What happens if you keep company with dishonest people?
You will become like them. A person takes on the character of those he spends the most time with. Running with people of no integrity or moral compunction causes their ways to rub off, just as running with skunks leaves you smelling like them.
Les explains that this principle applies to everyday intercourse with people: we are going to be like the people with whom we spend our most time. He illustrates it with a politician from Iowa who often spoke in churches and had a favorite cliche: if you are going to run with skunks, you are going to smell like them. Les says that is exactly the picture with all our activity. If we run with people who are off color in their behavior, people of no integrity, or people who have no compunction about things right and wrong, we are going to get like them. He adds that you just cannot help it—it rubs off. This same principle also applies to church leadership, because a church will rise no higher than its leadership.