Albert Barnes Commentary 1 Corinthians 15:33

"Be not deceived: Evil companionships corrupt good morals." — 1 Corinthians 15:33 (ASV)

Be not deceived. By your false teachers, and by their smooth and plausible arguments. This is an exhortation. He had up to this point been engaged in an argument on the subject. He now entreats them to be careful not to be deceived—a danger to which they were very susceptible given their circumstances. There was, undoubtedly, much that was plausible in the objections to the doctrine of the resurrection; there was much subtlety and art in their teachers, who denied this doctrine; perhaps there was something in the character of their own minds, accustomed to subtle and abstruse inquiry rather than to an examination of simple facts, that exposed them to this danger.

Evil communications. The word translated as "communications" properly means being together, companionship, close intercourse, or conversation. It refers not to discourse only, but to intercourse or companionship. Paul quotes these words from Menander (in Sentent. Comicor. Gr. p. 248, ed. Steph.), a Greek poet. He thus shows that he was, to some degree at least, familiar with Greek writers. (See the notes on Acts 17:28).

Menander was a celebrated comic poet of Athens, educated under Theophrastus. His writings were full of elegance, refined wit, and wise observations. Of one hundred and eight comedies which he wrote, nothing remains but a few fragments. He is said to have drowned himself in the fifty-second year of his age, B.C. 293, because the compositions of his rival, Philemon, obtained more applause than his own. Paul quoted this sentiment from a Greek poet, perhaps, because it might be supposed to have weight with the Greeks. It was a sentiment of one of their own writers, and here was an occasion in which it was exactly applicable.

It is implied in this that there were some persons who were endeavoring to corrupt their minds from the simplicity of the gospel. The sentiment of the passage is that the intercourse of evil-minded men, or the close friendship and conversation of those who hold erroneous opinions or who are impure in their lives, tends to corrupt the morals, the heart, and the sentiments of others.

The particular thing to which Paul here applies it is the subject of the resurrection. Such intercourse would tend to corrupt the simplicity of their faith, pervert their views of the truth of the gospel, and thus corrupt their lives. It is always true that such intercourse has a pernicious effect on the mind and the heart. This happens in these ways:

1. by their direct effort to corrupt the opinions and to lead others into sin.
2. by the secret, silent influence of their words, conversation, and example. We have less horror of vice when we become familiar with it; we look with less alarm at error when we hear it often expressed; we become less watchful and cautious when we are constantly with the gay, the worldly, the unprincipled, and the vicious. Therefore, Christ desired that there should be a pure society, and that His people should primarily seek the friendship and conversation of each other and withdraw from the world. It is in the way that Paul here refers to that Christians embrace false doctrines; that they lose their spirituality, love of prayer, fervor of piety, and devotion to God. It is in this way that the simple are misled, the young corrupted, and that vice, crime, and infidelity spread throughout the world.