It sounds like two things are going on in this question.  First, there is a sin. You are “tempted” to do something wrong.  Added to that is the pressure your peers are putting on you to do this thing that is wrong.  Let’s deal with these two things separately.

    First, let’s deal with the peer pressure.  I realize that you can’t always escape peer pressure.  Sometimes you find yourself in a situation that you couldn’t or didn’t plan for.  However, you can plan in some ways how you will deal with peer pressure.  One question I would ask is, “Why do you surround yourself with people who are tempting you to do wrong?”  If there is a particular sin that you are struggling with, why would you hang out with people who tend to lead you towards that sin?

Psalm 1:1 says,

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked

or stand in the way of sinners

or sit in the seat of mockers.

If you notice, there is a progression in this verse.  First, your are walking with the wicked, then standing with them, and finally you are sitting with them.  As you hang out with people who don’t love Christ or have any interest in obeying God’s word, they will have an influence on you.  It might be necessary to break off those relationships if they are leading you away from Christ.  This would also relate directly to a dating relationship.  If a Christian girl or boy is dating a non-Christian, or even a “supposed” Christian, that is trying to pressure them into some sin, you need to break off that source of temptation and flee as Joseph did! (read Genesis 39) We sometimes act “tough” thinking we can hang out with this or that group or this or that person and not give in to the temptations. The truth is that you don’t really understand how weak you are.  You are too confident in yourself.  Satan loves it when Christians think they can put themselves in tempting situations and always walk away without giving in.  How long do you think a person going on a diet would last if they filled all their cabinets with junk food and sweets?  It is not wise to keep these sources of temptation always around you. 

    But I can hear someone ask, “But aren't we to have relationships with unbelievers so that we can share Christ with them?”  I have many relationships with unbelievers and we are to be a witness to them, but there are different levels of relationships. You don’t want the people who you spend the most time with, those you are closest to, to be constantly leading you away from Christ and not towards Him.  We should be building close relationships with those who will draw us towards Christ and righteous living, not the opposite.  We also have to be careful that this is not an excuse to keep us from having to take drastic actions in fighting against sin.  Sometimes we will use the “witnessing” excuse so we can still have the friendships and reputation that we want.  All the while, we know that we don’t really share our faith much with them.  So we need to make sure that we are being real with ourselves. The first thing we need to do is get those things out of our lives that are sources of temptation.

The next question is how do I deal with the temptation itself.  That question I will answer another day.

-mark