Walking with the wise

“He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.” Proverbs 13:20
It’s no surprise that we become like those we spend time with. Their mannerisms rub off onto you, their values and priorities. This is all fine and well if those values and priorities are good and Biblical, but what if they are not?
I’ve found there are two extremes in the Christian world today with regards to making friends and choosing who to spend time with. Some Christians do all their socialising at church. All their friends are Christians, and they choose to come into contact with non-Christians as little as possible.
Then there are those on the other extreme, who spend as little time at church as possible (usually because of ‘the weird Christians’ there) and have a plethora of friends who aren’t Christians. For sure, some people who do this do it sincerely hoping that they can be a witness to their non-Christian friends, and some befriend people for the sole purpose of witnessing to them. That becomes difficult when the person being befriended states in no uncertain terms that they are not interested – but that’s another issue.
We need a balance between these. According to this proverb, if we want to grow wise, we should be spending more time with those who are wise – those who fear God (Prov. 9:10). We shouldn’t refrain from talking to people who aren’t Christians, but realise if you seek counsel from them, it will not be from a Biblical viewpoint. We need to choose our friends carefully.