“EVERYONE’S DOING IT”

Presented by

Blake Brown

Have you ever done something that you knew was wrong, just because everyone else was doing it? Sometimes it seems like it is easier to do something wrong if we can be a part of a crowd, or if we can get someone else to do it with us. If we are not careful, people around us can cause us to do things we wouldn’t normally do. It makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Has it always been this way?

Yes, it has. Many years ago Moses warned the people of Israel about this very thing. In Exodus 23:2, Moses said, “You shall not follow a crowd to do evil.” Moses wanted God’s people to know that just because “everyone’s doing it” does not make it right! We also need to remember what the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:33 when he wrote, “Do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts good morals.” What did Paul mean by that? He was simply saying that we shouldn’t fool ourselves. If we hang around people who are doing things that are wrong, then we, too, will want to do things that are wrong.

Let me give you a good example of how this works. Today, there are many people in the religious world who say that all a person has to do to be saved from sin is to “just have faith.” These people teach that if a person wants to be saved, then that person should simply believe in Jesus as God’s Son and pray to ask Jesus to come into his heart. But the Bible does not teach anything like that. In fact, the Bible teaches exactly the opposite. James said in James 2:24, “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.” So, if someone tries to teach us that all we have to do to be saved is “just have faith,” we can know that is not right. According to the Bible, there is something we must do to be saved.

But what is it that God wants us to do? Does He simply want us to pray to ask Jesus to come into our hearts so we can be saved? No. That is not what God has told us to do. We know this because in John 9:31 the Bible says, “We know that God does not hear sinners.” So if God does not hear the prayer of someone who is not a Christian, then how can a sinner pray to ask Jesus to come into their heart? The simple fact is that they cannot. Today if a person wants to become a Christian, he must believe in Jesus as God’s Son, repent of his past sins, confess Jesus as his Savior, and then be baptized in water for the forgiveness of his sins. Those are the things that the Bible says we must do.

Most people in the religious world today do not teach what God’s Word says we must do to become a Christian. That is very sad. But we need to remember that even if everyone around us does something that is wrong, we still should not follow their example. Just because more people do something does not make it right. God wants us to always do right, no matter what “everyone else” is doing. It is never right to do wrong! Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). That is exactly what we must do. We must simply obey Jesus, even if no one around us does. That may not be easy. But it will always be right!