Title
Sin Is Contagious
Scripture
Do not enter the path of the wicked . . . For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
(Proverbs 4:14-17)
Devotional
The oft-repeated warning against the wicked, “Avoid their ways,” is found throughout Scripture. From the first Psalm to the Letters to the Churches, from Genesis to Revelation, we are admonished not to sit, eat, walk, or run with them. It is a simple fact, “evil company corrupts...”(1) Sinfulness, like an infectious disease, is highly contagious. Your goodness, like health, is not. You and I cannot pull anyone out of his or her sin; only Christ can do that. However, sin can readily pull us down. Therefore we are clearly commanded, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.”(2) Love them, but mark them. The only thing we must share with them is the love of Christ directed to their salvation. This we are to do, “To everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.”(3) Share Christ with the wicked, but do not share in the path of the wicked.
(1) 1 Corinthians 15:33, (2) 2 Corinthians 6:14, (3) 1 Peter 3:15