Today, amidst overcast skies and the threat of rain, we gathered for singing and fellowship and a healthy study of God’s Word.

The men had a class taught by one of the elders of the Robinson & Center congregation in Conway. Our subject was the need to love the lowly as Jesus did. He made several great points, but one that jumped out at me was taken from a famous parable of Solomon:

Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

Proverbs 27:17 

That’s one of those Bible statements that most people can quote, but then he added another thought to it, which is also well-known:

Who are you rubbing off on?

He bridged the two ideas with an illustration: When you sharpen a knife, you use another piece of metal (a wet stone or something similar). You rub the blade against the stone to sharpen it.

So who are you rubbing off on? Who is rubbing off on you? Are you using your spiritual influence to better others, or is the Devil and his bad influence rubbing off on you. Someone is sharpening your metaphorical blade.

Who’s rubbing off on you?