Adversities: Peer Pressure

Peer pressure is a form of adversity that must be dealt with often for a Christian in today's world. Unfortunately, many Christians do not recognize the impact that peer pressure has upon them and thus do not think about the negative consequences that may come with their "giving in" to peer pressure. Let us now examine what "peer pressure" is and what the Word of God says about it.

We may define "peer pressure" as "the attempt by others to influence you to act as they do or believe as they do." The concept of peer pressure may be broken down into an issue of conformity: to what will you conform? If the word "conformity" is difficult to understand, imagine this: you have wet clay in your hands. You can shape it into many different forms: a ball, a flat surface, a twist, etc. When you change the form of the clay, you are the clay is conformed by you into a shape of your desire. In the world today, a Christian can be conformed to one of two forms: conformed to the image of Christ or conformed to the world.

It must first be stated that all "peer pressure" is not necessarily an evil. If you surround yourself with godly people, desiring to go to Heaven and be with their Lord and desire the same for you, and if they respect the Word of God and desire to follow it as perfectly as possible, by all means accept their forms of "peer pressure!" These are the types of people that one ought to conform to, shunning all immorality.

Unfortunately, however, this form of "peer pressure" is very rare. More often than not, a Christian will be asked by his "friends" to either practice something that is wrong or assent to a practice that is wrong. Students learn in schools about the "peer pressure" that attempts to induce one to smoke, drink, or use illegal substances. A Christian may be induced to commit fornication, or, if married, adultery. In times like these we must remember the wisdom of Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:16-20:

What? know ye not that he which is joined to a harlot is one body? for "two," saith he, "shall be one flesh."