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Growing up, I always heard about resisting peer pressure. We hear lots of great advice for teenagers to watch out for peers influencing them in a negative way. It is made to seem like peer pressure is something only for teens. However, the longer I live and the more lives I witness, I am convinced that peer pressure does not stop after high school or college.
I am amazed and almost silenced in shock at the amount of adults I see being negatively influenced by their peers. Who we choose to spend our time with consistently can literally make or break our destiny. Who we choose to hang around with and care about their opinions can actually move us toward our purpose in God or catastrophically into chaos.
Yes, Jesus did minister to the ungodly. He is Jesus. However, the people Jesus spent time with day in and day out were actually following along with His Father’s purpose. He reached out to those not living for God, but we did not see those who were not moving toward God’s will and did not promote Jesus’s mission hanging out in His inner circle. This is what Jesus tells us:
Matthew 7:6
“Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.”
As children of God, we have been given the honor of being a living temple for the Holy Spirit. Why would we waste our time trying so hard to get unholy people to approve of what is holy? They do not have our same purpose, they do not have God’s will at the forefront of their mind each day, and they do not desire to live for Him with all their heart. Why would we ever give them a say and influence over us?
Some peers may even say they believe in God, but their lifestyle doesn't necessarily reflect that belief. They may not ever mean to cause you harm, but just as sure as a pig would trample a pearl because it doesn’t understand its worth you can be sure a worldly person can trample your holy lifestyle.
If I held a diamond in front of a baby and tried to explain how to care for it, I would be wasting my breath. If you consider and work around the opinions and influences of the ungodly around you, you will be not only wasting your time you could actually begin to slowly waste away spiritually without even knowing it.
The only way ungodly people can know the love of God is if we show it to them. We must reach out to the ungodly. But that is not the area of life I’m talking about today. I’m talking about that person or those few people that you hang around with and talk with consistently that have more influence on you than you do toward them. Those people who are not living for God, but somehow you eerily fit in with them more and more each time you’re around them. Those people that you may have started saying things around and doing things around that you would not do or say if your family or church friends were around. These are the pigs that you are throwing your pearls to.
You have a holy purpose and so do I. Don’t waste your destiny and purpose trying so hard to fit in with piggish peers. They usually don’t in an evil way intend to hurt you, but you can rest assured they are and that they will even more. We would teach our kids to be brave and step away from any friendship that is bringing them down. Maybe it’s time that we take the advice we would want our child or niece or nephew to follow and step away from friendships that are drawing us further away from what God has for us and further away from who we really want to be.
Proverbs 25:26
A righteous person who yields to the wicked is like a muddied spring or a polluted well.
I want people to see my life and see springs of living water, not a muddy pond.
Father God, I don’t want to waste what is holy on people who are unholy. You have an amazing purpose and future planned for me. I don’t want to mess that up by throwing my pearls to piggish peers. Please help me to be brave and step away from any friends that I know deep in my heart are bringing me down. Please help me do what I need to do to break the ties I have developed with these people.