DELIVER US FROM EVIL

Romans 13:8-14 - Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.  Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarrelling and jealousy.  But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

After the first 8 chapters of doctrinal teaching he switches to the practice of our Christian faith. In these verses he emphasized once again some things that are vital for us to constantly be reminded of.

First, love is the fulfillment of the law. If there is any debt we should have it is certainly the debt of love to God and each others. If there is anything that is of supreme importance it would be love. If there is anything pertaining to the laws of God that we should keep it would be to love God with all that is in us and to love one another as Jesus has loved us!

Second, knowing the time we are living in. If there is an urgency attached to the time that we are living in we should cast off the works of darkness; orgies, drunkenness, sexual immorality, sensuality, quarrelling and jealousy. If there is a call to awake from sleep it certainly demands that we put on the armor of light; put on Christ – make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. If we truly realize that the night is far gone and the day is at hand we would watch our steps and walk properly as in the daytime.

SOME THINGS BECOME MORE IMPORTANT IN LIFE WHEN WE HAVE SUCH A MINDSET. WE DO NOT LIVE OUR LIVES HAPHASARDLY AGAIN!

There are few things that J.B. Phillips paraphrased in his translation –

1.      It is time to wake up to the reality.

2.      Every day brings God’s salvation nearer than the day in which we took the first step of faith.

3.      Fling away the things that men do in the dark.

4.      Let us arm ourselves for the fight of the day – Christ’s men from head to foot.

THE DEPTH OF REBELLION

In Romans 1 Paul unveils God’s anger over the depth of man’s rebellion. THREE TIMES we hear the dreadful refrain: “God gave them over”;

1.      In 1:24 (NIV) God gave them over to their sinful desires.

2.      In 1:26 (NIV) he gave them over to their shameful lusts.

3.      Verse 28 of chapter 1 of Romans (NIV) God gave them over to their depraved mind.

Note the progression here: desires, lusts, and mindset. Carl F H Henry in his book The Twilight of a Great Civilization observed that “as a channel of sin runs ever deeper, God’s compensatory judgment moves ever closer to final abandonment and inescapable doom.”

When the “channel of sin runs … deeper” – when sin is freely flowing, is forcefully gushing forward, when sin began to reign supreme and permeate into every fibre of society, when immorality – sinful desires, shameful lusts and a depraved minds – became the order of the day, THEN, God would throw up his hands and gave them up to their own desires – he might just abandon his patience tolerance – left to our own inescapable doom!

We see the increased in marriage and family breakdowns, the rise of new families due to divorces, single parenting, and alternative lifestyles, and the devastating teenage problems – suicide, additions, immorality.

FACTSHEET: More teenagers go for ‘backyard’ abortions      Last updated on 07/10/2013 - 15:07 Suganthi Suparmaniam KUALA LUMPUR: Teenagers as young as 13 years old go to “backyard clinics” for abortions, with some going under the knife more than once in a year. And the increasing number of such scary teenage abortions in the country has reached an alarming stage. Suhakam commissioner James Nayagam said that a research done by Universiti Malaya several years ago found that at least 300 teenage abortions took place a day. “The sexual acts and abortions have become common among teenagers aged 16 and below. And the boys would pay for the abortions,” he told the ant daily. James, who is also the chairman of Suriana Welfare Society for Children, said from the years of working with children and on children-related issues, he found the statistics scary. “These teenagers go for backyard abortions, do the deed and then clean themselves. They then go to their friends’ homes and spend time there before going back home. If they can go for abortions three times in a year, they don’t mind,” he said. He said the teenagers would not go for medical follow-ups and this would leave them with psychological scars that could affect their relationship in future. The problem is more severe in urban than rural areas where family bonding is stronger. He blamed society for only rising to the occasion once something happens.

What is underway is a redefinition of the good life, a redefinition that not only perverts the word “good” but perverts the terms “life” as well. What is good is corrupted into whatever gratifies one’s personal desires, whatever promotes self-interest even at the expense of the dignity and worth of others.  In the fantasy-world of sinful desires, shameful lusts, and a depraved mind, sexual libertinism is good, coveting and stealing are good, violence and terrorism are good. Perversion of the good is connected with what is called “the life.” All that the Bible means by life – spiritual life, moral life, eternal life, and a life fit for eternity – is emptied into an existence fit only for beasts and brutes (Carl F.H. Henry).

God gave them up to be the playthings of their own foul desires in dishonoring their own bodies. They deliberately forfeited the truth of God and accepted a lie, paying homage and giving service to the creature instead of the Creator. God gave them over to disgraceful passions (Romans 1:24-27, JB Philips).

If we were to compare 30 years ago and today we see more and more the wicked subculture comes to open cultural manifestation. We see more and more the unmentionables become the parlance (jargon, lingo and language) of our day. We see more and more profanity and vulgarity finding expression through the mass media. The sludge of a sick society is rising to the top even in Malaysia, sad to say, the stench does not offend even some Christians!!

Chuck Swindoll was right when he described the good life that can only be found in Christ:

The good life – the one that truly satisfy – exists only when we stop wanting a better one. It is the condition of savoring what IS rather than longing for what MIGHT BE. The itch for things, the lust for more – so brilliantly interjected by those who peddle them – is a virus draining our souls of happy contentment.

Hebrews 12:26-27 (ESV) - At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”  This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.

Yes, the day will come when God will shake the earth and the heaven once again. The bible tells us that the things that can be shaken will be shaken and the things that cannot be shaken will remain.When the depth of rebellion and sinful deeds of men had overflowed, the wrath of God will be poured out.  What will happen to all the things that we built? Are we building for eternity or are we building for this earth? We need to get our priority right!!

2 Peter 3:4, 10 we read Peter’s warning - 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.” 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. 

Peter warned the believers that one day the heaven will pass away, heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and all the works that are done on it will be exposed. All our works will be exposed and each one of us will be held accountable. Paul said that the night is far gone and the day is at hand. Let us heed Paul’s warning and cast off the works of darkness.

THE FIGHT OF THE DAY

 We have a duty in the cultural upheaval around us. God has not told us to build an ark or to escape the floodwaters by taking to the hills. We are told to vigorously proclaim and apply the Christian message. The early Christians knew the fierceness of the battle. Don’t forget that we ourselves were dug from the sludge of a sick society.

Paul said it so honestly and so transparently in order to remind the Ephesians believers that they were once sons of disobedience and were by nature children of wrath – yes, the sludge of a sick society. Read the account in Eph. 2:1-3:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 

It is one thing to run away from sin; it is yet another to run up a flag of faith. God wants our mind, our will, our heart – the whole self. Where your feet go, does Christ walk with you? Where your mind reaches, is the mind of Christ yours also? In whatever your will embraces, is Christ’s will astride (on both sides of) your own? Christian duty requires of us more than personal piety and devotion, important as that is. It is not enough to say “NO” when culture holds that fornication is a morally acceptable option and that we may abort the unborn child if it is unwanted or we can make choices based on our feelings and notion because we believed there is no longer any objective truth to begin with.

Are we aware of the challenges we face today? Are we being debilitated by the shoddy values of our times?

Let us consider these issues. Dr. Carl Henry calls it “the fight of the day” and then went on to ask a series of questions that should stir our hearts.  In the battle between good and evil, are we armed and engaged in the fight of the day?  In the battle for the minds of men, are we armed and engaged in the fight of the day?  In the battle of the will of humanity, are we armed and engaged in the fight of the day?   In the exhibition of a Christian mindset, are we armed and engaged in the fight of the day? In the development of Christian counter-moves, are we armed and engaged in the fight of the day?

CHALLENGES

 We need to rise up, soldiers of the Cross! Just as there are depths of depravity in human life, so too there are levels of dedication. And just as God progressively abandons renegades to their rebellion, He too will reward the righteous in their spiritual renewal. Christianity is qualitatively different or it had nothing to offer to the world. The real arena is the working, the witnessing and the winning over of others in the world, or we have ceased to be light, salt, and leaven. Christians are required to be courageous in participating at the frontiers of public concern – education, mass media, politics, law, literature and the arts, labor and economics, and the whole realm of cultural pursuits. We need to do more than sponsor a Christian subculture. We need Christian counter-moves that command a new climate, counter-moves that penetrate the public realm.

Quote from Carl Henry again -

To live Christianly involves taking a stand for God that calls this world’s Caesars to account before the sovereign Lord of the universe, that calls this world’s sages to account before the wisdom that begins with the fear of the Lord, that calls this world’s journalists to account before The Greatest Story ever told. We must strive to reclaim this cosmos for its rightful owner, God, who has title to the cattle on a thousand hills, and for Christ who says to the lost multitudes, “I made you; I died for you; I ransomed you.

I started off by sharing that love is the fulfillment of the law. We own a debt of love to God and we are told to cast off the unfruitful works of darkness. We need to deal with desires, lusts, and the tendency to have our mind corrupted. We need to be aware of the preciousness of time.  But the bottom-line is this – we need to rise up, we need to fight and do battle for the lost humanity, for the culture that moves contrary to God’s purpose lest our nation comes to a place where God gave them up!  Let us rise up and be countered. It is not just being righteous and holy BUT also requires us to participate actively in areas of public concerns – to be counter-cultural – turning the nations back to the heart of God.

Work Cited:

Carl F H Henry, The Twilight of a Great Civilization