OVERCOMING TEMPTATION 6: RUN AWAY FROM FRIENDS WHO EXCUSE SIN

A young man narrated once how he had a friend who earned significantly less than him but would always invite him to the bar. His friend would order drinks and bring girls. This young man would be the one to pay the bills. There were times he would have no business spending the night at a hotel but he would pay for his friend who stayed back with ‘his girls’. 

His freedom came the night he had reason to leave his friend at the bar. He went home. His friend kept calling him to come and pick up the bills. He said, “Sir, I could not imagine I was using my money to sponsor the lifestyle of a man who did not have the means. Sir, there were nights I paid as much as three hundred thousand naira”. 

If you will overcome temptation, you must run away from any company that indulges and excuses sin or sinful patterns. Most men who fall into sin are surrounded by a company that excuses sin. 

Let’s track it scripturally: 

Judah was in a bit of a rough season. He had lost his wife. To refresh himself, he decided to spend some time away visiting with a friend who was shearing sheep. 

On the way from the field, Judah saw a woman dressed as a prostitute: 

Judah noticed her and thought she was a prostitute, since she had covered her face. So he stopped and propositioned her. “Let me have sex with you,” he said, not realizing that she was his own daughter-in-law. “How much will you pay to have sex with me?” Tamar asked.

Genesis 38:15‭-‬16 NLT

He began to negotiate with the valuables in his life and his friend still did not warn him or stop him. He went ahead to sleep with a ‘prostitute’ and his friend, Hirah, did not stop him: 

“What kind of guarantee do you want?” he replied. She answered, “Leave me your identification seal and its cord and the walking stick you are carrying.” So Judah gave them to her. Then he had intercourse with her, and she became pregnant.

Genesis 38:18 NLT

Guess who was willing to bring the payment so they could recover Judah’s identification seal and its cord and the walking stick? You guessed right. 

Later Judah asked his friend Hirah the Adullamite to take the young goat to the woman and to pick up the things he had given her as his guarantee. But Hirah couldn’t find her. Genesis 38:20 NLT

Do not hang around ‘sin-enablers’. Do not hang around those who excuse the things that should die in your life. Do not keep the company of those who even suggest it or give a hint of it to you. If you are surrounded by compromising men, you will soon compromise. 

What killed Amnon? It was a strange desire that was supported and fanned into full-blown obsession by a strange counsel given by his cousin. The same cousin came to announce his murder to King David. 

Remember the proverbs: 

Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble.

Proverbs 13:20 NLT

Check your company today. Do you have ‘sin-enablers’ around you? Why not begin with an audit today? 

temilOluwa Ola, Eruwa