God Instructed Haggai the prophet to ask a question of the priests about something in the Law of Moses: “If one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil, or any food, will it become holy?” The priests correctly answered, “No” (Hag. 2:12). A second question followed: “If one who is unclean because of a dead body touched any of these, will it be unclean?” Again, the priests rightly answered that it would be unclean (Hag. 2:13). The application of this point was that, since the people were unclean, all of their offerings were, therefore, unclean.
Apparently the holy meat could not sanctify anything the garment came in contact with, but it retained its holiness. On the other hand, one defiled by a corpse contaminated everything with which he came in contact. Some brethren do not like the phrase, guilt by association; how about deterioration by association? Let’s consider some other examples. When “the sons of God saw the daughters of men were beautiful,” they intermarried with them (Gen. 6:2). What resulted was a better mankind where everyone called upon God, right? No, the fact is that “the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5).
“Wait a minute!” someone might protest. “The righteous must intermingle with the wicked; otherwise, how will Christians be the light of the world and the salt of the earth?” (Matt. 5:13-16). But there are some situations and times when a person cannot do any good. Take for example where Lot and his family lived in Sodom. His righteous soul was constantly oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (2 Peter 2:7-8). His righteousness was unappreciated and ignored. Not even ten righteous people could be found at the time of its destruction.
So, with what influences should the Christian surround himself—those that smack of worldliness, which will implant coarse language in his head, along with acts of wickedness (1 Cor. 15:33; Pr. 13:20)? Likewise, what are our spiritual associations—those in denominations that will neither teach nor practice the truth regarding salvation and worship? And what brethren do we desire to be most associated with—those who teach annihilation, that the Lord returned once and for all in A.D. 70, that the Holy Spirit operates directly on the heart of the Christian, that instrumental music is not a salvation issue, or that fellowship with those in error is entirely permissible? Do we want to subject ourselves to deterioration by association?