‘Can two walk together except they be agreed?’ Amos 3:3
If you are joined together with someone, or a group of people, who are engaged in things that are wrong and unrighteous; if you take them to be good and acceptable in what they do and the way they behave, especially if it is against all that the Bible teaches, then you are ‘agreed’ with them.
If that be the case, then you are no different to them, and you are tarred with the same brush (as they say). You have compromised your faith and your principles for the sake of a friendship or a slice of their cake.
You now walk together as one. If they are unholy and deceitful, then you, as being in agreement with them, share their values and their practices.
Unless you are the light that exposes their wrong-doing, and become the salt that stings their sinful behaviour, you are already compromised.
When we laugh at the immoral or cruel jokes of the unsanctified, then we are partakers of their thoughts and habits. When we are happy to sit at their table of feasting, knowing that their food is from ill-gotten gains, or from the robbing of the poor, we are partakers of their sin. Evil contaminates, but it does not mean that we need to live like hermits or in a monastery. We need to be the good in society, the correction, the right path to walk, the preservation and preserving influence among the people.
The person who walks with God will leave the table of wickedness, lies, and deceit, and express their disgust and unwillingness to be part of the contamination, especially when those people claim to be Christians.
The Bible is quite clear in what it says about coming out from among them if you choose to maintain your walk with God.
The world has no respect to us because we never rebuke the wrongness of those we associate with, especially when they use the name of God about all that they are doing.
Psalm 1 talks of the blessedness of the person who does not walk in the advice and purpose of the ungodly (even if they do claim to be ‘Christian’ and servants of God). It further tells us that the one who is blessed does not stand alongside and in agreement with those who are unrighteous both in their thoughts and their life-styles.
Then it speaks of not sitting in the seat of the scornful. Who are the scornful? those who deride the upright, and who dismiss the righteous ways of God; those who are mockers of others, and those who live in the arrogance of believing they can live just as they please without conscience or accountability.
If you are content and at ease to sit alongside those who blaspheme the name of Christ and abuse the name of God under the pretence of being true believers, then your blessing is long gone.
Now, we all know the saying, ‘Bad company spoils good manners’, and there is a real truth about it. Hang around the wrong people, and you will soon find yourself picking up the language and attitudes of those you spend time with. If they are liars, soon you will find yourself lying. If they are critical and gossips, soon you will find yourself sinking to their level. If they steal from others, act deceitfully in business, and are dishonest in their dealings, then soon you will find that these traits will rub off onto your clothes.
Either put them right and tell them of their folly, or walk away, making sure they know why you are parting company: in the hope that they might repent and change.
There are a lot of people who have demons floating around them, and even in them, yet use the name of Jesus as though he was in agreement with their disgraceful ways and behaviour.
It is time to draw a line in the sand and decide whether you will sit down at the table of the disobedient and rebellious, or sit down at the table of God. ‘Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lords table, and of the table of devils.’ (1Corinthians 10:21)
Choose this day who you will serve. (2Corinthians 6:17)
‘Wherefore come out from among them, and be you separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.’
Now obviously we have to live in this world and oftentimes work for a company or a person that has no ethics or morals. However, we do not need to become like them, but show the life of Jesus in all that we do. We can and should be a witness on a different level to others.
But I am talking here specifically of those who claim to be the same as us and say that they follow Christ, but do not walk the walk. If they will not listen to correction or change their ways, then according to the Bible, we should walk away from them and treat them as unbelievers.
‘But now I have written to you that you do not keep company with any man that is called a brother (a Christian believer) who is a fornicator (a mixer with prostitutes or is a prostitute), or covetous (greedy of money and other things that are not rightly his), or an idolater (lover of money, possessions, or power), or a railer (someone who speaks badly or slanderously of another believer), or a drunkard, or an extortioner (a thief, a scammer, a robber of other peoples’ wealth and belongings); with such a person do not even eat.’ (1Corinthians 5:11)
There it is. It is simply what the Bible teaches, and it could save our lives from huge trouble and even destruction.
Do not let a gift or promise of financial support blind your eyes or pervert your words.
'And you shalt take no gift: for the gift blinds the wise (puts out their eyes), and perverts the words of the righteous.' (Exodus 23:8)
Pilgrim Warrior 2022
