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Proverbs 1:10-16 – Evil Company

Solomon, by his very use of the phrase “my son” and his words at the beginning of this chapter, seems to be emphasising that young people need wisdom. And when we read these verses about the dangers of evil friends, how can we help but agree? How many faithful men and women have had their hearts broken at seeing young people whom they have worked with and prayed for pulled away from the things of God by their unbelieving friends? If only Christians were as strong at pulling people towards God as unbelievers are at pulling people away from God!

Those who claim to have faith in Christ, especially those young people who claim to have this faith, will be tempted into sin. This is a fact of life. But Solomon gives us the key to dealing with temptation – do not give in. Simple, but not easy. If we do give in to temptation, we can’t blame God, we can’t even blame the devil. Satan can’t force us to sin. Whether we give in or not is our choice, and the blame goes to us.

The temptation here starts out with a seemingly harmless request by sinful unbelievers for the young man to spend time with them. But step by step God reveals how one sin will lead to a worse sin which will lead to more sin. This is the way sin works in our lives and in the lives of others. It may look harmless at the beginning, but it ends in disaster.

So, is it safe to trust in our strong faith when spending time with unbelievers? Proverbs says no. It doesn’t matter who we are, we aren’t strong enough to constantly surround ourselves with those determined to sin. Does this mean we should only spend time with Christians? No, the Bible is full of examples of those who lived their lives surrounded by unbelief. What we’re warned about is close, personal friendships with those who want nothing to do with God and are determined to sin against Him.

Questions

  1. How should we deal with temptation?
  2. Why is it so important what kind of friends we have?

Prayer Points

  1. Pray for our young people.
  2. Use prayer points from your congregation.
  3. Pray for family matters.