Proverbs 4:14–15; 13:20
I have learned that who you travel with can make a big difference. Put the right people in the car and a six-hour drive can actually be enjoyable. Put the wrong people in the car and twenty minutes can make you reconsider every relationship decision you have ever made. Someone is too hot. Someone is too cold. Someone needs a bathroom twelve minutes after you stopped and somehow four adults cannot agree on where to eat.
Who we travel with matters. Proverbs says the same thing is true about the people we travel through life with. “Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble” (Proverbs 13:20, NLT).
That is not especially complicated. Spend enough time around wise people and their wisdom begins rubbing off on you. Spend enough time around foolishness and eventually things you once recognized as foolish start looking surprisingly reasonable. We tend to underestimate how much the people around us shape us. Their attitudes become familiar. Their priorities influence ours. What they laugh at, complain about, chase after and excuse can slowly become normal to us too.
Proverbs 4:14–15 warns us not to follow the path of those moving away from God. In fact, the instructions are pretty strong: “Don’t even think about it; don’t go that way. Turn away and keep moving” (NLT). Apparently, “I’ll just hang around here and see what happens” is not the biblical strategy.
This does not mean we avoid everyone who does not follow Jesus. Jesus certainly did not. He loved people others avoided and intentionally built relationships with those who were far from God. But there is a difference between loving someone and allowing someone to lead you.
So maybe the question is not simply, “Who are my friends?” A better question might be, “Who is shaping me?” Who has my ear? Who gets permission to challenge me? Who encourages me to follow Jesus when following Jesus costs me something? Who makes obedience easier rather than compromise more comfortable?
Love everybody. Serve everybody. Welcome everybody. But choose carefully who gets the greatest influence in your life. We all need people walking beside us who will occasionally grab our shoulder and say, “I don’t think this is our exit.”
Walk with people who keep pointing you toward Jesus, because the people beside us have a remarkable way of influencing where we eventually end up.