Transgression has been compared to intentionally running a stop sign. The law of the stop sign is unambiguous. Stop means stop. But the decision is made to ignore the law and hush the conscience in order to do what is clearly a violation of the law. What this passage establishes is that justifying transgressions is made much easier when many are participating in the transgression. When popular opinion celebrates and gives permission to transgress, transgression becomes more palatable and even defended as right. Whether the multitude is a small group of friends or the larger shifting of public opinion, the pressure increases when transgressors are multiplied. But this verse is also a call to maintain faithful, even solitary, obedience to God. The stop sign exists for a good reason. Eventually, there will be a devastating crash. And those who maintain faithful obedience will be witnesses, but not victims, of the crash.