Besides regularly overestimating our own innate goodness, we also often think more highly of the goodness of others than we should. Or, we mistakenly overvalue our ability to positively influence those we deem as less good than ourselves.
Unfortunately, moral influence normally follows the path of lower, not higher, values. We who thought of ourselves as good people move imperceptibly toward the lesser standards of those with whom we associate. It happens slowly and unintentionally.
Paul offered good advice on this:
“Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened.
“...I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler...” (1st Corinthians 5.6-7, 11).
