One of the hallmarks of growing up seems to be doing stupid things with your friends. When I was a captain on the swim team, a couple of the guys got together to toilet paper the female captains’ homes and our coach’s house. We went out after dark to do the deed.
While TP’ing my coach’s house, we heard someone yell from across the street. My dad was a police officer in our town, so I knew a lot of the other police officers, and where they lived. So when I heard the yelling, I quickly figured out that we should bolt because that was a police officer’s house.
We never got in trouble with the law, though we did end up cleaning up the toilet paper at my coach’s house and swimming extra laps at practice. I probably wouldn’t have even thought about TP’ing someone’s house, let alone actually doing it, without my friends influencing me.
So what’s this got to do with the Bible and how it changes us? On this: those people closest to you in your life will influence you for better or for worse. Jesus said in John 8:31-32:
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
In other words, if you are spending time in God’s Word, growing close to Him, you will be changed from the inside out. The closer we become with Jesus, the more He influences us through His Word.