The Company We Keep

"Remember to welcome strangers, because some who have done this have welcomed angels without knowing it" (Hebrews 13:2).

We are known by the company we keep.

While the implication of this sentence is that we should avoid those who might tarnish our reputation and hurt our witness, I prefer to take a different spin on it. Many of us who grew up in church having echoes of "oh be careful little ears what you hear" ringing in our head might be inclined to think that all sinners and nonChristians should be avoided. Perhaps they might rub off on us.

These are good lessons for children, perhaps. When I was a child, I needed to be taught like a child. The problem is when we never grow up into more mature thinking. Children who grow up avoiding the "bad" kids can easily become adult separatists who avoid anyone who doesn't believe or live like themselves. I am sure we can read 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 and justify our separatism...but in the spirit of Christ, I cannot.

We are known by the company we keep.

Jesus really and truly challenges my perceptions. He loved the people the Old Testament scriptures -- His scriptures -- condemned to death. His associations and camaraderie with adulterors, prostitutes, tax collectors, outcasts, Gentiles, Roman officials (and women) made him scandalous in the eyes of the religious establishment. The people he chose to bring into his circle of association evoked so much irk and ire from the religious as to inspire hatred and consipiracy to murder. Jesus was blasphemous in their eyes.

We are known by the company we keep.

Jesus was not at all concerned about his reputation or about scandalizing the reputation of his Father. He was setting things right. Sometimes, in order to set things right, we need to turn things upside down in order to make them right-side up. This is something even the disciples of Christ struggled to come to grips with. He delighted in the company he kept.

Do you recall the story in Acts 10 of Peter in a trance-like state on the rooftop? In his vision, a sheet was lowered before him full of unclean and profane foods that a good Jew was prohibited from eating. The voice told him to eat, but Peter replied three times that he could not eat what was unclean. On the third denial (a common theme with Peter!), the voice replied "Do not call unclean what I have made pure". With that vision, God was shaking loose his old way of thinking in order to prod him forward to take the Gospel to the Gentiles. So hardened in Peter's thinking was this required avoidance of Gentiles that he continued to struggle with it until his death. God called another apostle, Paul, to take the good news to Gentile communities.

We are known by the company we keep.

I am not willing to be separated from sinful people. I delight in those who are within our circle of association, many of whom I call my friends. I cherish their presence in my life and I see them as loving gifts from the Father. I reject the notion that Jesus calls his people to circle up the wagons and form protectionist and separatist camps. Instead, I want to pioneer...to take the love of God found in Jesus to forbidden people and places. The kind of believer I am is, indeed, determined by the company I keep.

We are also known by the company we don't keep.