Don’t’ go along with the crowd

You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice. – Exodus 23v2

I don’t intend to take too much out of the Law for these thoughts, but this one grabbed my attention.

In the middle of all kinds of laws and regulations we find the simple instruction to not go along with the crowd when they do evil.

It is interesting that God throws such a practical instruction in the midst of all these laws. Though many of the laws were specific ceremonial laws that have no impact on us, the parts of the Law that we might call the ‘moral law’ are principles that we are wise to take to heart.

This little note here comes to heart. I have a special friend who was saved and really seemed to be growing in the Lord. Circumstances changed in their life and they were in a new situation. Almost immediately they chose to ‘go along with the crowd.’ Their life as changed and we have watched church and such drop way down the priority list.

Part of the reason this is so sad is because I did the same thing shortly after I was saved. For a while I ‘hung around’ with Christians at the school and was faithful to church. Pretty soon though I drifted back to my friends who were certainly ‘running to do evil.’ One night one of that crowd confronted me with a statement that sticks with me to this day – ‘After tonight Parrow don’t you ever try to give us that religious stuff again, now we know it is not real.’

Christians had better be careful about who we ‘hang with.’ This is not to say we will not have lost friends, but lets be sure that we are not following the crowd to do evil