Jonadab or Luke?
In last weeks study we consider the power of influence. Each of us can make a choice what we will do with our lives. We spoke about the importance of living our lives for the Lord. Likewise, we spoke about the importance of being in the church and the strength we get from fellow Christians. All of this is God's way to keep us going in the right direction toward eternity with Him. He has given us His Word to be placed into our thinking so that it serves as a powerful tool to be used by God to light the direction of our lives (Psalm 119:105). The use of that Word continues to touch our hearts so that we will not cease in our love for Christ (Romans 8:37-39).
We influence others and others influence us. On one hand, we can choose to use our lives to influence others for good. In another way, we can choose who it is that will influence us. God reasons with us that evil companions will corrupt good manners or good living (I Corinthians 15:33). We chose, then, who it is that will influence us by our associations together. We cannot live in a perfect world, wherein no sinners are present (I Corinthians 5:10). Our task is to not allow the sinner to have control over us through his influence (II Corinthians 6:14). Let us then use some examples from the Bible to illustrate this point.
The first case is found in II Samuel 13. Amnon is a son of David. He begins to have unhealthy thoughts toward his half sister, Tamar. As we showed last week, temptations are all around. Here is a young man whose lust, not love, is beginning to take control of his life. God says he was so vexed for his half sister that he was "sick for her" (II Samuel 13:2). Being sick in this sense is the thought that lust was growing so strong in his heart that he no longer cared for God's wishes for his life. The growth of lust for things that God does not want us to have is small steps being taken which will lead us away from God.
The righteous man is limited by God to not allow the influence of the ungodly to gain control over us. The righteous man does not walk in the wisdom of the ungodly; nor stand where the ungodly is, nor sit where the ungodly is (Psalm 1:1). Instead, he makes the choice to meditate in the law of God. He does not allow the sinner to influence him away from God.
The passage then in II Samuel 13 reveals that Amnon had a friend called Jonadab (verse 3). God, also, in the same verse, shows us that Jonadab was a subtil man, that is he was crafty. Amnon had chosen to allow his friend to be an influence in his life. Jonadab encouraged Amnon to be deceptive to allow him to fulfill his lust. For sake of space in writing, let us just note in passing that Amnon forced his half sister. Following this horrible act the Scriptures show us that the hatred he felt afterwards was greater than the love he had felt before (verse 15). The pain that came to the house of David and the suffering of Tamar could have been avoided had Amnon had better friends.
It is a good test of the influence of those around us to evaluate what we do when we are around them. If, by their words or actions, we are more inclined to do wrong than right, then such association is not good. Second case is the coming death of Paul. He was discouraged. His friends had to leave and go and do other things. One, however, deserted Paul because he loved this present world (II Timothy 4:10). In the midst of everyone leaving, some for good reasons and others for evil, Paul was indeed, alone. Yet, we find in the next verse, these beautiful words; "...only Luke is with me....". God used this godly man, Luke, to touch the heart of Paul and strengthen him.
Who would you rather have around you, a Jonadab or a Luke? Another way to consider the matter is this. Are we a Jonadab or a Luke? Are people brought closer or driven away from God by us? Let us use our influence for good and chose for the same reason the people we will allow to influence us.