The company we keep determines much of our lived experiences. In professional circles, motivational speaker Jim Rohn suggests our behaviors amount to the categorical averages of the five people we spend the most time with. Socially, prison recidivism is dramatically reduced if released felons disassociate with the cultural circles that got them in trouble before. As tribal creatures, we imitate the company we keep.

New believers, then, face difficult times transitioning into a life governed by the Will of God over their own. For example, humans develop routines after decades of poor choices that alter our brains' neuropathways. It takes conscious effort to refrain from repeating past mistakes, which leaves us susceptible to our old desires in moments of weakness, hunger, anger, or exhaustion. Though our profession of faith in Jesus Christ makes us a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:16) in spirit, our body’s fallen nature continues to resist our new moral standard. What should believers do to overcome the behaviors their Christian walk can no longer accommodate? 

If believers are still stuck on their old priorities, they must rely on a community to guide them to a new way of life. All believers must pull our social average up by replacing the closest influences in our lives with those affirming biblical truth. The importance of our community validates the importance of the church. All believers, especially new ones, must be surrounded by love, accountability, and support. Left to our own devices, we become easy prey to doubt, temptation, or possession, as Jesus warns in Matthew 12:44. 

Therefore, we must consider our old acquaintances, habits, and identities as lost to us. It is common for us to consider leaving behind bad influences, and we may hope to be free of addictions and selfish desires. Yet, Christian conversion requires us to reassess even those items that may seem “good” through the lens of Jesus. The Apostle Paul is an excellent example to follow. 

Paul recounts his life before faith in Christ as, “If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more.” (Philippians 3:4, NIV) He lists his Judaic accomplishments in detail. He was a young, promising, rigid Jewish leader. He pursued the imprisonment and deaths of the followers of Jesus (Acts 8) until his miraculous conversion (Acts 9). Remember that Paul still had faith in the same God of Abraham, but he was not living with a Christian worldview. When Jesus entered his life, however, everything changed.

Paul left behind his training, identity, and career for the sake of Jesus’ gospel. Even his traditions and studies had to be put away and reframed after he accepted Christ. His life–as he knew it, as he prepared it, as he envisioned it–was over. As a result of his total abandonment of everything pre-Christ, he became the single greatest missionary in history, spreading the gospel across Macedonia and central Europe. His subsequent letters make up a large portion of the New Testament, and his impact continues to change lives every day.

Earlier in Philippians, Paul warns his church against “those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh.” (Philippians 3:2, NIV) Paul is referring to religious teachers falsely mandating the observance of circumcision for believers in the Way–or first-century Christianity. He labels these Jews, who continued to follow what he, himself, previously practiced, as “mutilators.” The revelation of the new covenant of Christ nullifies everything Paul used to hold sacred to such a degree that he now condemns what he once condoned. Imagine Paul’s susceptibility in modern “cancel culture;” an ignorant assessment would label Paul a hypocrite. Instead, Paul’s about-face further validates his testimony of a life-changing encounter with Jesus.

Paul is critical of the former “righteous” religious rites that fall outside his Christian faith. Similar ideologies for modern believers may include their habits, hobbies, politics, social stances, career, or even their family and friends. If they do not align with the life God calls us to, then they must be severed from us, as Jesus instructs in Matthew 12:46. Christianity brings total life transformation, not comfortable improvement. In fact, such drastic change is often uncomfortable and requires a network of support–a church–to help us through. We need other believers to pull us away from our worldly past. New believers must trust their newfound church community to pull them out of the sins that bind them.

Secularists may label this as indoctrination. Indoctrination is a form of manipulation against the well-being of the convinced through imposed authority. Christianity should differ from indoctrination by our insistence on personal study of the Holy Bible and relationship with Jesus. It’s true there is little time for new believers to study the biblical text before they lose spiritual motivation, and the church can be the intermediate proxy to instruct them on Christian lifestyles and best practices. However, if the Christian stays wholly dependent on others’ spiritual study, he won’t experience growth–that is, indeed, a form of indoctrination. It is then of utmost importance for the church to model not only new physical behaviors of decency and holiness, but also the spiritual disciplines of study and prayer so that the believer may walk in those just as confidently.

In teaching others a crash course of Christian behaviors, the church sets a standard that a new believer should willingly accept in the early days of faith. Christianity implores its readers to go to the inspired source more than their fallen leadership (Galatians 1:8). Christians should invite questions, apologetics, and interpretations to sharpen each other towards the image of Christ (Proverbs 27:17).

Believers must lean on their church community because true faith cannot survive alongside routine sin; we cannot serve two masters at once (Matthew 6:24). As consumption and selfishness reign in culture, believers must relinquish their control and offer it to their church–at first–and then to Jesus. This only comes through reading Scripture and prayer. The newly faithful cannot survive without the church, and the church will not survive without the newly faithful adding to its ranks; this is the perpetual nature of the Great Commission.

Paul left everything behind for Christ. Jesus called His disciples to forsake all they had for the kingdom of God (Matthew 19:21). Similarly, the new believer’s only hope for a newfound life in Christ is to let go of old habits to pursue a new life in Godly community. New believers must trust their church to guide them in the early days of faith. The church must be ready to receive these spiritual infants, dying to themselves to help the fledging believer grow. 

Is the church ready for this active responsibility? Are you ready to leave the world behind? It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s worth it.

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