“Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?” Do all you can to keep pride from rooting its way through you. Nothing makes us more miserable than self-absorption, the endless, unsmiling concentration on our needs, wants, treatment, ego, and record. 

We are the company we keep…

“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”” Who you surround yourself determines who you are. Paul advises to keep our counsel full of pure and holy people. Both Paul and Jesus were very serious about filling our company with only those who are seeking and pursing a life with Christ… No hypocrites allowed. Test your relationships: If they are not making you more like Jesus, and if you are not making them more like Jesus, then something needs to change. Furthermore, you become the one you worship. If you idolize stars and sports players, you will become like them. If you spend time with Jesus, you’ll become more like Jesus. We are the company we keep.

But keeping good company is not our goal

We aren’t supposed to avoid sinners; in fact, it’s just the opposite. One of the most common things Jesus did was hang with the lost and despicable. If we find ourselves in a community of only Christians, then what good are we? How can we be salt to the world if we are stuck in the salt shaker? How can we be a light to the world if we are afraid to go into the darkness? We have created a theology that serves us; it is all about what we get. We get atonement and sacrifice and heaven and paradise and treasures… These are wonderful reasons to praise God, but we have emphasized so much of what we get, that we have forgotten about what we must lose, what we must do. Frankly, we need to get over ourselves. It is not about us. Persecution is not what we should fear, but social seduction. Persecution causes the Kingdom to spread like wild fire. Social seduction lulls us to sleep.
And we are not here to condemn the world, but bring life! Every time we interact with the lost, we tell them they are wrong. People in America know all about what Christians are against, but very few know what Christians are for. I don’t know about you, but that bothers me. We must love them. We are not supposed to be secret Christians who befriend people to perform the old bait and switch; get to know them and then bop them on the head with Jesus. We are meant to go out and heal people, loving them genuinely. Pure and faultless religion is this: caring for widows and orphans, the least of the least. Go help people and you’ll probably be hanging out with non-Christians.  The more that you fall in love with Jesus, the more you’ll get to know people who do not know Jesus. You are saved by grace. Stop worrying about it. You don’t have to earn anything anymore.
Surround yourself with good mentors. Surround yourself with good friends. Surround yourself with people to love and pour into. You need a spiritual mentor. You need a level of peers. You need people you are investing in. You need all three to be in balance. We are communal beings. If you are feeling isolated and alone, it’s because you are denying who God made you to be.