Walking with the Wise: The Power of Chosen Company

He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.—Proverbs 13:20

Walking with wise men means deliberately choosing persons of virtuous character for intimate friendship, voluntarily joining in their company and conversation. The peripateo (walking) denotes chosen motion—not forced proximity, but intentional association. This includes taking trusted counselors into our councils, intimating our difficulties to them, seeking their advice, and depending on their aid.

Involuntary presence with the vicious, or unavoidable deprivation of good society, does not transgress this rule. Our Saviour conversed with publicans and sinners; the present state of human affairs requires association with men of all characters. Yet the benefit lies not in mere providential situation, but in voluntary intimacy deliberately chosen for the sake of virtue.

Company shapes temper and manner profoundly. Two forces operate: first, the desire to gain approval from those we converse with—a powerful impulse in human nature. Second, the force of example. Mankind is prone to imitation. Religion presented in precepts moves affections less powerfully than when delineated in living practice. When rules of religious virtue are reduced to practice by men of like passions with us, periekeimai (compassed about) with the same infirmities, their imperfect yet worthy example sensibly reproaches our failures. The nearer the example, the greater force it exerts upon us.