Monday's Message: Keep Good Company

Keep Good Company: 

The expectation of the righteous is righteousness just as the expectation of the wicked is wickedness.  A conflict will often occur when those who claim to be Christians decide to live a life that in no way supports their claim.  There are all kinds of people in the church just as there are all kinds of people at the department store, the doctor’s office, and the bank.  The best churches are filled weekly by the best and worst of men.  We have some instruction given to us in this passage of Scripture that can help us deal with keeping the right company in church family.  This can be a difficult issue to handle; after all, we, as believers, should desire to be kind to everyone. 

There is no place in the life of a Christian for pride. We are not being instructed to self-righteously look down on anyone in this passage, but rather we learn that exercising God-given discernment in choosing our company is not only wise but expected of us.  We all have areas of weakness in our lives, but there is a difference between not being perfect and promoting sin.  We have to be selective in the company we keep because they will either bring us closer to Christ or pull us away from Him. I realize that for many of you this will be extremely difficult because you are attempting to live Godly in an ungodly household, and you cannot leave your family.  You will have to carefully exempt yourself from certain activities and allow your actions to speak for themselves!  This is a very difficult line to walk because while you want to be gracious and Christ-like in explaining why you are living differently; you must also avoid constantly preaching to those who have not yet yielded to Christ!

Let’s not forget that even though we cannot enjoy an abundance of everyone’s company, we can share an abundance of our prayers on their behalf.  Every time a flaw in another is exposed to us, Jesus has given us a prayer request while Satan has offered a criticism; whose wishes will we follow?

I Corinthians 5:9-13
9  I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: 
10  Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. 
11  But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. 
12  For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? 13  But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.