059 - Good Apples, Bad Apples

Wording of this Handout:

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Good Apples, Bad Apples

Here's a puzzle for you. If you had a big bowl of fresh, healthy apples, and you put one rotten diseased apple into the bowl, what would happen?

The wrong answer goes like this: The rotten apple would turn fresh and healthy.

Here's another puzzle: If you had a bowl of really rotten apples and you placed one fresh, healthy apple into the bowl, what would (after a day or so) happen?

The right answer is: The healthy apple would become diseased like all the apples around it.

Christians often make the terrible mistake of thinking that they can mix with the unsaved people all the time and never be influenced by them. This idea they have is so wrong it is scary how many Christians fall for it! It is the cause of many crashes and spiritual deaths among Christians, and it is one of the most deadly things the church has had to deal with. Christ and the world do NOT mix. Ever.

God wants Christians to be with the unsaved - how else can they be a witness to them - but there must be times when Christians are with only Christians, in order to build each other up, and strengthen their hearts. This is what the church is for.

The Bible says, "Come out of them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you."
2 Corinthians 6:17