After reading comments from my previous post on the way people lived their life, I feel it's important association is discussed. What is association all about? Association is all about the relationship between people, perhaps due to some similar interests. It is common to hear someone say, my friends live wayward lifestyles, they smoke and even engage in immoral activities, but I'm not like them I avoid such things. I'll like us to take a deep look at this and see if they can really influence us or not.
I read a book many years ago that likened humans to sponges. Actually, humans absorb things around them just the way sponges do. If a sponge is kept in a clean water, it remains clean. When it is put in an oily water, it becomes oily. Can a sponge say, "I'm clean, even if I'm placed in a dirty water I'll still be clean in it". It's possible to remain chaste in an ungodly world, but associating with people without ethics can influence one dangerously.
When you go through the scriptures, 1 Corinthians 15: 33 says,
Be not deceived: Evil companionships corrupt good morals. - ASVThe scripture starts with a warning, do not deceived; this is because many are easily deceived today. Just like the sponge we mentioned earlier, that thinks it can remain clean when it chooses to be in a dirty water. The other part of the scripture adds, bad (or evil) association spoils good morals. What is good can easily become bad, when not taken care of properly. Good manners can easily become bad manners, when we associate with those with bad manners.
There's this other scripture I'll like us to read. Proverbs 13: 20,
He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. - KJV
This shows a very sharp contrast. The one that deals with wise people shall be wise, here is taking about association. While the ones that associate with unwise persons (or fools) will be destroyed. Another bible translation used fare badly in place of be destroyed. This shows that the results of associating with unwise people is something everyone of us should want to avoid.
When it comes to association, who are your friends? Which category do they fall in? Wise persons or unwise persons?
When associating with people we should have the texts from those scriptures at the back of our minds. Like minds tends to attracts most of the time, so we should try to avoid any harmful relationship. A good student of the bible always heed to the advice found in God's words. Are you a good student?
Sometimes one might reason that "No, ABC is not like that, he wouldn't lure me into pratices that I do not like". But the fact is that in life, you either win or lose, there is hardly a balance. It's either you try to to help your friend to change for good, or he helps you to get bad. Associating with smart people will definitely make you smart too.
Steemchurch is an amazing project on the Steem Blockchain that was initiated by @Sirknight. It also happens to be the very first church on the blockchain and home to many. Just go through @Steemchurch, to see some articles on the project.
Here is a list of some contributors called apostles,
Thanks for coming around :)
