The people we spend time with have a significant impact on us. Before we realize it, we find ourselves talking, acting, and even sometimes dressing like the people around us. When we consider this, our first instinct is to ensure that we are not spending time with people who draw us away from Christ and have a negative influence on us. This understanding is only half of the story. You see, just as we need to focus on not letting people around us pull us further away from Christ and negatively influence us, we also have to ensure that we spend our time around people who are positive influences whom we want to become more like and follow their example.
We are reminded in the book of Proverbs to consider who we will let into our spheres of influence. The writer of Proverbs 13 wrote, "Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble." It is clear after reading this verse that we become like the people with whom we walk with. If we walk with wise people, we will also become wise as we walk in the same direction towards wisdom. The opposite is also true. If we walk with foolish people, we will also become foolish. This verse specifically addresses wisdom, but it can be applied to many areas of life. We will become more like Christ if we walk with people who are also wisely walking toward Christ. We will become like the world if we associate with people who are walking in the direction of the world.
As I think about the kind of people who will positively influence me, those who show Christ-like love to those around them are at the top of the list. Paul described this kind of Christ-like love in 1 Corinthians 13. In this passage of Scripture, he described love as patient, kind, not jealous, not prone to brag, not rude, not demanding of its own way, not irritable, not prone to hold grudges, and more (verses 4-6). Are you thinking what I am thinking? That is a tall order. This kind of love is different from the rest of the world. It is the way that Christ loved and the way that He calls His followers to love. Those who model this love are the kind of people worth surrounding ourselves with.
As we consider who we surround ourselves with and Christ's call to love, the question we must answer today is, "Who do we want to become?" When we take the time to answer this question honestly, we must ask ourselves if we are surrounding ourselves with people who are walking in the direction we want to go. We will become like the people we surround ourselves with. Let's commit to becoming more like Christ and surround ourselves with people who are also walking towards Him.
Take some time to think about the people in your life whom you want to become like. These are people who live with integrity and follow Christ wholeheartedly. Reach out to them this week. Tell them that you admire the example they have set for you and the way they honor Christ. Thank them for living a life that points those around them straight to Christ.
1If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.
11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
