Most of us have heard the importance of choosing our friends wisely. We have been told that those we spend time with will influence us. Good friends will have a positive impact on us. Bad friends will have the opposite effect.
It might be tempting to chalk this up to parents looking out for us. They worry about what will happen to their children if they walk with the wrong crowd. We might think that such parents are exaggerating. I’m sure many of us felt that way as kids. But when we heard such advice, it was not just the opinion of those who cared for us. The Bible teaches the same thing.
The Lord said that if we follow a blind leader, we will fall into a ditch. He was not talking about a physically blind leader. Christ was talking about somebody who teaches false doctrine. He said that we will become like the person we follow. It seems to me that Jesus was talking about both what we believe and how we act. Those we look up to will determine where we wind up (Luke 6:39-40).
Paul said the same thing. In 1 Cor 15:33, he says, “Evil company corrupts good habits.” The apostle is talking about morals. If we hang around with the wrong people, we can adopt their attitude of, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” (1 Cor 15:32). Paul actually wrote this in connection with a doctrinal issue. He was addressing a problem with theology in the church. Some were saying that our bodies will not be resurrected. Their false doctrine was impacting how some believers at Corinth lived and what they believed. As with the Lord’s teaching in Luke 6, the people we spend time with can negatively affect us both morally and doctrinally.
In the OT, Solomon would have given a hearty “Amen” to the words of the Lord and Paul. In Prov 13:20, he writes: “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.” In the book of Proverbs, the wise man fears the Lord (Prov 1:7). Ultimately, wisdom is expressed in the Word of God. In Prov 13:20, one’s “walk” is how he lives. Like Jesus and Paul, Solomon says the people we spend time with will impact our theology and our actions. It is a major point of his teaching (1:10; 2:12; 4:14; 16:29; 23:20).
For most of us, our parents worried about how we would act if we did not choose the right friends. But Jesus, Paul, and Solomon also warn us about how our friends will affect our theology. As in Proverbs, this is especially true the younger a person is. A young believer can easily become confused and led astray by an articulate false teacher.
But it is also true for us older folks. If we expose ourselves to bad teaching, it can harm us. At the very least, such time is wasted. Plus, no one is immune to negative influences. Furthermore, how great is it to be around other Free Grace people? We all feel better after a great discussion of the Word with like-minded believers. I would really encourage all of us to spend time with people like that.
In Solomon’s words, we can become fools in our moral and theological lives if we hang around with the wrong people. One author translates the Hebrew in Prov 13:20 as, “he who associates with fools will be left a fool” (A. Guillaume, Journal of Theological Studies 15: 294). Another puts it simply: “Fool he ends that fool befriends” (Kidner, Proverbs, 104).
If we don’t want to end up as fools, we need to hang around with the right folks. Theologically, we need to have a lot of conversations and listen to people who understand Free Grace theology. Listening to the podcasts and watching the videos on the GES website won’t hurt either!
