Beware of the Company You Keep

The old saying, ‘you are known by the company you keep’ is more relevant for Christians than for any other group. We are expected to interact with everyone with love. How do we keep company but remain distant when people pull us from Christ?

Brethren, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? Why am I in peril every hour? I protest, brethren, by my pride in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” Come to your right mind, and sin no more. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame. But some one will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish man! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

1^st Corinthians 15.29-38

Saint Paul makes it clear. “Bad company ruins good morals.” This is where I want us to spend some time today. As Christians we are sent out to love our enemies and to preach the Gospel to everyone we meet. The trick is to learn how NOT to be under the influence of bad company.

About bad morals, Saint Paul also says, “that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.” (Romans 1.32) So, we must spend time with everyone while never approving of bad behavior. It isn’t easy for sure.

Saint Paul made a distinction between those in the Church and those outside the Church. That is where today’s reading has meaning. In the Church, we are called to a higher moral standard than those outside the Church. There is no place for bad company in the Church.

Saint Paul wasn’t talking about the bad company outside the Church. He was talking about those in the Church who weren’t living as they should, as we should. We are currently in the Dormition Fast. Are we worrying about our ‘good’ behavior, or just what we eat?

All the fasting these two weeks won’t have any impact if we don’t stop our bad behavior, “and sin no more” as Saint Paul teaches. We know how we should live. Yet, we insist on turning away from God and His teachings. We come up with all sorts of excuses.

My favorite excuse is, “I’m not perfect!” Nobody is perfect but God. That doesn’t mean we give up and live for our passions. It means we beg for God’s forgiveness every night when we go to sleep and thank Him for another chance to get it right in the morning. Every day is a challenge.

Every day is a chance to keep good company and live for Christ. Every day is a chance to evaluate those in our lives. If they are pulling us away from Christ, we must make a change. If they are pulling us, even if we are fighting it, toward Christ, we must thank them.

The role of a Christian isn’t to avoid human contact. It is to avoid sin. The more we keep company with those engaged in the same fight against sin, the better our chances for success. The more time we spend outside the Church, the harder the fight.

It is a balancing act for sure. As so many of our Christian ancestors, we live among people who do not believe, who try every day to convince us to walk away from Christ. Maybe we should walk away from them for a change, rather than God.

More often than not, our walking away isn’t literal. We can’t quit every job ‘just because’ our coworker in the next cubicle is atheist. We can’t walk away from those who need Christ. If anything drew people to Christ in the past, it was saints willing to live holy lives.

So, here’s the deal. Are the people around you an influence on you, or are you an influence on them? The difference matters more than you know.