"You turn justice upside down, and you throw on the ground what is right." (NCV)
Things are crazy in America these days. There are so many changes in our culture and I am constantly hearing about or reading about how right is becoming wrong and wrong is becoming right.
Well, it’s true. There’s no getting around it. There is more concern for criminals than victims. There is more concern for sexual rights than for the lives created through sexual relationships. Children want to be bad in order to be respected. The list goes on and on.
The problem with all this is that the Church has fallen with the culture, perhaps even before the culture. And so we criticize those without (the unsaved) while we continue to accept the sins from within (the saved). That in itself is backwards. Paul was very clear in Romans that those who are unsaved are simply acting according to their natures, the natures to which they are enslaved.
"Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness" (Romans 6:16-18 NKJV).
A slave has no choices. A slave must do what the master says. Prior to salvation, people are slaves to sin. When they do sinful things, they are doing what their sinful nature commands that they do. They can’t do otherwise! Even when they do what appears to be right (or righteous), it is still sinful because it is done with the wrong intentions. Only the Holy Spirit can "clean" someone up and first must come salvation.
We seem to spend a lot of time and energy on trying to "clean up" the unsaved around us. We would be much more comfortable if they adopted a culture that emulated righteousness, even if they themselves weren’t righteous. This entire thought process is backward! First, we should be concerned with saving the unsaved, not somehow dressing them in a "Christian" culture. And second, any cleaning up process that occurs should and must happen within the Church! And boy, do we need cleaning up!
When Amos wrote God’s prophesy, God was speaking to His people, not to the Gentiles who lived around them. It was God’s people who had turned justice upside down and thrown what was right on the ground. It is the same today. We live in a Church that would rather throw a party than pray, rather divorce and remarry than submit to each other, rather look for villains without than deal with the demons within, rather leave in a huff than confess sin, rather spend money than meet the needs of others, rather practice "tough love" instead of sacrificing indulgence. And on every point, we are wrong.
The problem in America isn’t about villains or the other guy or some group’s agenda. The problem is America is with us, the Church. We have stopped being what Christ intended for us to be:
"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they slight a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:13-16 NKJV).
We are supposed to be the light of the world. And Jesus ends this teaching with "Let your light so shine before me that they may see your good works."
Where are our good works? Often Christians excuse their bad behavior with "Well, I’m just a sinner like everyone else except I’m forgiven." We have so diluted what it means to be saved that the world truly believes that we have embraced sin. Here is a cartoon I copied from an atheist website:
(Cartoon from http://www.thinkatheist.com/photo/forgiveness-1)
Most unbelievers are convinced that we take sin lightly. That we believe we can do anything we want and "poof" we get into heaven by just saying a few words. That is a terrible commentary on the life of the Church, but we deserve it because we have turned our judgment onto those outside rather than learning to judge ourselves (and judge ourselves aggressively). We are no longer the salt of the earth or the light on the hill. We are the nuisance that everyone would like to see gone!
If we are ever to become a spiritual force again on this earth, we need to get back to the basics. We need to repent of all those things that have kept us from God. We need to focus our attention, our energy, and our resources on the things that please Him rather than hoping He’s pleased with us simply because we showed up for an hour on Sunday. We need to get brutal with ourselves in confession, repentance, and restoration. We need to get on our knees and pray and pray and pray until the Holy Spirit begins to shine again through us. Until that day comes, we will continue to be the people that Amos condemned.
© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.
For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com
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