THE DECEITFUL DANGER OF ‘EVIL COMPANY’ – 1 Corinthians 15:33-34

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on January 1, 2020 under 2020 |

Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; January 12, 2020 from 1 Corinthians 15:33-34

Theme: If we’re not careful, certain social connections can rob us of our doctrinal integrity.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

Click HERE for the audio version of this sermon.

This morning, I want to turn your attention to two verses in 1 Corinthians 15. They are part of the passage we considered last Sunday. We touched on these two verses briefly last week. But I have felt strongly that we must not pass them by too quickly. We need to go back again, and look at them more closely.

They warn us of a very serious danger that we are under as followers of Jesus.

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The apostle Paul had been writing to the ancient Corinthian church about the resurrection. Even though they had believed in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, some of them had lost their grip on the idea that they themselves would be bodily raised with Him at His return. Apparently, some had raised questions and stirred up doubts. And as a result, Paul had to write to them to help get them back on track.

Last week, we looked at 1 Corinthians 15:29-32. In that passage, Paul showed them the absurdity of doubting the promise of future resurrection. If the dead do not rise, Paul argued, then what’s the point of all the sacrifice that was made for the Christian faith? He wrote;

Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead? And why do we stand in jeopardy every hour? I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If, in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” (1 Corinthians 15:29-32).

And then, in the last two verses of that passage, he gave them this important warning:

Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.” Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame (vv. 29-34).

Paul was warning these Corinthian believers of a serious danger. It was because of some folks that they were keeping company with—folks who didn’t believe in the truths of the gospel—folks who were causing the Corinthian Christians to have doubts—folks who were, in actual fact, dragging them down spiritually.

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Now; Paul wrote these words specifically because these Christians had been robbed of their confidence in the promise of resurrection. Their loss of confidence was causing them to become lazy in their faith—and to even grow sinful and worldly in their thoughts and actions.

But these words of warning from Paul have a much greater application than to just the specific situation of the Corinthians alone. Any time you and I are drawn away from a faithful commitment to the doctrines of the gospel, we end up suffering spiritual loss and harm. And just as these ancient Christians were led astray from the hope of resurrection by careless relationships, you and I can also be led astray from the vital truths of the gospel by the influences of ‘evil company’ that we face today.

In fact, because of the ungodliness of the current age in which we live, and because of the many different ways in which its evil influence can be brought to bear upon us without our being aware of it, it may be that the danger has never been as great as it is today.

So; let’s not rush past this warning. Let’s go back again to these two verses, consider them carefully, and let God speak to us through them. They warn us that, if we are not careful, certain social connections can be allowed to rob us of our doctrinal integrity—and can, as a result, cause us to suffer serious spiritual loss.

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First of all, notice …

1. THE DANGER WE ARE UNDER.

In verse 33, Paul wrote, “Do not be deceived …”

Now; I have just said that this is “the danger we are under”. I chose to put it that way deliberately; because, in the original language, that’s how Paul really states the matter. It was not merely a danger that the Corinthians might face if they were not careful. Rather it was a danger that they were—right then—already under. They had already fallen victim to it.

I’m going to explain a little bit of the grammar of Paul’s words in the original language. That’s always a little challenging to do; but it is good to do. God’s instructions to us in these words are found in the specifics of the grammar; and those specifics are important to know. Paul’s words are given to us as ‘a prohibition in the present passive imperative’. Let me take that apart piece by piece.

An ‘imperative’ is a simple idea to understand. It’s just another way of saying ‘a command’. And that’s what Paul gives us in these words—a command to be obeyed. And it also comes to us in the form of a ‘prohibition’. That’s a simple idea too. It means that it was a command to stop doing something. But it is also put to us in what’s called ‘the present passive’ form of the verb. It is in the ‘present tense’; but it describes an action that was—right then, at the time that Paul is writing—being done to his readers. They were being the passive recipients of this action. This is the first of a couple of ‘prohibitions in the present imperative’ that Paul uses in this passage. Another one will come up a little later. And the specific way that you understand a ‘prohibition in the present passive imperative’ is as a command to cease allowing an action to be done that is—right then—being done to you.

This is tremendously important. Paul was not writing to these Corinthians and saying to them, “Dear brothers and sisters; you are under the possibility of danger. If you are not careful, you just might be deceived. So, be on guard and don’t let yourselves be led astray.” That’s not what Paul was saying. Rather, his words were far more urgent than that. He was saying, “Dear brothers and sisters; you are—right now, even as I am writing to you—being deceived! It’s already happening! I am urging you to stop allowing yourselves to be deceived! Stop being led astray!”

And when I read these words with this understanding, dear brothers and sisters—and when I then bring them into our own contemporary situation—it makes me realize that there’s not just a danger that we might face one day if we’re not careful. It’s a danger that you and I may very likely already be under—something that we may have already become the victims of—and we aren’t even aware of it. We are living today in an ungodly culture in which countless forms of influence are being pressed in upon us—all kinds of ways that ungodly philosophies and ideas and worldly values are forcing themselves into our thinking. And these ungodly ideas and values are being allowed to draw us away from a faithful integrity to the things God has clearly told us in His holy word.

As I have studied this passage this week—and as I have reflected on the nature of Paul’s words—I have found myself praying something. And I invite you to pray it with me. “Dear Father in heaven; show me the ways that I am—right now—being turned away from the truths of Your holy word. Open my eyes; and help me to see the ways that I am—right now—being led astray from Your holy instructions for life, and am being deceived.” I am praying this, dear brothers and sisters, because I believe I wouldn’t and couldn’t know the ways I’m being deceived unless the heavenly Father showed me.

In Jeremiah 17:9, God Himself testifies:

“The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
I, the Lord, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his doings” (Jeremiah 17:9-10).

Let’s remember that our Father loves us very much, and He desires our holiness. He even went so far as to give His Son on the cross to make us holy. We can be absolutely sure that if we ask Him to show us the ways that we are being deceived, He will—out of love for us—do so.

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Now; ‘deception’ doesn’t always have to come from other people. It’s certainly true that you and I can deceive ourselves. Sadly, that happens an awful lot. But Paul is speaking of something that was being done to the Corinthian believers. They were ‘being’ led astray—as the passive recipients of an action that being done to them. And that implies that someone else was involved.

So; look now with me at …

2. THE SOURCE OF THIS DANGER.

Paul writes; “Do not be deceived: ‘Evil company corrupts good habits’” (v. 33b).

Historians tell us that these words first appeared in an ancient Greek play by a playwright named Menander. In time, it most likely became a common, everyday ‘saying’. It would have been a saying that the Corinthians would have been familiar with; and so Paul didn’t hesitate to take it up and bring it to use in his teaching. It certainly speaks a great truth; doesn’t it?

The word that is translated “company” is a word that basically means “associations” or “social contacts”. It can even be used to describe the “talk” or “conversation” that happens in those associations. The old King James Version translated it this way: “Evil communications corrupt good manners.” And that’s how the Corinthian Christians were being led astray. It was happening through careless associations with, or by having close social engagement with, or by engaging in communication and talk with people who were ‘evil’ in the sense that they rejected the truths of God’s word—and who were perhaps also ‘evil’ in conduct.

Obviously, we have to be careful how we understand this warning from Paul. The Lord Jesus has placed us in this world as His followers so that we can interact with people who don’t know Him. We are left on this earth to live the Christian life before them—and to perhaps be used by God to draw them to a saving faith in Him. We must not live in complete isolation from the sinful people of this world. Otherwise, how will they hear about Jesus?

But I believe that we must be very careful how we allow such contacts to impact us; so that we ourselves are not led astray in the process. The danger is very real. Proverbs 12:26 says;

The righteous should choose his friends carefully,
For the way of the wicked leads them astray (Proverbs 12:26).

Similarly, Proverbs 13:20 says;

He who walks with wise men will be wise,
But the companion of fools will be destroyed (Proverbs 13:20).

And again, as I thought of this passage this week, it stunned me to think about all of the possible avenues through which that kind of ‘evil company’ or ‘wicked communication’ can impact us and corrupt our good habits and morals before God. We would probably think—right away—of friendships, or companionships, or workmates, or one-on-one conversations that we might have with someone at the workplace or the coffee shop. Many people have been passively led astray from a full commitment to God’s truth by such casual associations. That probably would have been the most common way for it to have happened to these Corinthian Christians. But for us today, this is, by no means, the only way.

Think of how much influence social media has had on people over just the past decade and a half. I think that the invention of the Internet—and with it, the development of such things as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter—is truly amazing. It makes it possible for one person to communicate with thousands of people from almost anywhere in the world. But it also means that ungodly ideas and evil influences can be communicated to and become spread among more and more people than ever before.

Or think of all the other forms of media that are so much a part of our everyday life—movies, music, radio talk shows, daytime television talk shows, podcasts, blogs, books, magazines, newspapers, and even news programs—that often introduce people to ungodly ideas and beliefs that encourage them to question the truths of the gospel. These too can fall into the category of ‘evil company’. Christian people regularly welcome these forms of media right into their homes and cars and workstations, and become passive consumers of whatever ‘evil company’ may say through them. And such Christians often do so uncritically—without ever once stopping to examine what is being said by comparing it to God’s written word.

Just think, dear brothers and sisters, of how things have undergone tremendous change—in just over the past twenty-five to thirty years—within what is known as ‘evangelical Christianity’. Think of how there have been sinful ideas, and beliefs, and attitudes and social and cultural policies that have become fully tolerated and embraced by individual professing Christians and entire Christian denominations—ideas and lifestyles that are in plain contradiction to the written commandments of God’s holy word—things that would never have even come to mind or entered the imagination of those same Christians had they not been encouraged to embrace them by different forms of media. If they had heeded only the authority that the word of God and exercised only God-given reason, they never would have embraced these things so readily. Many of these things have become completely tolerated, and embraced, and even celebrated by professing evangelical Christians to the point that such Christians have become indistinguishable from the unbelieving world. And it seems to me that much of this has come about through an uncritical, passively receptive encounter with ‘evil communication’—with ‘evil company’.

What do we do about this? Do we throw out all forms of media? Do we cease any contact with non-believing people? Do we become hermits, or form monasteries, or isolate ourselves from the world? Absolutely not! Instead, we should make sure that we know the truth of God’s word and that we have—and are fully committed to—a cohesive, consistent, comprehensive Christian world-view that helps us to evaluate what is right and what is wrong. That way, we don’t become the mere ‘passive consumers’ of everything that comes our way.

One of the best ways to do this is to be a people who read and carefully study the Bible regularly in the power of the Holy Spirit. I believe that is the very best defense we can have. As King David wrote;

Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night (Psalm 1:1-2).

We should take-in God’s word daily! That way, when an evil idea or belief or argument comes our way—whether through one of the many forms of media, or through personal one-on-one associations—we have the ability to say, “Wait a minute. This person is saying this, but the word of God says the complete opposite. I chose to believe what God’s word says.”

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So then; these Corinthian Christians were—right then—being led astray; and Paul urges them to no longer allow it to happen. He shows them the source of the danger—that is, ‘evil company’ that ‘corrupts good morals’.

And now, notice …

3. THE TWO-FOLD CURE.

In verse 34, he wrote; “Awake to righteousness, and do not sin …”

The word that Paul uses for “awake” is a very interesting one. It basically refers to how someone sobers up from a drunken stupor. Metaphorically, it means to ‘wake up’ from a strong spiritual delusion. And he wrote that these Corinthians should wake up from their spiritual stupor “to righteousness”; or as it can be translated, “righteously”.

Think of how someone might wake up from a ‘drunken stupor’ and find themselves—inexplicably—somewhere far from home with a strange new ‘unicorn tattoo’ on their face. “Where am I?” they may ask; “and how did I get this tattoo? What in the world have I done?!!” Suddenly such a person realizes—with a sense of horror—that they have done something wrong; and now, they want to live righteously. In the same way, Paul was urging these Corinthian Christians—who had been allowing ‘evil company’ to influence them and to lead them astray from God’s good word—to suddenly wake up and see how far they’d been led astray; and repent, turn again to righteousness. He wanted them to be like the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable, who “came to himself” and returned to the father (John 15:17).

And then—along with it—Paul wrote “and do not sin”. And he put this in a way that is similar to the form that I told you about before. It is a ‘prohibition in the present active imperative’. He was telling them, “Wake up, from out your spiritual stupor, and unto righteousness; and stop being characterized by the ungodly habits and practices of sin.”

We no longer have to be the passive victims of the influence of ‘evil company’. By God’s help, we can wake up, cease from being deceived, turn from sin, and walk and think and live in obedience to God’s righteous word.

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And to show us how important this is for us to do—to give us a sense of the urgency of the need—Paul goes on to speak of …

4. THE RISK IF WE IGNORE THE WARNING.

He urged his Corinthian brothers and sisters to wake up unto righteousness and to cease from sin; “for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame”(v. 34b).

In the original language, Paul doesn’t say that they ‘don’t know God’. Instead, he says it in a much more powerful way. He says that they are ‘actively having ignorance of God’. It may be that these Corinthian Christians had been so led astray that their understanding of the true nature of God—and of the greatness of His power—had fallen into a state of confusion and ignorance. It wouldn’t be that they lost their salvation, but rather that they had lost their sense of the good truths of the gospel that they should be believing; and that they were then ‘having ignorance’ of the heavenly Father. They didn’t know what God was like any longer. Or it may be that their theology had become so broken and confused by these various evil influences that they lost their ability to present the gospel effectively; and, as a result, they were having some in their midst who were ignorant of God completely.

Either way, this was a terrible outcome. He said, “I speak this to your shame”; that is, so that they would be ashamed of the situation—and wake up as they should.

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Dear brothers and sisters; our Savior has left us in this world for a reason. He wants us to be a unique people. He doesn’t want us to become so conformed to this world’s wicked values and ungodly practices that no one can see a difference in us anymore. He wants us to live in the world—but to be so closely conformed to His word that the people of this world can see Him at work in us.

In the book of Romans, the apostle Paul put it this way;

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:1-2).

May God help us to heed this warning from Paul—to no longer be deceived by the influences of ‘evil company’ in this world; but to wake up righteously, turn from sin, and show the world what a good and perfect Savior we have.

Click HERE for the audio version of this sermon.

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