not even to eat with such a one” (1
Corinthians 5:11). “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be
lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents,
ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers
of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having
a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people” (2 Timothy 3:1-
5). Who are you spending your time with? ~B Tolbert
