Proverbs 13:20 (NLT2)
20 Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble.

The bible’s definition of a fool is not a mentally deficient person, but rather one arrogant and self-sufficient, one who orders his life as if there were no God.
Webster’s 1913 dictionary defines association as the union of persons in a company or society for some particular purpose.
Millions of people are brought to ruin by bad company and everyone that makes themselves wicked will be destroyed.
1 Thessalonians calls us children of light and day, not children of darkness or night, that begin the case, it must be reflected in who we associate with. There is no relationship between good and evil, wrong, and right or light and darkness, one always consumes the other and no matter how strong we think we are to not be consumed, remember Paul telling us not to be deceived in that assumption- if we are in bad company, we can become corrupted according to 1 Corinthians 15:33.
When we run with the wrong crowd, we tend to blend in by doing whatever goes, foolishness and evil is as influential as good and wisdom.
The ground opened and swallowed many of the Israelites because they associated with Korah against the Lord and Moses. They allowed Korah’s corrupting influence to turn them against God in Numbers 16.
When we join with people who do not have the same principles we do, we end up with conflicts of interest.
Jehoshaphat, a godly king would have perished before his time if he had joined himself with the pagan kings to go against Moab if God had not intervened, an associating with kings that were forbidden by the Lord in 2 Kings 3.
Exodus 23:2 tells us not to follow the crowd in doing wrong, that’s exactly what crowds do, give some people false courage, opportunity and means to do wrong, individuality is to be guarded fiercely because God does not call and use crowds but individuals to carry the crowd.
Apostle Paul, even in his hay days of terrorising Christians, still did not associate with the crowd but followed his own path until his call to pull the crowd for Christ.
According to psalm 26:4 avoiding the wicked and their purposes is important if we are to cleave to God in pure worship.
Paul warns us of the kind of people, even if they are Christians in 1 Corinthians 5:11, not to associate with, he admonishes us not to keep company with such as found in the world when we meet them in the church.
A corrupt company influences a lot of people, irrespective of their sectors, once we associate ourselves with the wrong crowd, we begin to sympathise, identify, and understand their causes without realizing that conflict has set in between them and the God standard or principles we were meant to live by.
They say evil communications corrupt good manners!
Avoid the society of those who cannot teach you anything good or positive according to Proverbs 14:7. We must mix and associate with people who will enhance, sharpen and encourage us and not those who have no idea of the weight of our calling and anointing and could damage us and stop us from fulfilling our destinies. Associate with the right people.
Shalom