I am reading a book by John and Loren Sandford "The Renewal of the Mind", and this morning's chapter entitled "Bad Company" significantly spoke to me- so much I grabbed a pen and started taking notes, and now share with you. The message is current and I feel needs to be told over and over.
Bad company as discussed by this Christian couple and co-founders of the "Elijah House" ministry is defined by Christians spending time in the company of someone who is weak in grace, and the wisdom of God, and then allowing them to influence us wrongly.
As time goes on in this relationship, we are at risk of allowing them to lead us in the direction of their unrighteous lifestyle- marked by constant sin and struggles, and we are eventually faced with compromising our own moral and spiritual convictions.
This reminded me of a message I heard from my pastor Jentezen Franklin years ago when discussing this same principle- how good does not bring bad up, as often as bad brings good down.
This has been the plans of Satan from the first incident in the Garden when Eve was confronted with a decision to stay and play or leave and believe God. The motive of Satan then, and still remains the same today is to have us disengage from God, and to attach ourselves to Satan's lies and sinful ways.
What may seem like a small compromise at the beginning will always lead to another, and another and then we find ourselves eventually in a landslide of our crumbling moral foundations, ending up in a pit of lies and deceptions.
Young and old can fall victim to this trap, it hides in the world in many different forms- To some an invitation to try New Age spirituality; a belief that God can be many different forms, and acceptable in many ways to man. Some even teach that the creation is God and to be worshiped.
Another form of bad company is embracing a church where prosperity preaching is loosely interpreting scripture- to fit the current social and political view of the culture, and to pad the pockets of the Preacher and that church. God clearly left word in the Bible that not a word was to be changed or altered.
The Apostle Paul spoke to the early church in 2 Corinthians, Chapter 10- about the coming of false prophets, teachers and deceitful doctrines. He said you will know them by their boasting about their own good deeds, instead of exalting the knowledge of God and the message of hope and grace that Christ taught.
Satan the counterfeit, stalks man and traps him in the wheat- gleaning and gathering man's prideful nature as chaff, and then burns him up in the lie that he can be somebody important without God.
The Sandford’s message to the Christian is to be aware of these traps, and ready to turn from anything or anyone that preaches something contrary to the truth of God’s word. Paul warns us that this battle is one perpetrated by Satan, a spiritual battle for your soul (verse 4).
This is as dangerous as a child playing with fire, and there is an eternal consequence you can suffer. You could lose everything in the end. Make no mistake; this is the enemy's covert plan. Our response is to know that we cannot do battle in our own flesh. We must run to God and confess our part and seek His protection.
“ So we are no longer to be children, tossed back and forth by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching by the trickery of people who craftily carry out their deceitful schemes.”
To follow God requires a mature steadfast mind that is grounded in the truth of His doctrine. Dear ones, please be strong and courageous, do not follow after vain imaginings and the trappings of momentary pleasures enticed by bad choices or bad company. Take the time to know God and to trust His word,
Read the Bible and remember Adam and Eve and the bad company they kept on that fateful day in the garden. Had they just believed and trusted God, I am sure the fruit of the Tree of Life would pale in comparison to what the I AM would have blessed them with in time- if only...
