Carefully Select Your Companions
By Allan E. McNabb

Christians in every age have guardedly selected their companions.  But living in today’s electronic age, this task is more and more difficult, since increasingly seductive temptations bombard our minds.

Electronic Company (Companions)
A companion is anything with which you keep company.

For example, one woman’s husband was addicted to TV.  Explaining this problem, she said regarding the TV, “It is his greatest friend and companion” (ThrivingNow.com).

Living in an electronic world, we must exercise great care when selecting the media with which to keep company.  The TV shows, movies, music, Internet sites, magazines, and books we choose as companions have either a positive or negative affect on our lives, and our relationship with God.

Bad Company Corrupts Good Morals
“Do  not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals’” (1 Cor. 15:33).

We must understand this general principle, people who keep company with evil, become evil.

• If we listen to evil music, we’ll become evil.
• If we read evil books, we’ll become evil.
• If we play evil video games, we’ll become evil.
• In general, if we keep company with evil in any form, we’ll become evil.

Peter’s Mistake
Remember the story of Peter, when he was in the high priest’s courtyard the evening Jesus was betrayed.

Rather than staying with John, who was also there, Peter tried to hide among the Jews who wanted to kill Jesus.  When questioned whether he was Jesus’ disciple, Peter denied the Lord, even cursing the third time.

Since Peter chose to be with sinful men, he was tempted and sinned.

This analogy is an over simplification, but effective in making a very important point.  When we choose evil companions, we’ll eventually break down and sin.

Violent Video Games
Like most everything in the world, good things are often used in evil ways.  Such is the case with books, magazines, TV, music, board games, video games, etc.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s review of “Manhunt 2” demonstrates the evil in some video games today. “Stealth is a big part of this game; you're urged to sneak up on your enemies and execute them in a variety of ways. You may stab them with a syringe, slash them with a glass shard, slice them with a sickle, strangle them with a plastic bag, bash their heads in with a toilet seat -- and that's just in the opening chapters. When you're playing the Wii version of the game, you use the motion-sensitive controls to actually simulate the act of stabbing, slashing and punching people” (Seattlepi.com, Game On: ‘Manhunt2', 1/1/07).

New Study: Violent Video Games Teach Aggression
Two university researchers, a father and son team (J. Ronald Gentile and Douglas Gentile) realized video games incorporate the same techniques used by great teachers.  So, they formulated a hypothesis which they set out to test, that violent video games teach aggression.

Here are a couple of findings from the study:

• “Through a study of nearly 2,500 youths, they found that video games are indeed effective teaching tools. Students who played multiple violent video games actually learned through those games to produce greater hostile actions and aggressive behaviors over a span of six months” (Physorg.com, Scientists explore how violent video games are exemplary aggression teachers, 11/6/07).
• “Among elementary students, playing multiple violent video games increased their risk of being highly aggressive -- as rated by peers and teachers -- by 73 percent, when compared to those who played a mix of violent and non-violent games, and by 263 percent compared to those who played only non-violent games” (ibid.).

Understand that video games teach.  As suggested in the study, they teach either positive or negative lessons.

And be sure you understand the above statistic.  The increased risk of aggressive behavior between Elementary students who played violent video games verses non-violent video games was 263%!

This study again confirms what we already know from God’s word — evil company corrupts good morals, significantly!

Carefully Select Your Companions
Be very selective with whomever and whatever you keep company.  They have a huge impact upon you, your relationship with God, and your salvation.

If your companions are evil, you’ll adopt evil behaviors.  But if your companions are good, you’ll adopt good behaviors.