Picking Your Friends

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Psalm 1

Happy are those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees
planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.

The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

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Bad company, and I can't deny,
Bad company, 'til the day I die.

"Bad Company" by the band Bad Company from the album Bad Company

Scripture reminds us that we are to treat all people well, because we never know when we will be treating angels without being aware that we are. We never know. We are all children of God, even the least of us, even the wicked. But that doesn't mean that we should be hanging out with the wicked.

So how do we walk this tightrope? How do we serve God's children while not hanging out with bad company 'til the day we die? The answer is that this is not the question we should be answering. This question is a smoke screen. The very first Psalm gives us a better answer, from there we can come up with the more fitting question.

Happy are those who who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.

The questions are "Who do you follow? Who do you serve?" Serving God, serving creation, delighting in the Lord, we serve all creation. This is how we serve all facets of God's good creation. Trying to serve humanity without serving God, it may be its own noble goal, it's just impossible to live that way with any certainty. When we do, we end up serving other masters to the detriment of those we seek to serve.

We can follow the wicked, we can be bad company 'til the day we die, but there is a better way. Following God, even in service to the weak and wicked we will be like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither.

So you see, there isn't a tightrope, serve God and we will be doing God's work, serving angels unawares, without serving the wicked.