Positive Peer Pressure
In an article by Ken Idleman in the July/August 2022 issue of the Christian Standard magazine he quotes Tina Rosenberg, who wrote the following words: “Few things in life are more important in determining the kind of people we become than the group we hang out with – the group with which we regularly associate. The behaviors of that group determine what is appropriate or cool or desirable in our personal value system. Whether we are talking about losing weight, breaking a bad habit, achieving an education, or excelling in job performance…social support and peer pressure have been discovered to be the quickest and best way that people change.”
We tend to think of peer pressure as a bad thing: the friends of our young kids who pressure them to smoke or cuss or drink or disobey their teachers or do things while out on a Friday night we don’t approve of and want them to avoid. “Bad company corrupts good character” we are told by Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians (15:33). We know this is true from our own experience. Often, we fail to think about the flip side of this coin. That good company enhances good character. That’s true also.
Studies have shown that generally people do not make positive changes simply because they desire to. Pretty much everyone who smokes knows its bad for them, but struggle to quit simply based on that information. Who wants a divorce? Who wants to struggle with an addiction? Who wants to overspend, or sneak around with pornography? Lectures usually don’t work. Making them feel guilty usually doesn’t work. What works?
Psychiatrists and counselors typically refer people struggling with such things to support groups. Weight Watchers for those who struggle to lose weight. Alcoholics Anonymous for those with a drinking problem. There are support groups for PTSD, for grief recovery, etc. We need other people who have struggled with the same thing, overcome it, and can now counsel, admonish, and encourage us to walk a different path. This all makes sense, right?
And yet we live in an age when so many people want to live the Christian life solo. What brought us to Christ? A sin problem. What do we need once a Christian? To avoid sin and live for the Lord. Why do we think this will be easy, will work, without the support of others who have overcome and can now counsel, admonish, and encourage us to walk this new path?
Truth is, without such support, like in all these other areas of struggle, we drift back to what comes naturally, what the “bad company” people of our life pressure us to do. Can the Bible provide direction without input from others? Sure, it can. But will you stick with it if not encouraged by others? Will you understand it if not taught by mature Christians? The odds are against it. Satan will play the odds.
People who call themselves Christian often believe things that are popular in the culture, but called sin in the Bible? Why is that? Part of it is because we are going it alone, without the counsel of mature Christians who know the Bible. We absence ourselves from related activity (the assembly of the church) and we default to our culture. Hebrews 10:25 says, “Do not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another…” Allow positive peer pressure to do its good work!
We tend to think of peer pressure as a bad thing: the friends of our young kids who pressure them to smoke or cuss or drink or disobey their teachers or do things while out on a Friday night we don’t approve of and want them to avoid. “Bad company corrupts good character” we are told by Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians (15:33). We know this is true from our own experience. Often, we fail to think about the flip side of this coin. That good company enhances good character. That’s true also.
Studies have shown that generally people do not make positive changes simply because they desire to. Pretty much everyone who smokes knows its bad for them, but struggle to quit simply based on that information. Who wants a divorce? Who wants to struggle with an addiction? Who wants to overspend, or sneak around with pornography? Lectures usually don’t work. Making them feel guilty usually doesn’t work. What works?
Psychiatrists and counselors typically refer people struggling with such things to support groups. Weight Watchers for those who struggle to lose weight. Alcoholics Anonymous for those with a drinking problem. There are support groups for PTSD, for grief recovery, etc. We need other people who have struggled with the same thing, overcome it, and can now counsel, admonish, and encourage us to walk a different path. This all makes sense, right?
And yet we live in an age when so many people want to live the Christian life solo. What brought us to Christ? A sin problem. What do we need once a Christian? To avoid sin and live for the Lord. Why do we think this will be easy, will work, without the support of others who have overcome and can now counsel, admonish, and encourage us to walk this new path?
Truth is, without such support, like in all these other areas of struggle, we drift back to what comes naturally, what the “bad company” people of our life pressure us to do. Can the Bible provide direction without input from others? Sure, it can. But will you stick with it if not encouraged by others? Will you understand it if not taught by mature Christians? The odds are against it. Satan will play the odds.
People who call themselves Christian often believe things that are popular in the culture, but called sin in the Bible? Why is that? Part of it is because we are going it alone, without the counsel of mature Christians who know the Bible. We absence ourselves from related activity (the assembly of the church) and we default to our culture. Hebrews 10:25 says, “Do not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another…” Allow positive peer pressure to do its good work!