Don’t make friends with an angry person, and don’t be a companion of a hot-tempered one, or you will learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare. (Proverbs 22:24-25)
Knowingly or not, we are influenced by people that we surround ourselves with on a regular basis. As with most things in this life, these influences can either be a benefit or hindrance for us. In today’s passage, Solomon warns us not to associate ourselves with people who are constantly angry or hot-tempered because we may start acting like them (Proverbs 22:24-25).
This warning of being careful who we become friends with is not only repeated in Proverbs (1:10-19, 12:26), but throughout the whole of Scripture as well. In his first letter to the church in Corinth, the apostle Paul warns that bad company corrupts good character (I Corinthians 15:33). The apostle John warns that we are not to love the world or anything in it (I John 2:15). The writer of Psalm 1 states that “those who do not walk in the advice of the wicked and do not sit in the company of mockers” are blessed. From these verses, it may sound like the Bible commands us as Christians to separate completely from the world and unbelievers. But is it really actually what the Bible is saying?
After his resurrection, Jesus gave his disciples his Great Commission. They were directed to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything [he commanded them]” (Matthew 28:19-20). While the Scriptures caution us to be careful who we become friends with, it also commands us to share the Gospel with everyone! We cannot do this by isolating ourselves from the world, living in just a “Christian bubble”. If we truly believe that the Gospel is good news, we should be eager to share it, even with the angry and hot-tempered people that Solomon warned us about.