Lifestyle
I would like to take this opportunity this afternoon to share with you what we do in our Bible Studies on a Monday evening. If you are a regular attender then I crave your forgiveness as we go over some of the ground we covered last Monday night.
We were looking at the whole issue of "lifestyle" and asking ourselves the question that seemed important - how big an issue is this in keeping people from the faith. Or perhaps more importantly causing people who at one time embraced the faith to slip away.
We looked at four texts in particular. The first we found in Exodus Chapter 23v2. Here we read, "Do not follow the majority when they do wrong.....". The problem here is that the majority never think of themselves as being "wrong". Indeed our whole democratic system inclines to adopt the attitude that we must go with the majority. But we know, or should know that this text is talking plainly of what society does and thinks that is in direct conflict with Christian teaching and the plain teaching of the Bible. The majority of people for example today treat Sunday as the great shopping day. Or as just another working day. The Bible makes it plain that it is not and should be treated quite differently and it is that kind of attitude we must bear in mind when the Bible warns us "not to follow the majority when they do wrong...".
The second text we looked at came from Proverbs 13v20. "Keep company with the wise and you will become wise. If you make friends with stupid people, you will be ruined." Well this is such a well known proverb that you might think there is little to discuss here. We all know the truth about Bad Company. We have all seen it happen and from time to time we may have been down that road ourselves. But there are other levels to this proverb and on Monday night we spent some time discussing the kind of company we keep these days via books, magazines and television. After all many of our influences if not the majority comes to us via the paper or the television or through books and even music. We need as Christians to exercise great care in what we subject ourselves to in the name of entertainment. For all of these things have an insidious effect upon us.
Of course you may mutter and grumble and say to yourself, I am old enough and sensible enough to decide what I watch.... and as someone pointed out this is a very seductive argument. But nevertheless not only are we warned about this in the Bible we are also encouraged to lead a far more positive lifestyle. There is the wisdom of God and of the ages in this Proverb : "Keep company with the wise and you will become wise. If you make friends with stupid people, you will be ruined." So many folk fall away from the church under the influence of friends and society ..... we need as Christians to be on our guard. We after all don't eat indiscriminately. We all these days are aware of what constitutes a good and healthy diet and what is likely to cause us problems either now or in the future. Some of us even have eating restriction placed upon us on health grounds -for example the diabetic. if we exercise such care on our bodies ought we not then to exercise the same care with our spiritual life and be careful what we consume with our eyes and ears - lest we kill ourselves spiritually?
These thoughts were further emphasised when we turned to 2 Corinthians 6v14. There we read, "Do not try to work together as equals with unbelievers, for it cannot be done. How can right and wrong be partners? How can light and darkness live together? This text has wide ranging applications from marriage to business, from home to workplace. These days it seems to be generally ignored. But the teaching of scripture is quite clear that the believer should not marry the unbeliever. That is quite a different situation to the one in which one partner comes to real faith and the other does not. Quite a different matter from the nominal church member who marries and then in later life realises the truth of the faith. But nevertheless this same thread runs throughout the Bible - be careful to follow God and not the ways of man. Be careful with your friends and your social life and be careful with the things you ingest through your eyes and ears.
Nut by now some of us may feel like shaking our heads. We may want to minimize this whole area of teaching. We may even want to dismiss it as a bit extreme. We may even think over our own situations and think that doesn't apply to me ... I am sure everyone is tempted to do that because few of us in truth ever willingly or knowingly engage in doing what is wrong... although what is wrong in God's eyes may seem quite acceptable to society. But just as we get ourselves into that comfortable I can dismiss this mode because it doesn't apply we find another text. A simple one. And a very blunt one indeed.
1 Cornithians 15v33 - there we read "Do not be fooled. Bad companions ruin good character."
Today though in this holy hour we keep company with the people of God. We come perhaps more importantly to keep company with the Lord himself. And that when all is said and done is what it is all about....keeping company with God's people and with the Lord himself. It is in this way that we keep to the straight and narrow and head towards heaven.