“Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” ” 1 Corinthians 15:33

There is a popular statement in the secular world that I believe is true: “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”. That citation most of the time attributed to Jim Rohn is supposed to be a revelation for everyone except for Christians. As a matter of fact, based on my extensive knowledge of the author, the probability is high that he got the inspiration for the citation from the Bible. Indeed, the Bible has many passages that are consistent with the statement (1 Corinthians 15:33, Psalm 1:1, Proverbs 13:20). This message will use the story of Amnon to demonstrate how friendship can affect our life.

Amnon is the first son of David and as a prince of the man after the heart of God, it is plausible to think that he received a godly education and deserves to be the next King. But Amnon had an issue. He has a strange feeling that he calls love for his half-sister Tamar; but he is not capable of doing anything except controlling this feeling. Indeed, he tried to control it until his friend Jonadab heard the story (2 Samuel 13:1-4). However, we cannot consider Jonadab as a good friend because the Bible describes him as a very crafty man (2 Samuel 13:3), a word used to describe the snake who convinced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:1). Indeed, Jonadab encouraged his friend Amnon to go after the forbidden love, the same way the serpent in the garden encouraged Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. Such an act cost him his life and peace in the kingdom of his father.

Amnon is not a saint, but I am not sure he would be able to commit such an act without the advice of Jonadab because Jonadab is also an advisor to the Kingdom. It is also not impossible that Jonadab helped Absalom to kill his friend because he was aware that Absalom had decided to kill Amnon and he did nothing against it. Furthermore, while everyone was sure that Absalom had killed all the sons of David, Jonadab was the only one who was convinced that it was only Amnon that Absalom had killed (2 Samuel 13:30:36). Where did he get such a conviction from? Certainly from his friends. That is how far a friend can take you. What type of friends do you have?