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Good People in Bad Company
Acts 13:50
"But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts."
You would think that when Paul and Barnabas tried to bring the glorious Gospel of Christ to the Jews, that the good people of the area would have been excited. Yet, in the verse above, we learn that the "devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city," were the ones who caused Paul and Barnabas problems. You would expect problems from the atheists, but not from these people. You would expect problems from wicked people, but not from these people. These people were supposedly the best of society. The word "devout" means devoted. In other words, there were devoted people who turned on Paul and Barnabas. These were people who were the honorable in the surrounding communities that turned on these men. These people were city leaders who were known as good leaders, yet they still turned on these men. This seems unthinkable.
So what was it that caused "devout and honourable" women and city leaders to turn on Paul and Barnabas? The first three words of the verse above shows us the answer, "But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city..." What caused these good people to turn on God's men was that they kept bad company. These good people got around bad company and found themselves doing bad things.
It always happens that when good people spend time around bad company that the good people end up doing bad things. You cannot spend time with bad company and not expect it to influence or affect your actions. Though many times you may have good intentions to influence the bad company for right, you will instead find yourself influenced by them. Like I have always said, you can't spend time around manure without getting it and it's smell on you. If you don't want to allow bad company to influence you, then don't spend time with them.
Christian, you are not going to be the exception to the rule. You can't run with disgruntled church members, those who are still in the church and others who have left, without them affecting your spirit. You can't run with worldly people and their worldliness not rub off on you. You can't run with liberal Christians by reading their books and watching television programs without their liberal theology rubbing off on you. You can't spend time with Hollywood and not expect their filthy lifestyle to rub off on you. Good people spending time in bad company always produces bad results.
The best way for you to keep yourself from being influenced by bad company is to not spend time with them. Yes, witness to them, pray for them, be kind and courteous to them, and try to get them to come to church, but you cannot run with them or else they will influence you. If you want to continue to be a good person, then you need to spend time with good people.
Take some time to look at your associations and those with whom you spend time, and make sure they are good people. If they're not, then back off and start spending time with good people. Just like good people in bad company results in bad actions, likewise good people in good company results in good actions. Be careful with what company you run and be sure that it is the type of company that does things that you should do.