What happens if you keep running with people of no integrity?
If you keep running with people of no integrity, you will become like them. Their attitudes and behavior rub off on you, and you cannot help it. Continued association shapes your character. As the saying goes, if you run with skunks, you will smell like them.
Les teaches that the same principle that applies to a church and its leadership also applies to everyday intercourse with people: we are going to be like the people with whom we spend our most time. He specifically says that if we run with people off color in their behavior, with people of no integrity, or with people who have no compunction about things right and wrong, we are going to get like them. It rubs off, and you just cannot help it. He illustrates this with an Iowa politician’s cliché: “if you’re going to run with skunks, you’re going to smell like them,” and says that is exactly the picture with all of our activity.