IT’S BETTER TO WALK ALONE, THAN WITH A CROWD GOING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION
As believers in Christ, we know that we’re often required to do things differently. We’re specifically instructed not to conform to the ways of the world (Romans 12:2), but the pull of the crowd can be hard to resist.
In our everyday life there is pressure to follow the crowd (the world) and go along with the majority and their mainstream ideas. A lot of the time, what draws us closer to the crowd only places distance between us and God. That’s why we’re called to walk a different path.
But going Christ’s way instead of the crowd’s doesn’t mean that we lose out. What He offers us is infinitely more than we could hope for by following anyone else. Living a life that doesn’t always adhere to the principles favored by the masses becomes a lot more manageable once we accept this.
If we’re in need of inspiration from those who’ve set themselves apart from the crowd to follow Jesus, we can always look to the disciples. The pressures that they faced to conform were greater than those that many of us have to confront today. Because they wholly trusted in Jesus and understood why it was necessary to commit to loving him more than the world, they were able to give up worldly gains in place of something much greater – salvation, peace, a renewed relationship with God, eternal life, etc.
The following Bible verses should encourage each of us towards the path that God would want us to take instead of following the crowd going in the wrong direction.
Proverbs 14:12 – “There is a way that seems right to man, but in the end it leads to death.”
2 John 1:9 – “Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.”
Luke 6:26 – “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.”
James 4:4 – “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world’s hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”
John 15:18-19 – “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”
1 Corinthians 15:33 – “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character’.”
Proverbs 13:20-21 – “He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.”
Psalm 118:8-9 – “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.”
Matthew 7:13-14 – “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Matthew 4:19-20 – “Come, follow Me, Jesus said, ‘and I will make you fishers of men. At once they left their nets and followed Him’.”
Psalm 1:1a – “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked….”
Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I do not live by what the world says. The Holy Word of God is my guide. I would rather walk alone, than with the crowd going in the wrong direction.
Oscar