Modern Idols: Devotions From Time Of GraceSample

The idol of friends

Man, it’s not so hard to ignore your parents, but it’s really, really hard to say no to your friends. Who over the age of 14 has not felt the riptide pull of peer pressure? Nobody wants to be mocked for being weak, being a loser, being left behind, being chicken. Everybody wants to belong. Strong leaders pull the people in their group behind them, sometimes to terrible deeds.

Peer pressure wasn’t invented in recent times--it’s always been around: “You have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you” (1 Peter 4:3,4).

When people have decided to carouse, they want everybody else to join them so that they won’t feel guilty and so that there won’t be any innocent ones left to rat them out. If they do get busted, at least they’ll have company in whatever leper colony they end up in.

It all comes down to whose approval you need to feel good about yourself. Are your friends number one in your life? Do you crave their approval more than anything? If so, know that you have made them an idol. Know also that they’re not really your friends if they goad you into doing things that are sinful or illegal or both.

When you are being squeezed, ask Jesus what he’d like you to do.

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