August 27, 2015
Exposure
As the Ashley Madison
adultery list of names is published the tentacles of sin can be seen reaching
into the church. The reaction form many believers may be to wring their hands,
others will dwell on the hypocrisy, and still others will formulate a biblical
response and work toward forgiveness and restoring the offenders to spiritual
health. However, looking at the big picture we would be remiss if we failed to
praise God for this exposure of sin and the repentance that will follow. “Have
nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose
them. For it is shameful even to mention what the
disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the
light becomes visible, for it is light that makes
everything visible” (Eph 5:11-14a NIV).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----I wonder what the rest of the array of hypocrisy would look like if it could likewise be exposed. We are not to associate or even eat with anyone calling himself a brother in the Lord but who is greedy or abusive. With the covetous and extortioners they will miss the kingdom of God. Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, malice, and evil speech we are to push away for tenderhearted kindness, forgiveness, gentleness, patience, and self control, outdoing one another in showing honor, loving one another sincerely from the heart. We see the former put away and the latter happen in our worship services. But the rest of our meetings are not so spiffy. And just wait until we get home! That’s where the cloak comes off. That’s where secret bitterness stirs up strife, children are provoked to wrath by parents, anger wafts around the rooms like a bad gasser extracting malicious clamour from whomever walks into its cloudy spell. Moreover, we worship a God of truth, Who told us death entered the world through sin, although most in the church believe death shaped all life out of a slime hole billions of years before man ever existed. We make such a liar out of God by poking His Flood in His eye and His Creation up His nose so we can worship sane conformity with science. After all, you’ve got to believe what you see.
-----The Scottish Moralists were pretty bright. They were not only the first to lay down a theory of social psychology, but their theory has become elemental to all other social psychological theories. And well it should; its basic principle is readily observable. People are social beings needing company of others, therefore, they observe the reactions of others to behaviors and variously conform. You are right. There will be a whole lot of repenting going on now that Ashley Madison’s egg has been cracked and dumped onto the griddle. But that merely exposes another abject failure universally spread through the church. None of Ashley Madison’s 39,000,000 would have displayed any repentance had somebody not yanked down the website’s pants.
-----Being seen by men evokes a stronger response than being seen by God. I know we vary in our responses. But that variance is in degree more than category. Many who call themselves by the Lord’s name battle hard to keep their robes washed and clean. But every one of us has a latitude inside below which dwells sinfulness given winks. “Let God be true though all men be false.” (Rom 3:4) Somehow, knowing this excuses for us that “lower level” of sin because salvation is by grace, not by works. So we know we are forgiven even though the Savior we count on, the Truth we worship, said, “…his lord delivered him to the jailers, till he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” (Matt 18:34-35) Yet, even knowing this, one of our more common expressions around the church is, “I’m just not ready to forgive yet.”
-----If there were any such thing as a less dangerous sin, I would choose the Ashley Madison thing over the not being able to forgive thing. The truth is, if the desire to be righteous is not in the heart, there is no relationship with the Lord. We are not saved just because we don’t want to go to Hell. We’re saved because we want Him. And He is righteousness. Yet we are sinful. I have no doubt that some of Ashley Madison’s 39,000,000 were as pained in their hearts about being there as most of the rest of us are pained in our hearts about not being ready to forgive.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Post a Comment