A Young Man Turns From Sinful Company to the Lightby sirrscott
15:331 Corinthians 15:33
Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
Do not be misled into thinking bad company leaves you unchanged, for evil association, talk, and influence spoil good character, habits, manners, and conduct. The harm works gradually and almost without notice, like poisoned air or spreading infection, until the mind catches the spirit of its companions and is molded by their views, tastes, thoughts, feelings, and speech. Living amid wrongdoing makes wrong seem less repulsive and less sinful, dulling perception, searing conscience, and weakening fear of sin. That dulling chills love for God, fades eternal realities, and leads step by step from harmless-seeming pleasure into disobedience and open vice until turning back is far harder than expected. Safety lies in refusing fellowship with corrupting words, habits, and alliances as deadly poison, choosing companions who fear God and breathe a pure spiritual atmosphere, and keeping children and youth under close guard with useful work and sound instruction.
Words of the Warning
Be not deceived is a warning against self-deception, for bad associations spoil good character and evil company, association, and communication corrupt good manners, habits, conduct, and morals. Association with those who take pleasure in wickedness can lead a person into sin, so fellowship with evil and with the unfruitful works of darkness is a danger signal to be refused, since turning from truth and right principles in relationships cannot benefit and dishonors God. Dwelling on infirmities and mingling in society with a corrupting, evil-minded influence increases evil already present and injures the person, turning thoughts into an impure, forbidden channel. Through the power of association and habit the mind is brought under worldly principles and customs and becomes more and more conformed to the worldling's standard, catching their spirit and being molded by their views of things, and such fellowship injures those who enter it so that they cannot leave unharmed while also misleading others. Harmful associations and teachings corrupt good character.
The call not to be deceived summons believers to wake up to right doing and to stop sinning. Closeness with people who do not know God corrupts morals, because living in an atmosphere of sin keeps sin from looking exceedingly sinful. To stay in that dulled, sinning condition brings shame. In its setting the warning bears on the resurrection, showing that denying or neglecting the resurrection undermines Christian faith and conduct.
Evil communications include corrupting speech and conversation that spoil good character and conduct. They include vile talk and vile practices passed on to curious minds, secret knowledge, and evil words breathed into the ear by young companions. One such word, if not firmly resisted, lodges in the heart, takes root, and grows to bear fruit in corrupted character, and children who are left unsupervised may hear such words, which plant evil in young minds and lead toward wrongdoing. They also include whispering suspicions and surmisings, relating evil reports, loving lies, low wit, vain talk, jesting about sacred things, mocking individuals, severely criticizing others, and dwelling on courtship and marriage in a low manner. Those who teach or tempt others in this way are accountable not only for their own sins but also for the sins they lead others to commit, and intemperance that weakens moral strength opens the way into such harmful associations that further corrupt behavior and draw into sin.
Evil communications are not only persons but what is read and heard. Sensual writing acts like a bad associate, stirring the passions and shaping readers toward sensuality and unchastity. Sensational accounts of crime and vice make sin familiar, blunt the conscience, and draw interest toward what is vile. Evil association includes companionship, friendship, and alliance with the world, with idolaters, unbelievers, men who do not love God, and those who have no love for the truth. Great carefulness must therefore be exercised in forming friendship, and Christians must not choose ungodly companions or connect with worldly associations.
Such worldly friendship corrupts good manners and lowers the standard of religious principle. Continuing to associate with unbelieving men assimilates a person more and more to their customs, spirit, and practices, and the unbelief and infidelity they express intrudes upon thought and weakens faith, so that eternal life hangs in the balance. Being pleased to have close connection with those who have no love for God does not make a person Christlike, humble, holy, pure, and undefiled, but after a time makes him of the same mind and spirit as his associates, and uniting with them by secret cords which heaven never devised is the ruin of thousands. This includes political and marriage alliances and leaguing with idolatrous nations, seeking wise men from other nations, and forming ties with enemies of truth, which imperil the soul, turn the heart from God, blunt fine sensibilities, destroy sympathy for man and love for God, and sear the conscience. One false step leads to friendship with idolaters and to separation from obedience to God and from wisdom and righteousness, and when truth is known but not practiced it has no saving value.
How Corruption Spreads
Corruption works gradually and almost unnoticed, lowering standards and corrupting the thoughts and heart of even those who love purity and truth. Its influence may affect the soul unconsciously, like poisonous air breathed without notice, and spreads among vain, worldly associates like a contagious disease. Close, frequent association with people of loose morals and careless talk drives away serious religious impressions and desires, weakening modesty, reverence, sound judgment, and good manners. Even wit, humor, and other attractive qualities do not make irreligious companions safe, for their influence can make an irreligious life appealing.
One evil word breathed into the ear, if not firmly resisted, lodges in the heart, takes root, and grows to bear fruit in corrupted character and conduct. Young companions exert a strong influence on one another through conversation and companionship, and can thus corrupt one another. This danger is heightened because children do not know the evils of the world and the deadly corrupting influence surrounding them, so that when direct working is less effective, minds are poisoned through other young friends.
Through the power of association and habit the mind is brought under worldly principles and customs and becomes more and more conformed to the companions' standard. By mingling with ignorant and vicious companions a person's thoughts, feelings, principles, habits, views, tastes, and speech take on their character, catching their spirit until sinking to their level. Young people may thus adopt harmful tastes and habits from associates even when taught better, and the company kept, principles adopted, and habits formed shape usefulness and future destiny. Close association with godless companions changes ways of life and habits of thought and speech and leads down to darkness and perdition, degrading before God and man those who yield to win the applause of the low, the worthless, and the vulgar, alluring them away from purity and holiness while even those they tried to please privately ridicule them.
Familiarity with sin makes it seem less repulsive and less sinful, for living in an atmosphere of sin keeps sin from looking exceedingly sinful. Continued association blinds to the harm, blunts fine sensibilities, sears the conscience, clouds perception, and weakens fear of sin and of Satan, until abused conscience no longer regards sin as very sinful. Sensational accounts of crime and vice work the same way, making sin familiar, blunting the conscience, and drawing interest toward what is vile. So political alliance with pagan kingdoms made heathen practices seem less abhorrent step by step, leading into sensual customs and darkest worships until imported, with blunted sensibilities, seared conscience, weakness and vacillation.
It is far easier to be brought down to a frivolous level than to lift others up to elevated and ennobling thoughts and a correct course. Youth of frivolous character are dangerous company, and those who profess faith while trifling about religious things are even more to be dreaded, for their minds are cast in an inferior mold and their thoughtlessness and levity are subtle, dangerous folly. Even companions who are witty, humorous, engaging, and attractive are unsafe when irreligious or treating religion lightly, drawing the conscientious toward low morals and indifference. Safety requires companions who observe decorum in words and deportment and who love truth, purity, and sound morals and habits.
Those corrupted become corrupters: first tempted themselves, they in turn become tempters. Those led by unrestrained appetite and indulgence into disregard for purity and virtue are led not only to defile themselves but to whisper evil to others and thereby corrupt them, passing on vile practices and secret knowledge to curious minds. A boy given over to an evil course is used to tempt and allure others and injure them, with evil doings steadily increasing, and youth corrupted through association with those having no fear of God may become ringleaders in wrong. A wrong course can lead others away from the hope of heaven, while a life resisting selfishness and helping others guides them aright. Those who teach or tempt others are accountable not only for their own sins but also for the sins they lead others to commit.
Results of Evil Company
Worldly association injures all who enter it and cannot leave them unharmed, for through association and habit the mind is brought under worldly principles and customs and becomes conformed to the standard of the world, catching its spirit and being molded by its views. Love for God grows cold, desire for communion with Him is lost, the brightness of eternal realities fades, and hunger for the bread of life and thirst for the waters of salvation are gone. Those so affected become spiritually blind, seeing no difference between transgressors of God's law and those who fear God and keep His commandments, calling evil good and good evil, failing to discern the preciousness of Jesus and truth, and drinking at broken cisterns that can hold no water. Just as the spirit of the world dwells in the heart it controls the life, and when men are not under the control of the Word and Spirit of God they are captives of Satan, not knowing to what lengths he may lead them in sin, so there is to be no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness and no place in the secret and assembly of those who take pleasure in wickedness. Continuing to associate with unbelieving men assimilates a person more and more to their customs, spirit, and practices, and the unbelief and infidelity they express intrudes upon thought and weakens faith, so that eternal life hangs in the balance.
Evil associations corrupt good character by leading a person step by step away from virtue into disobedience and dissipation, even to conduct once thought impossible. The first steps into frivolity and pleasure-seeking may seem harmless, but yielding to wrongdoing makes turning back to right conduct harder than expected. Evil associates lead young people into crime, dissipation, and licentiousness, and unconsecrated companions and pleasure-seekers draw youth away from serving God and leading others toward righteousness. In children, harmful associations and evil influences weaken piety and cause the tenderness of soul they once had to die away, so that right character and piety fail to develop. Evil associations are always detrimental to piety and devotion and undermine principles approved by God, and selfish wealthy men exert such a molding influence upon other minds that God's people and institutions must not settle among them for apparent advantages.
Association with corrupt, evil-minded companions increases evil already present, and dwelling on infirmities and mingling in corrupting society turns thoughts into an impure, forbidden channel. It strengthens habits that steadily undermine the constitution and prepare for premature decay, producing a sad, gloomy state of mind where life feels undesirable, a condition not acceptable in God's sight that leaves a person prepared neither for this world nor the next, and hopeless if life should end. Youth given religious instruction at home who enter school comparatively innocent and virtuous are made corrupt by associating with vicious companions in idle leisure hours left by study without labor, as knowledge of bad habits passes from one to another and vice greatly increases. Those corrupted lose self-respect and sacrifice noble principles, abuse conscience until sin no longer appears very sinful, and are prepared for the downward path, and the same corruption exists in higher schools in even greater degree where youth trained in vice with seared consciences end in dissolute habits, ruined constitutions, disrespect to parents, unthankfulness, unholiness, and physical, mental, and moral wreck and miserable existence. Combining systematic physical labor with study would remedy this corruption in great degree.
Corrupt conversation such as whispering suspicions and surmisings together, relating evil reports, and loving lies that have been heard strengthens rebellion against the defenders of God's truth. It sows seeds of rebellion within participants that spring up and yield a flourishing crop, leaving them no more prepared to work for God than open sympathizers with rebellion. It brings them under the tugging and power of evil angels, causing exulting of evil angels and triumph of Satan, and spreads a spirit of death that affects others engaged in the same work. All such talk is heard by angels, witnessed by them, and written down to be met again. Associating with people who ridicule faith and conscience exposes believers to temptation and can corrupt conduct, leading them to deny faith under pressure. Choosing associates carelessly can lead into evil and imperil the soul, so watchfulness and prayer are safeguards against being led astray.
Connecting children with a person who does not have the grace of Christ harms them, for such a person has no experience to lead children into correct habits and right practices, and his influence cannot but be detrimental. It introduces children to temptations and surrounds them with influences that lead to sinful practices and to a development of character that does not refine, purify, and ennoble. Instead it cheapens them and disqualifies them for useful, uplifting work in this life and for the future immortal life. What is learned from the words and habits of companions leaves a lasting mark for good or evil not written in sand but traced as on enduring rock, molding the whole after-life, so associations must be guarded. The company youth keep, the associations they form, the principles they adopt, and the habits they form in youth in nine cases out of ten decide their future and are carried through life, settling the destiny of the future with an almost infallible certainty.
Biblical Examples of Corruption
Solomon proves that close contact and friendship with the world and with idolaters and those who do not love God corrupts good character and manners, lowers the standard of religious principle, separates from obedience to God and from wisdom and righteousness, and ruins the soul, so great carefulness must be exercised in forming friendships. After glorious promise and purity he broke through the barriers God had set to keep Israel from idolatry, cherished pride in political power, leagued with idolatrous nations, sought wise men from other nations, and made political and marriage alliances with pagan kingdoms, especially Egypt and Phoenicia, even marrying daughters of pagan worshipers at the cost of sacred trust. One false step led to friendship with idolaters, and that association made their heathen practices seem less abhorrent until step by step he was led into their sensual customs and darkest worships and imported them into Palestine and Jerusalem as leaven of evil influence. His heathen wives turned away his heart after he had prayed that hearts be undividedly given to the Lord, leading him away from God into idolatry and polygamy, so that he built high places for idols facing the temple on Mount Moriah. He became a tool of Satan and a slave to impulse, weak and vacillating, with blunted fine sensibilities, destroyed sympathy for man and love for God, seared conscience, and clouded perception, turned from faithfulness to sacred trust into direct opposition to God's will, from justice to tyranny and from guardian of his people to despot and tyrannical ruler.
When the Lord's people turn from the God of all wisdom to obtain wisdom and decisions from those who love not God and form ties with the Lord's enemies, the soul is imperiled and the heart turned from God, and the Lord allows them to follow wisdom that is not from above but from beneath, and the evil thus introduced is transmitted as an inheritance of evil that even later repentance cannot abolish. Samson at his marriage feast shows the same law, that voluntarily entering into familiar association with those who hate God corrupts character because whoever does so will feel it necessary to conform to some degree to the habits and customs of companions. Time spent in such company is worse than wasted, because the thoughts entertained and words spoken there break down the strongholds of principle and weaken the citadel of the soul. Lot illustrates the verse by choosing a home where he and his family were brought into constant contact with evil, going into Sodom rich and leaving with nothing, led out by an angel's hand while messengers of wrath waited to consume that highly favored and beautiful city with fire and leave it bleak and bare.
Corrupting words and influences can seek to reach the senses and corrupt the mind, yet resistance is possible, for the young can remain faithful and untainted amid such example when they stay closely united to God and rely on His strength rather than their own. Samuel proved this amid the corrupting example of Eli's sons.
Youth in Greatest Danger
Children and youth stand in the greatest danger from corrupting company because they do not know the evils of the world nor the deadly influence pressing around them. Satan cannot work so well directly upon children, so he works through other young friends to poison the minds of youth, with one evil word breathed into the ear lodging in the heart, taking root, and bearing fruit in corrupted character unless firmly resisted. Agents of evil taunt and ridicule all who would be true to virtue and to God, making the young fearful or ashamed to acknowledge principle, while to win the applause of the low and vulgar they degrade themselves, are allured away from purity and holiness, and are privately despised even by those they sought to please. What children learn from companions' words and habits shapes character and can decide the future life, so they need careful training, restraint from indulging their own wishes, and guarding from the society of the young and from schoolmates given a street education.
Evil communication can begin even in infancy through early exposure to a sensual world and through the actions of caregivers, so that harmful ideas and habits, including solitary vice, may be acquired almost from birth. Older persons shape children, children learn from those older than themselves and pass what they learn to still younger children, so sensual influence spreads downward through age groups toward unchaste behavior. Unrestrained appetite and indulgence animalize children and open them to intemperance and lower passions with disregard for purity and virtue, and those so corrupted are led not only to defile their own bodies but to whisper evil to others and thereby corrupt them, a danger often undiscerned by parents blinded by sin.
Schools and colleges to which youth are sent to cultivate the mind endanger morals, for students who leave home innocent and pure are degraded by mixing with vicious companions whose influence and conduct are corrupting. Pure-minded youth lose purity and become vicious and debased through association with companions of corrupt habits, just as innocent youth placed with hardened criminals learn crimes they never dreamed of. At school children may learn more wickedness from corrupt associates than righteousness from proper teachers, while skepticism and unbelief hidden under pleasing disguise or quiet suggestion in schoolbooks, harmful principles taught by teachers, and evil companions teaching lessons of crime, dissipation, and licentiousness make many public schools hotbeds of vice.
Idle leisure after the confinement of the schoolroom leaves natural desire for activity without right outlet, so pent-up energy makes youth restless and impatient of control. In those hours knowledge of bad habits passes from one to another and vice greatly increases, as bad company leads into rude, unmanly sports that disgrace schools and colleges and even into scenes of actual dissipation. Those corrupted lose self-respect and sacrifice noble principles, abuse conscience until sin no longer appears very sinful, and are prepared for the downward path into dissolute habits, ruined constitutions, disrespect to parents, and physical, mental, and moral wreck, a corruption found in even greater degree in higher schools where youth have trained themselves in vice with seared consciences. Combining systematic physical labor with study would remedy this corruption in great degree, while parents overrate the stability of their children against this deceptive influence.
Vain, talkative, unsuitable companions may blight an innocent girl's life by damaging her good manners and drawing her into deception and vice. Large institutions multiply the same peril, for youth who come to the sanitarium amiable in disposition and pure in morals are corrupted through association with those who have no fear of God, becoming ringleaders in wrong, first tempted themselves and then becoming tempters. Sheltered Christian youth who leave home influences to serve as nurses and helpers to tourists and unbelieving patients in immense sanitariums see and hear what influences them to a greater or less extent until they become like those with whom they associate. They lose the simplicity and modesty and purity of mind and soul guarded by Christian parents, meet through satanic agencies seductive influences that are almost irresistible, and many are caught in a snare they never escape, so that in the perils of the last days more is lost than gained by such association and children are safer near home and in smaller medical institutions where fewer perils are encountered.
Corrupting influence also reaches through intemperance, which weakens moral strength and leads into harmful associations that further corrupt behavior and draw into sin. Keeping company with ungodly people, including those who smoke and drink, weakens moral strength and fosters harmful habits, so one vulnerable to temptation should seek the company of those who love and fear God. Card-playing and dancing likewise harm professing young Christians and make them more vulnerable to the vices associated with those practices when they leave the institution.
Guarding Against Corruption
Parents must tremble at the danger and teach and restrain their children rather than letting them indulge their own wishes and fall under corrupting influence. Visiting away from parental guidance exposes children and youth to damaging conversation and attachments that weaken religious interest, change conduct, and make home seem restrictive. Pure, innocent-minded children sent from a mother's presence and left without a mother's eye to approve or disapprove at the right time grow weary, go into the street for amusement, and are driven into bad company where evil words breathed into their ears ruin good character and sow seeds promising an abundant harvest of vice and proneness to do wrong, so mothers must be with their children as much as possible and plant good and correct principles and precious seed in season. Close association with people of lax morals and coarse character harms the young because corrupt principles and habits can be learned and practiced and their spirit absorbed to degradation or ruin before the danger is realized, so parents should guard associations, allow intimacy only with those of known sound character, and teach children to heed parental judgment about character. Parents must carefully guard children and draw them away from young companions with no interest in divine things, even at sacrifice to gain heaven. Contact with rough or corrupting children can expose them to degrading habits and lasting harm, so parents should guard friendships and sleeping arrangements and keep children occupied in wholesome activities.
Good, sound instruction planted in the heart is the prevention that protects the soul from temptation. Biblical truth and right principles planted by parents guard children from wrong thoughts and temptation. Minds cannot simply be left unoccupied or kept entirely away from evil, so parents must fill active minds with right principles and knowledge and with wholesome thoughts and conversation to keep corrupting influences from taking root. Children's hearts are very impressible, and letting them have their own way and keep company of evil tendencies makes them selfish, pleasure-loving, fond of praise, and open to flattery, so the eye must be educated not to find pleasure in beholding evil and the tongue against every word of disrespect, and unless children are taught to love, respect, and obey parents in the fear of the Lord they cannot be led to love God. Children's minds are tender, impressible, active, and thirsting for knowledge and cannot be kept unoccupied, so parents must choose what fills them and keep their own minds informed to give proper mental food, pure and elevated thoughts, right principles and correct knowledge, which preoccupies the soil with good seed and excludes vicious sentiments and hunger after debasing pleasure and indulgences.
Corrupt companions damage good character through ridicule and corrupt conversation that drive away serious religious impressions, and close, frequent association with people of loose morals gradually and almost unnoticed lowers standards and corrupts the thoughts and heart of those who love purity and truth. Even wit, humor, or other attractive and engaging qualities do not make irreligious companions safe, for their influence can make an irreligious life appealing and draw conscientious people toward low morals and indifference toward religion while treating it lightly. Christians should leave such company and choose associates who love truth and purity, love and fear God, and are striving toward noble character rather than those who absorb and spread evil influences. Association with other youth can draw toward evil, while choosing companions who practice Bible truth can help even the careless learn to love righteousness and reject what conflicts with God's principles, and to form correct habits and become trustworthy and faithful young people should seek company of sound morals whose aims are good. Young people who associate with worldly people are influenced by what they see and hear and become like those they spend time with, losing the simplicity and modesty of Christian upbringing.
Evil company corrupts good character and conduct, and association with those who take pleasure in wickedness can lead into sin, so joining such associations must be refused as a danger signal against fellowship with evil, since turning from truth and right principles in relationships cannot benefit and dishonors God. Christians must not choose ungodly companions or connect with worldly associations, because such fellowship injures those who enter it and cannot leave them unharmed while also misleading others. Through association and habit the mind is brought under worldly principles and customs and conformed to a worldly standard, catching their spirit and being molded by their views, until love for God grows cold, desire for communion with Him is lost, eternal realities fade, hunger for the bread of life and thirst for salvation cease, and those affected become spiritually blind, seeing no difference between transgressors and commandment-keepers, calling evil good and good evil, failing to discern Christ and truth, and drinking at broken cisterns. Contact with corrupting people can affect the soul unconsciously like poisonous air, so Christians should not needlessly expose themselves to temptation. Associating with people who do evil corrupts character, so their company and their dishonest acts, degrading speech, and evil habits must be shunned as deadly poison and not imitated, in order to form pure thoughts and preserve a good and pure character.
Spiritual well-being must govern where and with whom to live, and as far as possible surroundings and relationships that weaken religious life must be avoided. Evil associations are always detrimental to piety and devotion and undermine principles approved by God, and selfish wealthy men exert a molding influence through which the enemy hedges up God's way, so God's people and institutions must not settle among them for apparent advantages. Lot chose a home bringing constant contact with evil, went into Sodom rich and left with nothing, led out by an angel's hand while wrath consumed that highly favored and beautiful city with fire and left it bleak and bare. Knowing truth has no saving value unless practiced, and being pleased to have close connection with those who have no love for God and truth ruins thousands, for uniting with them and binding up by secret cords never devised by heaven does not make one Christlike, humble, holy, pure, and undefiled, but after a time makes him of the same mind and spirit as his associates. Families with young children are not called to work where children would be exposed to such associations.
Close association with godless companions changes ways of life and habits of thought and speech and leads down to darkness and perdition, and to win applause of the low, worthless, and vulgar those who yield degrade themselves before God and man, are allured from Christ and purity and holiness, and are privately ridiculed even by those they tried to please. The young are in greatest danger because agents of evil taunt and ridicule all who would be true to virtue and God and make them fearful or ashamed to acknowledge principle. Standing firm requires being Bible readers and Bible Christians who faithfully obey divine precepts in private and public, boldly practice virtue, frown down base advances, and keep daily connection with Heaven to remain unsullied amid last-day corruptions. The young can remain untainted like Samuel amid the corrupting example of Eli's sons when closely united to God and relying on His strength rather than their own. The society youthful professed followers choose determines character before heaven while heaven is ready to minister to every receiving soul, and love for Jesus transforming the character produces honest, true, Christlike words manifesting moral worth, with conversation, courtesy, kindness that never makes light of distress, and tones of voice cultured by Christ's Spirit dwelling within, so that sincere praying Christians are not soon angry and malicious and speak no bitter, rasping, high-toned speeches, for no bitter water flows from earnest religious experience, and youth need character transposed in Christ's school of meekness and lowliness into pure words and sound speech that cannot be condemned. Choosing associates carelessly can lead into evil and imperil the soul, and watchfulness and prayer safeguard against being led astray.
Homes, schools, and institutions must be guarded, with students protected from demoralizing influences and held to standards guarding integrity and morality. Bad company ruins good character and endangers youth with immorality and depravity, and a school keeping a few lawless, insubordinate students who will not be controlled will itself become depraved, so such students are better at home and the school better without them, while those who house students and allow reckless sport, rudeness, and disorder share responsibility for following misconduct. The company allowed in the home decides whether children can be saved, as seen with Anna, whose parents must make more decided efforts than ever and correct suffering wrong company in the dwelling. Only those who are clean and holy and whose influence is saving should be kept or encouraged in the home whatever the sacrifice or consequences, cheerfully done, with all in the dwelling clean so God can bless parental efforts, for keeping those who love not God has for years made saving children impossible, since association with influence not good but deathly brings unrealized danger, and with decision parents must keep pure, clean company, take hold of the work earnestly and hastily to get ready, making every effort for salvation depending on their course.
When a Christian physician departs from strict principles, sin blemishes his character, harms his own soul, and can reproduce the same evil in others by shaping their minds. A person's conduct influences others, so a wrong course can lead others away from the hope of heaven, while a life resisting selfishness and helping others guides them to Christ. Corrupting talk is found even among professed chosen, commandment-keeping people who are sinners wearing by profession Christ's righteousness while their course testifies they have not put on Christ, their works deny Him, their characters reproach Him, and their words spoil others with corrupt fruit, making it necessary for messengers to cry aloud like a trumpet with warning and reproof laying bare inconsistency, though it would be more pleasant to dwell on the saints' reward and gospel lives.
Do not be misled into thinking bad company leaves you unchanged, for evil association, talk, and influence spoil good character, habits, manners, and conduct. The harm works gradually and almost without notice, like poisoned air or spreading infection, until the mind catches the spirit of its companions and is molded by their views, tastes, thoughts, feelings, and speech. Living amid wrongdoing makes wrong seem less repulsive and less sinful, dulling perception, searing conscience, and weakening fear of sin. That dulling chills love for God, fades eternal realities, and leads step by step from harmless-seeming pleasure into disobedience and open vice until turning back is far harder than expected. Safety lies in refusing fellowship with corrupting words, habits, and alliances as deadly poison, choosing companions who fear God and breathe a pure spiritual atmosphere, and keeping children and youth under close guard with useful work and sound instruction.
Words of the Warning
Be not deceived is a warning against self-deception, for bad associations spoil good character and evil company, association, and communication corrupt good manners, habits, conduct, and morals. Association with those who take pleasure in wickedness can lead a person into sin, so fellowship with evil and with the unfruitful works of darkness is a danger signal to be refused, since turning from truth and right principles in relationships cannot benefit and dishonors God. Dwelling on infirmities and mingling in society with a corrupting, evil-minded influence increases evil already present and injures the person, turning thoughts into an impure, forbidden channel. Through the power of association and habit the mind is brought under worldly principles and customs and becomes more and more conformed to the worldling's standard, catching their spirit and being molded by their views of things, and such fellowship injures those who enter it so that they cannot leave unharmed while also misleading others. Harmful associations and teachings corrupt good character.
The call not to be deceived summons believers to wake up to right doing and to stop sinning. Closeness with people who do not know God corrupts morals, because living in an atmosphere of sin keeps sin from looking exceedingly sinful. To stay in that dulled, sinning condition brings shame. In its setting the warning bears on the resurrection, showing that denying or neglecting the resurrection undermines Christian faith and conduct.
Evil communications include corrupting speech and conversation that spoil good character and conduct. They include vile talk and vile practices passed on to curious minds, secret knowledge, and evil words breathed into the ear by young companions. One such word, if not firmly resisted, lodges in the heart, takes root, and grows to bear fruit in corrupted character, and children who are left unsupervised may hear such words, which plant evil in young minds and lead toward wrongdoing. They also include whispering suspicions and surmisings, relating evil reports, loving lies, low wit, vain talk, jesting about sacred things, mocking individuals, severely criticizing others, and dwelling on courtship and marriage in a low manner. Those who teach or tempt others in this way are accountable not only for their own sins but also for the sins they lead others to commit, and intemperance that weakens moral strength opens the way into such harmful associations that further corrupt behavior and draw into sin.
Evil communications are not only persons but what is read and heard. Sensual writing acts like a bad associate, stirring the passions and shaping readers toward sensuality and unchastity. Sensational accounts of crime and vice make sin familiar, blunt the conscience, and draw interest toward what is vile. Evil association includes companionship, friendship, and alliance with the world, with idolaters, unbelievers, men who do not love God, and those who have no love for the truth. Great carefulness must therefore be exercised in forming friendship, and Christians must not choose ungodly companions or connect with worldly associations.
Such worldly friendship corrupts good manners and lowers the standard of religious principle. Continuing to associate with unbelieving men assimilates a person more and more to their customs, spirit, and practices, and the unbelief and infidelity they express intrudes upon thought and weakens faith, so that eternal life hangs in the balance. Being pleased to have close connection with those who have no love for God does not make a person Christlike, humble, holy, pure, and undefiled, but after a time makes him of the same mind and spirit as his associates, and uniting with them by secret cords which heaven never devised is the ruin of thousands. This includes political and marriage alliances and leaguing with idolatrous nations, seeking wise men from other nations, and forming ties with enemies of truth, which imperil the soul, turn the heart from God, blunt fine sensibilities, destroy sympathy for man and love for God, and sear the conscience. One false step leads to friendship with idolaters and to separation from obedience to God and from wisdom and righteousness, and when truth is known but not practiced it has no saving value.
How Corruption Spreads
Corruption works gradually and almost unnoticed, lowering standards and corrupting the thoughts and heart of even those who love purity and truth. Its influence may affect the soul unconsciously, like poisonous air breathed without notice, and spreads among vain, worldly associates like a contagious disease. Close, frequent association with people of loose morals and careless talk drives away serious religious impressions and desires, weakening modesty, reverence, sound judgment, and good manners. Even wit, humor, and other attractive qualities do not make irreligious companions safe, for their influence can make an irreligious life appealing.
One evil word breathed into the ear, if not firmly resisted, lodges in the heart, takes root, and grows to bear fruit in corrupted character and conduct. Young companions exert a strong influence on one another through conversation and companionship, and can thus corrupt one another. This danger is heightened because children do not know the evils of the world and the deadly corrupting influence surrounding them, so that when direct working is less effective, minds are poisoned through other young friends.
Through the power of association and habit the mind is brought under worldly principles and customs and becomes more and more conformed to the companions' standard. By mingling with ignorant and vicious companions a person's thoughts, feelings, principles, habits, views, tastes, and speech take on their character, catching their spirit until sinking to their level. Young people may thus adopt harmful tastes and habits from associates even when taught better, and the company kept, principles adopted, and habits formed shape usefulness and future destiny. Close association with godless companions changes ways of life and habits of thought and speech and leads down to darkness and perdition, degrading before God and man those who yield to win the applause of the low, the worthless, and the vulgar, alluring them away from purity and holiness while even those they tried to please privately ridicule them.
Familiarity with sin makes it seem less repulsive and less sinful, for living in an atmosphere of sin keeps sin from looking exceedingly sinful. Continued association blinds to the harm, blunts fine sensibilities, sears the conscience, clouds perception, and weakens fear of sin and of Satan, until abused conscience no longer regards sin as very sinful. Sensational accounts of crime and vice work the same way, making sin familiar, blunting the conscience, and drawing interest toward what is vile. So political alliance with pagan kingdoms made heathen practices seem less abhorrent step by step, leading into sensual customs and darkest worships until imported, with blunted sensibilities, seared conscience, weakness and vacillation.
It is far easier to be brought down to a frivolous level than to lift others up to elevated and ennobling thoughts and a correct course. Youth of frivolous character are dangerous company, and those who profess faith while trifling about religious things are even more to be dreaded, for their minds are cast in an inferior mold and their thoughtlessness and levity are subtle, dangerous folly. Even companions who are witty, humorous, engaging, and attractive are unsafe when irreligious or treating religion lightly, drawing the conscientious toward low morals and indifference. Safety requires companions who observe decorum in words and deportment and who love truth, purity, and sound morals and habits.
Those corrupted become corrupters: first tempted themselves, they in turn become tempters. Those led by unrestrained appetite and indulgence into disregard for purity and virtue are led not only to defile themselves but to whisper evil to others and thereby corrupt them, passing on vile practices and secret knowledge to curious minds. A boy given over to an evil course is used to tempt and allure others and injure them, with evil doings steadily increasing, and youth corrupted through association with those having no fear of God may become ringleaders in wrong. A wrong course can lead others away from the hope of heaven, while a life resisting selfishness and helping others guides them aright. Those who teach or tempt others are accountable not only for their own sins but also for the sins they lead others to commit.
Results of Evil Company
Worldly association injures all who enter it and cannot leave them unharmed, for through association and habit the mind is brought under worldly principles and customs and becomes conformed to the standard of the world, catching its spirit and being molded by its views. Love for God grows cold, desire for communion with Him is lost, the brightness of eternal realities fades, and hunger for the bread of life and thirst for the waters of salvation are gone. Those so affected become spiritually blind, seeing no difference between transgressors of God's law and those who fear God and keep His commandments, calling evil good and good evil, failing to discern the preciousness of Jesus and truth, and drinking at broken cisterns that can hold no water. Just as the spirit of the world dwells in the heart it controls the life, and when men are not under the control of the Word and Spirit of God they are captives of Satan, not knowing to what lengths he may lead them in sin, so there is to be no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness and no place in the secret and assembly of those who take pleasure in wickedness. Continuing to associate with unbelieving men assimilates a person more and more to their customs, spirit, and practices, and the unbelief and infidelity they express intrudes upon thought and weakens faith, so that eternal life hangs in the balance.
Evil associations corrupt good character by leading a person step by step away from virtue into disobedience and dissipation, even to conduct once thought impossible. The first steps into frivolity and pleasure-seeking may seem harmless, but yielding to wrongdoing makes turning back to right conduct harder than expected. Evil associates lead young people into crime, dissipation, and licentiousness, and unconsecrated companions and pleasure-seekers draw youth away from serving God and leading others toward righteousness. In children, harmful associations and evil influences weaken piety and cause the tenderness of soul they once had to die away, so that right character and piety fail to develop. Evil associations are always detrimental to piety and devotion and undermine principles approved by God, and selfish wealthy men exert such a molding influence upon other minds that God's people and institutions must not settle among them for apparent advantages.
Association with corrupt, evil-minded companions increases evil already present, and dwelling on infirmities and mingling in corrupting society turns thoughts into an impure, forbidden channel. It strengthens habits that steadily undermine the constitution and prepare for premature decay, producing a sad, gloomy state of mind where life feels undesirable, a condition not acceptable in God's sight that leaves a person prepared neither for this world nor the next, and hopeless if life should end. Youth given religious instruction at home who enter school comparatively innocent and virtuous are made corrupt by associating with vicious companions in idle leisure hours left by study without labor, as knowledge of bad habits passes from one to another and vice greatly increases. Those corrupted lose self-respect and sacrifice noble principles, abuse conscience until sin no longer appears very sinful, and are prepared for the downward path, and the same corruption exists in higher schools in even greater degree where youth trained in vice with seared consciences end in dissolute habits, ruined constitutions, disrespect to parents, unthankfulness, unholiness, and physical, mental, and moral wreck and miserable existence. Combining systematic physical labor with study would remedy this corruption in great degree.
Corrupt conversation such as whispering suspicions and surmisings together, relating evil reports, and loving lies that have been heard strengthens rebellion against the defenders of God's truth. It sows seeds of rebellion within participants that spring up and yield a flourishing crop, leaving them no more prepared to work for God than open sympathizers with rebellion. It brings them under the tugging and power of evil angels, causing exulting of evil angels and triumph of Satan, and spreads a spirit of death that affects others engaged in the same work. All such talk is heard by angels, witnessed by them, and written down to be met again. Associating with people who ridicule faith and conscience exposes believers to temptation and can corrupt conduct, leading them to deny faith under pressure. Choosing associates carelessly can lead into evil and imperil the soul, so watchfulness and prayer are safeguards against being led astray.
Connecting children with a person who does not have the grace of Christ harms them, for such a person has no experience to lead children into correct habits and right practices, and his influence cannot but be detrimental. It introduces children to temptations and surrounds them with influences that lead to sinful practices and to a development of character that does not refine, purify, and ennoble. Instead it cheapens them and disqualifies them for useful, uplifting work in this life and for the future immortal life. What is learned from the words and habits of companions leaves a lasting mark for good or evil not written in sand but traced as on enduring rock, molding the whole after-life, so associations must be guarded. The company youth keep, the associations they form, the principles they adopt, and the habits they form in youth in nine cases out of ten decide their future and are carried through life, settling the destiny of the future with an almost infallible certainty.
Biblical Examples of Corruption
Solomon proves that close contact and friendship with the world and with idolaters and those who do not love God corrupts good character and manners, lowers the standard of religious principle, separates from obedience to God and from wisdom and righteousness, and ruins the soul, so great carefulness must be exercised in forming friendships. After glorious promise and purity he broke through the barriers God had set to keep Israel from idolatry, cherished pride in political power, leagued with idolatrous nations, sought wise men from other nations, and made political and marriage alliances with pagan kingdoms, especially Egypt and Phoenicia, even marrying daughters of pagan worshipers at the cost of sacred trust. One false step led to friendship with idolaters, and that association made their heathen practices seem less abhorrent until step by step he was led into their sensual customs and darkest worships and imported them into Palestine and Jerusalem as leaven of evil influence. His heathen wives turned away his heart after he had prayed that hearts be undividedly given to the Lord, leading him away from God into idolatry and polygamy, so that he built high places for idols facing the temple on Mount Moriah. He became a tool of Satan and a slave to impulse, weak and vacillating, with blunted fine sensibilities, destroyed sympathy for man and love for God, seared conscience, and clouded perception, turned from faithfulness to sacred trust into direct opposition to God's will, from justice to tyranny and from guardian of his people to despot and tyrannical ruler.
When the Lord's people turn from the God of all wisdom to obtain wisdom and decisions from those who love not God and form ties with the Lord's enemies, the soul is imperiled and the heart turned from God, and the Lord allows them to follow wisdom that is not from above but from beneath, and the evil thus introduced is transmitted as an inheritance of evil that even later repentance cannot abolish. Samson at his marriage feast shows the same law, that voluntarily entering into familiar association with those who hate God corrupts character because whoever does so will feel it necessary to conform to some degree to the habits and customs of companions. Time spent in such company is worse than wasted, because the thoughts entertained and words spoken there break down the strongholds of principle and weaken the citadel of the soul. Lot illustrates the verse by choosing a home where he and his family were brought into constant contact with evil, going into Sodom rich and leaving with nothing, led out by an angel's hand while messengers of wrath waited to consume that highly favored and beautiful city with fire and leave it bleak and bare.
Corrupting words and influences can seek to reach the senses and corrupt the mind, yet resistance is possible, for the young can remain faithful and untainted amid such example when they stay closely united to God and rely on His strength rather than their own. Samuel proved this amid the corrupting example of Eli's sons.
Youth in Greatest Danger
Children and youth stand in the greatest danger from corrupting company because they do not know the evils of the world nor the deadly influence pressing around them. Satan cannot work so well directly upon children, so he works through other young friends to poison the minds of youth, with one evil word breathed into the ear lodging in the heart, taking root, and bearing fruit in corrupted character unless firmly resisted. Agents of evil taunt and ridicule all who would be true to virtue and to God, making the young fearful or ashamed to acknowledge principle, while to win the applause of the low and vulgar they degrade themselves, are allured away from purity and holiness, and are privately despised even by those they sought to please. What children learn from companions' words and habits shapes character and can decide the future life, so they need careful training, restraint from indulging their own wishes, and guarding from the society of the young and from schoolmates given a street education.
Evil communication can begin even in infancy through early exposure to a sensual world and through the actions of caregivers, so that harmful ideas and habits, including solitary vice, may be acquired almost from birth. Older persons shape children, children learn from those older than themselves and pass what they learn to still younger children, so sensual influence spreads downward through age groups toward unchaste behavior. Unrestrained appetite and indulgence animalize children and open them to intemperance and lower passions with disregard for purity and virtue, and those so corrupted are led not only to defile their own bodies but to whisper evil to others and thereby corrupt them, a danger often undiscerned by parents blinded by sin.
Schools and colleges to which youth are sent to cultivate the mind endanger morals, for students who leave home innocent and pure are degraded by mixing with vicious companions whose influence and conduct are corrupting. Pure-minded youth lose purity and become vicious and debased through association with companions of corrupt habits, just as innocent youth placed with hardened criminals learn crimes they never dreamed of. At school children may learn more wickedness from corrupt associates than righteousness from proper teachers, while skepticism and unbelief hidden under pleasing disguise or quiet suggestion in schoolbooks, harmful principles taught by teachers, and evil companions teaching lessons of crime, dissipation, and licentiousness make many public schools hotbeds of vice.
Idle leisure after the confinement of the schoolroom leaves natural desire for activity without right outlet, so pent-up energy makes youth restless and impatient of control. In those hours knowledge of bad habits passes from one to another and vice greatly increases, as bad company leads into rude, unmanly sports that disgrace schools and colleges and even into scenes of actual dissipation. Those corrupted lose self-respect and sacrifice noble principles, abuse conscience until sin no longer appears very sinful, and are prepared for the downward path into dissolute habits, ruined constitutions, disrespect to parents, and physical, mental, and moral wreck, a corruption found in even greater degree in higher schools where youth have trained themselves in vice with seared consciences. Combining systematic physical labor with study would remedy this corruption in great degree, while parents overrate the stability of their children against this deceptive influence.
Vain, talkative, unsuitable companions may blight an innocent girl's life by damaging her good manners and drawing her into deception and vice. Large institutions multiply the same peril, for youth who come to the sanitarium amiable in disposition and pure in morals are corrupted through association with those who have no fear of God, becoming ringleaders in wrong, first tempted themselves and then becoming tempters. Sheltered Christian youth who leave home influences to serve as nurses and helpers to tourists and unbelieving patients in immense sanitariums see and hear what influences them to a greater or less extent until they become like those with whom they associate. They lose the simplicity and modesty and purity of mind and soul guarded by Christian parents, meet through satanic agencies seductive influences that are almost irresistible, and many are caught in a snare they never escape, so that in the perils of the last days more is lost than gained by such association and children are safer near home and in smaller medical institutions where fewer perils are encountered.
Corrupting influence also reaches through intemperance, which weakens moral strength and leads into harmful associations that further corrupt behavior and draw into sin. Keeping company with ungodly people, including those who smoke and drink, weakens moral strength and fosters harmful habits, so one vulnerable to temptation should seek the company of those who love and fear God. Card-playing and dancing likewise harm professing young Christians and make them more vulnerable to the vices associated with those practices when they leave the institution.
Guarding Against Corruption
Parents must tremble at the danger and teach and restrain their children rather than letting them indulge their own wishes and fall under corrupting influence. Visiting away from parental guidance exposes children and youth to damaging conversation and attachments that weaken religious interest, change conduct, and make home seem restrictive. Pure, innocent-minded children sent from a mother's presence and left without a mother's eye to approve or disapprove at the right time grow weary, go into the street for amusement, and are driven into bad company where evil words breathed into their ears ruin good character and sow seeds promising an abundant harvest of vice and proneness to do wrong, so mothers must be with their children as much as possible and plant good and correct principles and precious seed in season. Close association with people of lax morals and coarse character harms the young because corrupt principles and habits can be learned and practiced and their spirit absorbed to degradation or ruin before the danger is realized, so parents should guard associations, allow intimacy only with those of known sound character, and teach children to heed parental judgment about character. Parents must carefully guard children and draw them away from young companions with no interest in divine things, even at sacrifice to gain heaven. Contact with rough or corrupting children can expose them to degrading habits and lasting harm, so parents should guard friendships and sleeping arrangements and keep children occupied in wholesome activities.
Good, sound instruction planted in the heart is the prevention that protects the soul from temptation. Biblical truth and right principles planted by parents guard children from wrong thoughts and temptation. Minds cannot simply be left unoccupied or kept entirely away from evil, so parents must fill active minds with right principles and knowledge and with wholesome thoughts and conversation to keep corrupting influences from taking root. Children's hearts are very impressible, and letting them have their own way and keep company of evil tendencies makes them selfish, pleasure-loving, fond of praise, and open to flattery, so the eye must be educated not to find pleasure in beholding evil and the tongue against every word of disrespect, and unless children are taught to love, respect, and obey parents in the fear of the Lord they cannot be led to love God. Children's minds are tender, impressible, active, and thirsting for knowledge and cannot be kept unoccupied, so parents must choose what fills them and keep their own minds informed to give proper mental food, pure and elevated thoughts, right principles and correct knowledge, which preoccupies the soil with good seed and excludes vicious sentiments and hunger after debasing pleasure and indulgences.
Corrupt companions damage good character through ridicule and corrupt conversation that drive away serious religious impressions, and close, frequent association with people of loose morals gradually and almost unnoticed lowers standards and corrupts the thoughts and heart of those who love purity and truth. Even wit, humor, or other attractive and engaging qualities do not make irreligious companions safe, for their influence can make an irreligious life appealing and draw conscientious people toward low morals and indifference toward religion while treating it lightly. Christians should leave such company and choose associates who love truth and purity, love and fear God, and are striving toward noble character rather than those who absorb and spread evil influences. Association with other youth can draw toward evil, while choosing companions who practice Bible truth can help even the careless learn to love righteousness and reject what conflicts with God's principles, and to form correct habits and become trustworthy and faithful young people should seek company of sound morals whose aims are good. Young people who associate with worldly people are influenced by what they see and hear and become like those they spend time with, losing the simplicity and modesty of Christian upbringing.
Evil company corrupts good character and conduct, and association with those who take pleasure in wickedness can lead into sin, so joining such associations must be refused as a danger signal against fellowship with evil, since turning from truth and right principles in relationships cannot benefit and dishonors God. Christians must not choose ungodly companions or connect with worldly associations, because such fellowship injures those who enter it and cannot leave them unharmed while also misleading others. Through association and habit the mind is brought under worldly principles and customs and conformed to a worldly standard, catching their spirit and being molded by their views, until love for God grows cold, desire for communion with Him is lost, eternal realities fade, hunger for the bread of life and thirst for salvation cease, and those affected become spiritually blind, seeing no difference between transgressors and commandment-keepers, calling evil good and good evil, failing to discern Christ and truth, and drinking at broken cisterns. Contact with corrupting people can affect the soul unconsciously like poisonous air, so Christians should not needlessly expose themselves to temptation. Associating with people who do evil corrupts character, so their company and their dishonest acts, degrading speech, and evil habits must be shunned as deadly poison and not imitated, in order to form pure thoughts and preserve a good and pure character.
Spiritual well-being must govern where and with whom to live, and as far as possible surroundings and relationships that weaken religious life must be avoided. Evil associations are always detrimental to piety and devotion and undermine principles approved by God, and selfish wealthy men exert a molding influence through which the enemy hedges up God's way, so God's people and institutions must not settle among them for apparent advantages. Lot chose a home bringing constant contact with evil, went into Sodom rich and left with nothing, led out by an angel's hand while wrath consumed that highly favored and beautiful city with fire and left it bleak and bare. Knowing truth has no saving value unless practiced, and being pleased to have close connection with those who have no love for God and truth ruins thousands, for uniting with them and binding up by secret cords never devised by heaven does not make one Christlike, humble, holy, pure, and undefiled, but after a time makes him of the same mind and spirit as his associates. Families with young children are not called to work where children would be exposed to such associations.
Close association with godless companions changes ways of life and habits of thought and speech and leads down to darkness and perdition, and to win applause of the low, worthless, and vulgar those who yield degrade themselves before God and man, are allured from Christ and purity and holiness, and are privately ridiculed even by those they tried to please. The young are in greatest danger because agents of evil taunt and ridicule all who would be true to virtue and God and make them fearful or ashamed to acknowledge principle. Standing firm requires being Bible readers and Bible Christians who faithfully obey divine precepts in private and public, boldly practice virtue, frown down base advances, and keep daily connection with Heaven to remain unsullied amid last-day corruptions. The young can remain untainted like Samuel amid the corrupting example of Eli's sons when closely united to God and relying on His strength rather than their own. The society youthful professed followers choose determines character before heaven while heaven is ready to minister to every receiving soul, and love for Jesus transforming the character produces honest, true, Christlike words manifesting moral worth, with conversation, courtesy, kindness that never makes light of distress, and tones of voice cultured by Christ's Spirit dwelling within, so that sincere praying Christians are not soon angry and malicious and speak no bitter, rasping, high-toned speeches, for no bitter water flows from earnest religious experience, and youth need character transposed in Christ's school of meekness and lowliness into pure words and sound speech that cannot be condemned. Choosing associates carelessly can lead into evil and imperil the soul, and watchfulness and prayer safeguard against being led astray.
Homes, schools, and institutions must be guarded, with students protected from demoralizing influences and held to standards guarding integrity and morality. Bad company ruins good character and endangers youth with immorality and depravity, and a school keeping a few lawless, insubordinate students who will not be controlled will itself become depraved, so such students are better at home and the school better without them, while those who house students and allow reckless sport, rudeness, and disorder share responsibility for following misconduct. The company allowed in the home decides whether children can be saved, as seen with Anna, whose parents must make more decided efforts than ever and correct suffering wrong company in the dwelling. Only those who are clean and holy and whose influence is saving should be kept or encouraged in the home whatever the sacrifice or consequences, cheerfully done, with all in the dwelling clean so God can bless parental efforts, for keeping those who love not God has for years made saving children impossible, since association with influence not good but deathly brings unrealized danger, and with decision parents must keep pure, clean company, take hold of the work earnestly and hastily to get ready, making every effort for salvation depending on their course.
When a Christian physician departs from strict principles, sin blemishes his character, harms his own soul, and can reproduce the same evil in others by shaping their minds. A person's conduct influences others, so a wrong course can lead others away from the hope of heaven, while a life resisting selfishness and helping others guides them to Christ. Corrupting talk is found even among professed chosen, commandment-keeping people who are sinners wearing by profession Christ's righteousness while their course testifies they have not put on Christ, their works deny Him, their characters reproach Him, and their words spoil others with corrupt fruit, making it necessary for messengers to cry aloud like a trumpet with warning and reproof laying bare inconsistency, though it would be more pleasant to dwell on the saints' reward and gospel lives.