“I will make boys their princes,
and infants shall rule over them.
And the people will oppress one another,
every one his fellow
and every one his neighbor;
the youth will be insolent to the elder,
and the despised to the honorable.
“The look on their faces bears witness against them;
they proclaim their sin like Sodom;
they do not hide it.
Woe to them!
For they have brought evil on themselves.
Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them,
for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.
Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,
for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.
My people—infants are their oppressors,
and women rule over them.
O my people, your guides mislead you
and they have swallowed up the course of your paths.” [1]
Years ago, I would read the verses of our text, quietly consoling myself that nothing like this had happened in my lifetime. I was confident that though culture might appear to be growing dark at times, it would never progress to even approximate what Isaiah described as prevailing in Israel in that ancient day. I now confess that I was naïve; I was woefully ignorant of the darkness reigning within the hearts of those with whom I shared this life. I could not have believed the depths of evil that could be tolerated by the people among whom I lived. Moreover, I could never have imagined that the people of God would ever remain silent, refusing to speak their dissent as the world in which they lived disintegrated before their eyes.
I know some imagine that I am overly negative concerning contemporary culture. However, I confess that I am alarmed at what I witness today. And I am deeply disturbed that more of us who are appointed to declare the message of God are not vocal in warning those who hear us of the consequences of the choices we are making as a society. Prophetic preaching is almost absent from the pulpit today. I am glad that there are some preachers who still sound out the warning and point out the old paths which followers of the Saviour are expected to walk. However, preachers who dare speak against the wickedness that insinuates itself into the fabric of the Faith and bores into the foundations seem increasingly rare, and those who do speak find that society seeks to silence them.
Reacting much as did the inhabitants of Judah when Jeremiah warned them of God’s pending judgement, many people in this day reject the Word of the Lord, saying, “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you” [JEREMIAH 44:16]. Inhabitants of this darkened land are intent on making their own reality, ignoring the disaster that now bears down on them.
Among too many churches I have witnessed those who purport to be leaders as they whinged and whined that they did not want to hear anything negative from the preacher. They wanted to be affirmed in the easy life they had created for themselves. The attitudes displayed by those living within modern culture remind me of the response of those to whom Isaiah prophesied. Isaiah exposes their response, saying,
“They are a rebellious people,
lying children,
children unwilling to hear
the instruction of the LORD;
who say to the seers, ‘Do not see,’
and to the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things,
prophesy illusions,
leave the way, turn aside from the path,
let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.’”
[ISAIAH 30:9-11]
It is true that politics are downstream of culture. Politics do not dictate what culture will be, but politics do reflect what culture has permitted. Thus, the preacher who inveighs against the politician who implements laws that oppose righteousness is attacking at the wrong point. The battle is already lost when the fight must be directed against political action. Long before a law is passed or a decree issued, the culture has already ceded the field on morality. Worse still is the fact that rather than the churches influencing society toward righteousness, society influences the churches.
Canadian population is dependent upon immigration to provide tax payers to fund the social programs to which we have become addicted. [2] Our society is no longer reproducing at a rate which will ensure a future population of Canadians as we think of citizens today. Canada as we know it is dying. If this information is not sufficiently disturbing, consider that children in Canadian schools are being indoctrinated into euthanasia. [3] Your children are quite possibly being conditioned to actively plan your demise if your care becomes a burden to them or to the state!
CULTURAL CONDITIONS IN ISRAEL WHEN ISAIAH PROPHESIED —
“I will make boys their princes,
and infants shall rule over them.
And the people will oppress one another,
every one his fellow
and every one his neighbor;
the youth will be insolent to the elder,
and the despised to the honorable.
“The look on their faces bears witness against them;
they proclaim their sin like Sodom;
they do not hide it.
Woe to them!
For they have brought evil on themselves.
Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them,
for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.
Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,
for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.
My people—infants are their oppressors,
and women rule over them.
O my people, your guides mislead you
and they have swallowed up the course of your paths.”
[ISAIAH 3:4-5, 9-12]
Isaiah served at a point in history when Israel was facing what can only be said to be difficult days. It was a time when leadership was reduced to infantile decisions that jeopardised the people. The king and the princes, leaders who should have provided wise rule for the land, acted more like petty toddlers than they acted like mature leaders. They were more concerned with padding their own nest than they were with ensuring stability in the land. Consequently, people were taking their lead from the rulers of the land; thus they had ceased being neighbourly as each one sought to oppress their neighbours. Youth acted arrogantly, exalting themselves while despising the wisdom accumulated throughout the long ages past. Those foolish enough to try to cling to the wisdom of the fathers were despised and ridiculed. Pride and arrogance marked society as people justified their sinful actions, refusing to conform to the morality of days past.
When Isaiah states that infants are oppressors of the people and that women rule over them, he is pointing out that the zeal of youth was no longer tempered with respect for the wisdom of the aged. People wanted what they wanted, and the concept of beginning small and working to attain a goal in the future had been discarded. The concept of patiently accumulating goods against the future had been jettisoned in order to have it all now. When the Prophet says that women rule over them, he is stressing that the natural order had been turned upside down, and emotions prevailed over reason. The concept of diversity as strength appeared to have a foothold in that day. Meritocracy was rejected as those in authority were assured that they had found a better way to rule!
Does any of this sound familiar? Maybe the cultural conditions we face today are not so new after all. Perhaps the attitudes of contemporary society mirror ancient societies more than we realise. Perhaps there is a flaw in the concept of society that manifests itself in some cyclic rhythm. Perhaps we aren’t as different from those living millennia past after all. Perhaps the human condition is corrupt and incapable of being restored to what it was at the beginning. God did not create the world to be degraded and debased; God created a world that He pronounced to be “very good” [see GENESIS 1:31].
From time-to-time Christians will grow discouraged as they struggle to be righteous, as they pray for God to turn society around, as they plead with the fallen of this broken world to receive the message of life. In our discouragement we are prone to imagine that things have never been as bad as we are facing. It is good to look back and realise that fallen people have always held the upper hand. God intervenes on occasion to revive His people and to renew His work, and the faithful reveal His presence and power.
Do you recall the oracle that Habakkuk presented? It is included as one of the Books of the Minor Prophets. Habakkuk raised this very complaint to God:
“How long, LORD, must I cry for help?
But you do not listen!
I call out to you, ‘Violence!’
But you do not intervene!
Why do you force me to witness injustice?
Why do you put up with wrongdoing?
Destruction and violence confront me;
conflict is present and one must endure strife.
For this reason the law lacks power,
and justice is never carried out.
Indeed, the wicked intimidate the innocent.
For this reason justice is perverted.”
[HABAKKUK 1:2-4 NET BIBLE]
Before the Christ ever walked the dusty trails of Judea, before the establishment of the Faith was ever a possibility, evil reigned over the land of Israel. And the few righteous within the land were distraught, despondent, doubtful that anything would be done. Despite the reputation for worshipping the Living God, wickedness was the condition that defined the land of Israel. This evil condition prompted Habakkuk’s woeful cry.
How did God answer His prophet? As you read the remainder of that first chapter of the Book of Habakkuk, you discover that God was already at work. But the answer God was about to give was not what the prophet could have wished. In fact, the LORD’s answer horrified the prophet.
“Look at the nations and pay attention!
You will be shocked and amazed!
For I will do something in your lifetime
that you will not believe even though you are forewarned.
Look, I am about to empower the Babylonians.”
[HABAKKUK 1:5 NET BIBLE
God informed the Prophet that He was even then raising up the Chaldeans, a people who would be noted for their violence and rapacious nature. These brutal warriors would sweep across the land, devastating and despoiling all in their path.
We cry out to God to judge the wickedness that has settled over the land as if it was a sort of dark miasma; but we must remember that it is the Living God Who judges nations, not us! God doesn’t just slap the hands of those cultures that have fallen into sin. God judges sin, and though His judgement is just, it is demanding, devastating. I don’t wish divine judgement to fall on any culture; nevertheless, I fear that the judgement of God is surely coming on the west. And when it comes, it will be devastating.
I know that good people, even people who may not be followers of Christ, but people who know right from wrong and long for the stability that accompanies the reign of good, are distressed by the imposition of wickedness that we now witness. I know that among the righteous there is a tendency to want to pray for God to judge the nation. I want to caution you against pleading for God to rain down judgement on the evil that now permeates our nation. Instead of responding with choler at the downward plunge of the nation, I urge you to seek God’s glory. To be sure, God is glorified in judgement; but how much greater is His glory when grace is revealed in the salvation of souls. I urge you as followers of the Risen Lord of Glory to pray for God’s mercy, asking that He will now redeem people even from among those that are destroying all that is good.
When Israel was at the nadir of righteousness, God sent a prophet. I recommend that we should be looking for the prophetic voice in this day. Surely we are at, or we are at least nearing the nadir of righteousness in this day. Under such conditions, we should anticipate that the Lord will ensure that the prophetic voice is again heard in the land. What are we looking for? How will we recognise the prophetic voice? When God sends His prophet, sin will be identified as sinful beyond measure [see ROMANS 7:13]. This was assuredly the case when God sent Isaiah to warn Israel of the consequences of their sinful choices. And He will send those with a prophetic message to us even in this day.
WHY GOD SENT HIS PROPHET —
“Woe to them!
For they have brought evil on themselves.
Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them,
for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.
Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,
for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.”
[ISAIAH 3:9b-11]
Contrary to what sometimes appears to be a popular caricature in this day, our Lord is not heartless. While ignorant people seemingly imagine God to be a distant deity who is always looking for an opportunity to strike down anyone who is having fun, God is very present and always graciously seeking our good. The Lord does not simply strike out blindly in an effort to smash down the rebellious person. Always and ever God warns of what He must do, calling the wicked to turn from their evil way. Surely that is evident as we hear the voice of the Spirit speaking through Peter instructing us in his second letter.
The Apostle to the Jews has written, “You should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” [2 PETER 3:2-10].
Speaking for the Lord GOD, the prophet of God points out the sin of the nation, or the sin of the individual, as very sinful. What was kept in the dark is suddenly exposed to the light, and the sin can no longer be hidden. Recall how Jesus warned, “Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops” [LUKE 12:2-3].
Indeed, the prophet of God speaks explicitly, and that which awaits the ultimate exposure is made manifest now. Don’t you recall how Jesus has told us, “Nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light” [LUKE 8:17].
When a culture is self-destructing, God does not ignore that culture. He will send a prophet to warn that culture of the consequences of their sinful actions. There will always be a prophet. The prophet may not be well-known, and he may not be polished in dress and manners, but he will speak on behalf of the Living God. If that society hears him and heeds the message he delivers, God may delay judgement, just as He delayed judgement upon Nineveh when Jonah delivered the message of the Lord GOD. If the cultures is so far gone that it will not receive the message God sends, then there is nothing left for them except to say, “Prepare to meet your God” [see AMOS 4:12]!
Even if the prophet is reluctant to obey, God will ensure that His message is delivered to that culture that is self-destructing. There was no redeeming value in Nineveh when God commanded Jonah to go to the city to declare their offence against Heaven and the judgement that was about to be unleashed. And though the Prophet had no desire to obey in this instance, fleeing from service instead of hastening to obey, the Lord GOD was prepared to compel his obedience.
After a wild ride in the gullet of a great fish, Jonah was vomited onto dry land. And he then went into the city of Nineveh, and began to declare the LORD’s message. It was a simple message. Only five words in that original tongue, 'Ôd arabaîm w yôm nîn?we nehpaket; “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” When God sends a prophet, His power is unleashed and things begin to happen. The same holds to this day.
I pause for a moment to acknowledge that some will say that they have never witnessed such a thing happening. Well, is it because of our disobedience? Is it possible that the Lord has called and His people are disobedient. If we have not witnessed the power of God unleashed in our day and in the midst of our own wicked culture, is it because the people of God are so taken with the culture in which they are now found that they are not accepting the appointment that God is giving?
The message of the prophet will comfort the godly, and though it may be dismissed by the wicked, they will know that a prophet has been among them. It should be terrifying for any culture when God speaks as He did through Ezekiel. “[The LORD] said to me, ‘Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.’ And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. And he said to me, ‘Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord GOD.” And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them’” [EZEKIEL 2:1-5].
The Apostle Paul wrote the Letter to the Romans while he was in Corinth. Looking out on that city, thinking of the moral condition of Rome itself, in the opening chapter of that missive the Apostle pointedly wrote of the devolution of culture. He wrote, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, because what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.
“Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
“For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
“And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless. Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them” [ROMANS 1:18-32 NET BIBLE].
I can remember when it was considered unseemly to read that passage aloud from the pulpit. However, it sounds as if what is written is taken from the pages of any Canadian news site. I fear that our culture is under divine judgement and we are too obtuse to realise what is taking place. What is shocking is how rapidly matters have moved. In my lifetime, in the days of my children, culture has moved from a somewhat stable foundation to a state of dissolution.
Speaking with a woman in recent days, she told me that she had not been raised in a Christian home. However, she recognised that she benefitted from the leavening effect of the Faith of Christ in Canadian society. She was not claiming that Canada was a Christian nation, but she did recognise that Canada has moral foundations that were immediately traceable to the Faith of Christ the Lord. This woman is not a practising Christian today, but she is deeply concerned for the moral welfare of her children because of the world in which they are growing to adulthood.
She spoke of her concern for her children, questioning what could be done to stop the maddened plunge into dissipation that is now ongoing in contemporary Canadian culture. She mentioned specific markers that have become well-known through news reports and incidents in the schools in our own community that point to the loss of moral certitude in our society.
I spoke of my doubt that culture could recover and that the sole hope would be that the churches would again act as salt and as light. If the churches fail in this responsibility, how can there be a reversal of what is now taking place in western society. As I spoke with this woman, I recalled the occasion when Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn spoke as he received the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion on May 10, 1983.
In that address, Solzhenitsyn said, “More than half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: ‘Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.’” [4] Surely, what we witness now, with the concomitant loss of freedoms and the inability to even think rationally, is the result of men having forgotten God.
HOW A CULTURE DIES — It is an exceptionally rare event that cultures die in some great cataclysmic event. Even a casual review of history demonstrates this to be the case. Perhaps a few civilisations, such as the Aztec Empire, might be overthrown in a relatively brief period of time. A small band of explorers, led by Hernan Cortés, allied with resentful and restive people that had long been subjugated by the Aztecs overthrew the political/religious leaders in a matter of days, ensuring the destruction of the Empire. Or possibly we could point to the Assyrian Empire which was destroyed rather quickly. However, for the most of history, empires fade away as they are weakened from within.
As an example of the verity of that assessment, consider the Roman Empire. Historians debate the appropriate date for the fall of the Roman Empire. Many have settled on the date as 476 AD, but really, the Empire continued for some time after that date. The Empire had been sliding into decay for centuries, before the Germanic leader Odoacer staged a revolt that deposed the Emperor Romulus Augustulus. After this, no Roman emperor would ever again rule from a post in Italy.
Similarly, the British Empire slipped into ruin gradually over an extended period of time. There was not one date when the people of Britain awakened and cried out, “Alas, we’ve fallen.” And though France, or Germany, or Portugal were once colonising powers, no one sees them as great powers that hold sway over the world today. Each has faded gradually from former glory. Russia may have once held hegemony over eastern Europe, and China may imagine that they are destined to be a great power, but just as the Third Reich fell in relatively short time, so those jockeying for power today will collapse one day in an ignominious crash. In a similar fashion, the American experiment won’t likely collapse in one great cataclysmic crash on some given date. Historians will look back, if Christ tarries, to conclude that the experiment was failing for decades as the people became increasingly dependent upon government to provide for them, eschewing the American trait of self-reliance and personal initiative to better the nation. Scholars will look back to conclude that Americans lost the vision of a better nation, exchanging that vision for the immediate benefit of personal comfort, ease of life.
Years ago, a Russian immigrant to the United States wrote a seminal book which is studied to this day. In that book, Ayn Rand included a conversation that identified when a culture dies. Listen to what she wrote so many years ago. “When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion—when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing—when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors—when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you—when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice—you may know that your society is doomed.” [5] How prescient and how applicable in light of this message! She accurately prophesied conditions that we witness in our society in this day!
Western culture is dead. Oh, I suspect that the trappings of western culture will persist for years to come. However, the decline appears to have already begun, and the trajectory will move downward from this point. We may see wise individuals elected or appointed to lead the nations at various times, but the general direction appears to have been set and the populace seems adamant in demanding that they want things as they are.
We will witness totalitarian states ascend in power and influence over the course of the coming years. This rise in malign states will occur in great measure because states that could resist by demonstrating righteous tenets and the implementation of wise policy will have surrendered the field to the wicked. It is not so much a contest between capitalism and socialism/communism as it is a contest between righteousness and evil. When the western powers, those nation states that self-identify today as capitalistic economies, have jettisoned their godly heritage while embracing every imaginable form of perversion, what is left for them except to shrivel and die?
Long years past, the Lord charged His people with an awful sin. God charged,
“They sow the wind,
and they shall reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no heads;
it shall yield no flour.”
[HOSEA 8:7a]
What was true of God’s ancient people stands true for the whole of western culture, for the nations of the west. And that includes Canada. We have forsaken God while revelling in that which is wicked. There is an awful price to pay for the choices we have made. If Christ tarries, I do not doubt that the United States will become a second-rate power that can only flap her wings and squawk like a harried hen when her nest is disturbed and her eggs are snatched from beneath her. The great nations of the west will find they can do little against greater, more malign powers that inveigh against their interests in years to come. Canada, being one of those nations which depends upon other western powers for our continued sovereignty will fare no better than these nations, because we have forgotten the God Who has blessed us for the many years of our past.
THE GODLY RESPONSE IN THE FACE OF THE DEATH OF A CULTURE — It is one thing to point out the conditions that beset us in the dark days in which we now find ourselves. But the follower of Christ may well ask, “How, then, shall we live?” When the culture in which we live is disintegrating, what can the follower of the Saviour do? Shall the conscientious Christian despair or surrender to discouragement and despondency? Shall the child of God take up arms to fight against the relentless advance of wickedness? Does the Word of God provide guidance for how we are to live in such dark days?
David, the King after God’s own heart, struggled with the issue of how the godly are to live if the culture is swirling just before going down the tubes. The godly king wrote on one occasion,
“In the LORD I take refuge;
how can you say to my soul,
‘Flee like a bird to your mountain,
for behold, the wicked bend the bow;
they have fitted their arrow to the string
to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart;
if the foundations are destroyed,
what can the righteous do?’”
[PSALM 11:1-3]
Obviously, this essential question must be answered by those who seek the Lord GOD. “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
At the time Paul wrote the Ephesian Encyclical, the city of Ephesus was only a matter of decades from ruin. What did the Apostle instruct them to do? Writing the saints in Salonica, Paul provided specific instructions for how they should live. The city of Thessalonica was the base for the Adriatic Fleet of the Empire. Already, Rome was moving toward irrelevance. Peter wrote the missives that bear his name in the canon of Scripture at a time when the Empire was swiftly sliding into insignificance as a world power. At the time Isaiah wrote the prophecy that bears his name, Israel had been moving steadily toward cultural death since Solomon stepped back from following the LORD in order to cement his place through mixing with the nations. Studying the instructions these writers gave to those who read their words soon after they were written will give us insight into how we should live as this present culture slides into irrelevance.
To Christians living in Ephesus, the Apostle admonished in an extended passage, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift” [EPHESIANS 4:1-7].
Shortly, Paul wrote, “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
“Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” [EPHESIANS 4:17-32].
The Apostle admonished the saints to live as the transformed beings they are. Allow God’s Spirit to work powerfully in your daily life to ensure that you shine brightly as stars in the darkness. Evil times permit the lives of the righteous to assume even greater brilliance that will draw many to righteousness. Ephesus was dying, but the Faith of Christ the Lord was shining brightly in the midst of that idolatrous city. And the Lord would ensure that those shining saints would be the foundation for advance of the Faith.
“This is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
“Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one” [1 THESSALONIANS 4:3-12].
Paul would continue to encourage the saints by urging them not only to live righteous, holy lives now, but to live in anticipation of what lay ahead. I suspect that we will benefit from being reminded of what lies ahead. For if we know what is coming, we will cease attempting to somehow preserve what is rotten and dying. The Apostle urged the Thessalonians, and he thus encourages us, writing, “Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words” [1 THESSALONIANS 4:14-18]. Keep on being godly. Encourage one another to live holy, righteous lives. Look for the coming of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] “Demographics of Canada,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Canada#:~:text=The%20current%20fertility%20rate%20of%20Canada%20is%201.57,woman%20in%20Canada%20gives%20birth%20is%2029.4%20years.. Accessed 31 July 2022; Thomas Lambert, “Canada’s Death Spiral: Birth Rate Hits All-Time Low,” June 1, 2022, The Counter Signal, https://thecountersignal.com/canada-birth-rate-hits-all-time-low/, accessed 31 July 2022
[3] Wesley J. Smith, “Canadian Children’s Activity Book Indoctrinates Kids into Euthanasia, “ National Review, July 29, 2022, https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/canadian-childrens-activity-book-indoctrinates-kids-into-euthanasia/, accessed 31 July 2022; Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) Activity Book, https://www.virtualhospice.ca/maid/media/3bdlkrve/maid-activity-book.pdf, accessed 31 July 2022
[4] Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “Men Have Forgotten God:” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s 1983 Templeton Address, National Review, December 11, 2018, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "Men Have Forgotten God" Speech | National Review, accessed 16 November 2022
[5] Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, (1957), (Signet, New York, NY 1983) 383
