How does bad company corrupt good character (1 Corinthians 15:33)?

The Corinthian believers illustrated this. They had in their midst grave immorality unrebuked (1 Cor. 5); party spirit was rampant amongst them (1 Cor. 1); and disorder marked their coming together to partake of the Lord's supper (1 Cor. 11); but it is not until we reach 1 Cor. 15, that we find what lay at the root — the resurrection was being questioned, and even denied, In their midst. That was the "evil communication" that was corrupting their "good manners."

And further, they were not to deceive themselves as to the source from which such evils flowed - "Evil communications corrupt good manners." We are told that Paul quoted this striking sentence of five words from a Greek author, who would be well known at Corinth, Menander by name. It may well have been so, for heathen authors sometimes state what is true enough, and it is easy to forget that evil teachings produce evil lives in those who imbibe the teachings. If professing Christians at Corinth, or elsewhere, embrace philosophic notions, which affirm there is no resurrection, or at least none that affects the body, there will soon be mischievous results.

It is quite common today to hear people state that it does not really matter what we believe: all that matters is the living of a good and decent life. This assertion simply means that doctrine is really of no consequence; whereas it is of all importance. The man of the world in his business affairs knows this right enough. If in his business he gets wrong advice, and so believes the state of the market to be what it is not, his affairs will soon go awry. If a saint accepts false teaching, his life will soon manifest its evil effects.

(Vv. 33, 34). The Apostle, viewing things from a moral stand-point, sees that behind the false doctrine there was bad practice. False views may, indeed, be the outcome of ignorance through being linked with a system of false teaching. But when the soul that has been in the light of the truth adopts serious error that denies a great fundamental truth of Christianity, we shall generally find that bad practice is behind the bad doctrine, and connected with the bad practice there will be worldly associations which corrupt good manners. Hence the Apostle appeals to these saints to “awake to righteousness, and sin not”. Moreover, this self-indulgence and worldly association only proved how little they knew God. Some indeed had not the knowledge of God. This was to their shame.

But this is dreadful deception, and the Corinthians are warned against any identification with such evil. Good manners will very soon be corrupted by it. False associations will inevitably lead to bad conduct. The assembly then is told to "Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God." This was therefore an assembly responsibility: they must take a decided stand against this insidious evil. If individuals did not have the knowledge of God, how much better to have this exposed; for it was to their shame that such evil doctrine had ever arisen among them. Now they must realize that any association with it is corrupting, and must be refused by the assembly.

What leads to unequal yokes with the world is the first step of companionship with the world, with the unsaved. Therefore, it is most important that Christians be very careful as to whom they have companionship with. The Psalmist said, "I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts" (Ps. 119:63). Make the Lord Jesus your chief companion and all those that love and fear Him and keep His word your friends and companions. We are affected by the company we keep. "Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners" (1 Cor. 15:33). "He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed" (Prov. 13:20). If a believer has companionship with those who are of the world and love its evil course, he will soon be worldly minded and mixed up with the world system himself.

(4) We now come to a passage as to which there is great difficulty in the minds of many, and which has, therefore, furnished occasion for a multitude of opinions. It does not seem really so difficult after all. The apostle, in speaking of the character of the Christian life as a life of trial, of suffering from persecution, gives the endurance of this as a proof of a common faith in the resurrection of the dead. With regard, therefore, he says, to those "who are being baptized for the dead," (or in place of the dead,) "what will they do if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized instead of the dead? and why do we too stand in jeopardy every hour?" An old belief interpreted this as a mere superstitious baptism of the living in place of those who might die unbaptized. This is worth mentioning as being founded upon a mistake so prevalent, that baptism has in some way to do with the future life instead of being entirely for the present. Baptism is the mark of discipleship. It is no introduction to heaven, but simply to the kingdom of heaven, that is, to the company of disciples upon the earth. The thought of baptizing child or adult to carry them safe through to heaven is one of those false ideas which so early tended to build up the Romish system. The sacrament was supposed to minister in some way the grace of which it spoke. All this is destroyed to the root by simply keeping baptism in the place for which God has designed it, — a remission of sins indeed on the part of men, not necessarily on the part of God at all, a salvation in figure, not in fact. It is a New Testament type, and to be treated like all other types, as that which of necessity is infinitely lower than the thing of which it speaks, — yet it had and has its place as a confession of Christ, His title to Lordship over His people; that is, it introduces into the kingdom, and thus we can understand without much difficulty the text here. Christians were dying in how many different ways, and living, as the apostle speaks of himself, in constant view of death, — in that sense, "dying daily." What advantage was it to him, he says, to have fought (as after the manner of men, one might say,) with beasts at Ephesus, as a gladiator in the arena, if there was to be no resurrection of the dead? Yet men crowded into the ranks that were thus being thinned, took their place by baptism among those who were soldiers in this warfare. Was it all a dream, or were they justified in this faith in resurrection? The apostle has already identified the resurrection with Christianity itself. If there were no resurrection of the dead, Christ were not risen, and if Christ were not risen, those who had faith in Him were deceived and were yet in their sins. Thus we are not to think simply of the one point of doctrine, but of that as implying all else. The resurrection spoke, of necessity, with tremendous power, to those facing death all the time. Even the very body that dropped in the struggle would be taken up again, and taken up in a more glorious fashion. To weaken here would be to weaken all the power over sin, all the energy of the Christian life. "Let no one deceive himself," says the apostle. These things are not to be tolerated. They are not to be thought lightly of; for "Evil communications corrupt good manners." He quotes the heathen poet Menander in this last saying. That was the truth, and they must take heed to it. They must come to sobriety in righteousness and not sin. There were amongst them, evidently, some who had not the true knowledge of God. It was their shame that such should be in their midst. We see, in fact, how, in the decline of Christian vigor, the world comes in.

Verse 34. "Awake to righteousness, and sin not," etc. What they had been idly discussing as a speculative question is a truth essential to the glory of God. Their state as disputers was a state of sin. To pursue their present course would be to put their very souls in jeopardy; for they were Sadducees, not Christians, if they settled down in this erroneous belief. In vain would they claim to know God while denying the chief glory of His work. It was time, then, for them to awake up from the spiritual slumber into which the enemy had lulled them through the unsuspected effect of these evil communications; for it is evident, from the latter clause of this verse, that there was already "a mixed multitude" among the true people of the Lord.4 The same laxity of discipline which had winked at the gravest moral disorder, had suffered the intrusion into God's assembly of some who were believers in name only. Natural cleverness was claiming for itself an equal recognition with true spiritual gift, and the things of Christ were freely handled by some who themselves were ignorant of God. The same spirit which had led to their resorting to the world's tribunals for the settlement of their personal disputes, was now operating in the midst of their assembly to the corrupting of the faith of God's elect; and the apostle stigmatizes both these forms of evil with the same expression of reproach.5

The apostle then began to pour scorn on such error saying, "Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God; I speak to your shame." The knowledge of God would lead to righteousness and to holiness of truth, not to licentiousness.

The Apostle then began to pour scorn on such error saying, ‘Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.’ The knowledge of God would lead to righteousness and to holiness of truth, not to licentiousness.

Another case was that of a boil in the skin of the flesh, a more serious thing than a spot, or a scab, or a mere swelling. (v. 23.) It is a work of time for a boil to go through its various stages, and at the end to prove itself to be only a foul and corrupt thing. To give examples of what seems to us to be its spiritual significance, a man exposes himself to the atmosphere of false doctrine, and not knowing his own proclivities, and the danger of such a position, he becomes somewhat infected by the poison before he is aware of it. He tries to convince himself and others that there is some truth, as he says, in the false doctrine; for he is ignorant of Satan's craft to mix a little truth with error so as to deceive, and forgets the divinely-written sentence that "no lie is of the truth." He thinks much over the subject, talks about it, writes to his friends respecting it, becomes increasingly excited on the point, and pained also at the lack of sympathy and even attention of others; but at last, by turning to God and His word only, in dependence on His Spirit, the real state of this spiritual disorder is manifest, the corruption is exposed, the boil discharges itself of its foul contents, and it ceases to be. He had not fully embraced the leprous doctrine, and he is now most thankful for his escape from the snare. Or, a person exposes himself to the tainting influence of an immoral association. He knows little of himself. He thinks, because he desires to walk uprightly as a child of God, that he is proof against such contagion. This is a serious mistake, as many have had painfully to prove! for "evil communications corrupt good manners."