Evidently, someone had been teaching people in the church at Corinth that there was no resurrection from the dead, and most of I Corinthians 15 is a rebuttal of that false teaching.  Interestingly, right in the middle of the chapter, we find this admonition in :33, “Do not be deceived: ‘bad company corrupts good morals.'” Evidently it was some “bad company” they had been spending time with who had passed on this false teaching about the resurrection. So Paul admonished the Corinthians: don’t think that it doesn’t matter whom you fellowship with. These people are teaching you wrong things about the gospel. When he warns: “Do not be deceived”, he is not referring to being deceived about the doctrine of the resurrection, rather he is telling them not to be deceived about the influence that other people have on you when you spend time with them.

It matters who you hang around. People influence each other; that is how God made us: to benefit and grow from our relationships. Thus the choice of the people we hang out with is an important one, because we will become more like them.

One of Satan’s greatest weapons against young believers — or those who are trying to make some changes in their lives — is to bring some wrong influences into their fellowship. He is especially good at bringing the wrong kind of girl or guy into a newly committed Christian’s life, to stifle their new-found faith. Beware of jumping into a relationship with anyone who is not as devoted to the Lord as you are. It is the not the Lord who brought that person into your life!

It would be a good idea to take some time to evaluate the relationships in your life: who around you is growing in the Lord, and reflects the kind of Christian life that you would like to have? Purpose to spend more time with those people. And who in your circle is dragging you down spiritually? You need to eliminate those relationships — or at least limit them as much as possible.

The one thing you must not think is that it doesn’t matter what kind of people you spend time with. It does. Paul made that clear here: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”