Rules - 3:3

3.  If you desire to avoid sin you will need to also shun every occasion & opportunity of sinning.  Whoever does not avoid every incentive to sin cannot expect to overcome sin.  Evil companions are an incentive to sin, for it is from them that one often hears offensive talk that can easily mislead & corrupt a person.  Evil company corrupts good habits (I Corinthians 15:33).


Evil companions are the devil's dragnet by which he draws many into hell.  For this reason shun such companions & have nothing to do with ungodly, lewd persons.  If evil rogues entice you, don't follow after them (Proverbs 1:10).  Whoever spends much time with evil companions is easily corrupted by them - he learns their speech & before he realizes it he gradually becomes like them.  Among the evil, one becomes evil - he must either sin, or suffer.  For this reason a devout man avoids the companionship of the wicked.


If you do not wish to be enticed to fornication or immorality, you must diligently flee from the place & the companions by which opportunity would be given to you to fall into these sins.  If you would escape the sin of drunkenness (which is the broad way to hell), then don't become familiar with a drunkard or count him among you circle of friends.  For of what benefit to you is such a person as a friend who could ruin your life, yea, your salvation?  For experience teaches that more people lost their lives through their own friends by way of drunkenness than have been killed by their enemies.  So beware of all allurement to sin - you do not know how easily you could be deceived by the devil & by sin.

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As you know I usually don't elaborate on these Rules because they stand on their own.  However, that last sentence is so powerful that I just have to comment.  Have you ever looked down on people who did a certain thing, saying "I would never do that," & then sometime in the future you find yourself doing that exact same thing?  You see what you are doing but it's like you are looking through a camera at someone else.  You don't understand why you are doing this thing, but 99.9% of your being doesn't care.  You have fallen into company & hold hands tightly with this one thing you said you would never ever do.  You know it is wrong.  Common sense tells you to turn away, but somehow you have allowed the devil a foothold & he doesn't want to give it up.  Even though there is a tiny shred of "the old you" who does not understand why you are doing this thing, it does not make you change direction.  Every aspect of your life & the lives of those around you suffer because of this sin.  

If anyone does not know what the grace of God is, you will most certainly recognize it if you ever lose yourself for a period of time in a sinful situation & then one day are able to look back & see that you made it through relatively or totally unscathed.  God is so amazingly good!  If you have acknowledged Jesus as your savior, He will watch over you & take care of you & fight for you & protect you even when you have turned away from Him.  I do think there is a time when, if you continue in your sin, He will turn away from you ... for after all God can have no relationship with sin.  However, I do believe He will always welcome you back into His arms when you  acknowledge your sin & turn away from it (as in the parable of the lost son, Luke 15:11-32).