“26 Though the king was deeply distressed, because of his oaths and the guests he did not want to refuse her. 27 The king immediately sent for an executioner and commanded him to bring John’s head. So he went and beheaded him in prison, 28 brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. 29 When his disciples heard about it, they came and removed his corpse and placed it in a tomb.”
Mark 6:26-29
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Herod was deeply distressed about fulfilling this promise, as he should have been. He had allowed his foolishly spoken, probably alcohol riddled, words to become something he never intended. Was the girl taking advantage? Yes. Could Herod have stopped this from running through to its conclusion? Yes. But pride, and a few other sins, joined forces here to create a situation that quickly overpowered him.

The book of Proverbs is full of helpful advice and direction that would have prevented this situation, and Herod had just as much access to it then as we do now. But when life is all about you and pleasing yourself, you rarely look to the Scriptures or anything else that might convict you. Instead, you do as Herod did, you surround yourself with people who are going to affirm your bad life choices and encourage a deeper disobedience in you.

Obviously, there were no religious advisers there that day, no one to help guide his heart. When we surround ourselves with people who will encourage the worst in us, we cannot expect anything but the worst to come out of us and our lives. Do not be misled, bad company corrupts good character. And greedy company can corrupt already bad character into something worse. Drama rules the day and regret becomes a constant companion.

If we are going to GoLove as Christ commissioned us to do, we must be aware of our surroundings, the influences on our character and the elements in our environment that all contribute toward the development or disabling of our character and we have to be brutally honest about them all and about ourselves. Humility and a desire to see God glorified in us are absolutely necessary to see change come about. We need to surround ourselves with people and influences that honor God above self and holiness above hedonism.