Disobedience Has a Deadline – Part One
Included amidst twelve Old Testament Minor Prophets is the last of nine pre-exilic books, Zephaniah, written as a warning before the Babylonian exile. Jerusalem had become decadent, profligate, and degenerate. Zephaniah listS four descriptive prevailing conditions. See if there is a parallel to modern America.
Of Jerusalem Zephanian wrote using “She has not” four times: “Jerusalem, the wicked city. Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted, To the oppressing city!
-She has not obeyed His voice, (she heard it, but did not obey it).
-She has not received correction; (she received correction, that is, she interpreted it instead as undeserved discipline and hence rejected it).
-She has not trusted in the Lord, (she did not trust God, but rather man).
-She has not drawn near to her God (she did not repent and return to God).
Her princes in her midst are roaring lions; Her judges are evening wolves that leave not a bone till morning” (Zephaniah 3:1-4). The brackets are my added description of what is meant by each of the four depictions of Jerusalem.
Have our princes, ruling class that is, undertaken our destruction?
Have the judges of America become evening wolves? As predators wolves often hunt in the evening. Are our courts turning on us?
Let us pray, live, and serve that the “not” be removed from the four and that the expression might then be applied to us personally, and to America in general.
She has . . . obeyed His voice.
She has . . . received correction.
She has . . . trusted in the Lord.
She has . . . drawn near to her God.
To obey His voice would mean to establish a Bible based morality.
To receive correction would involve turning away from existing immorality.
To trust Him means to rely on Him and take His word as our will.
To draw near to Him would entail a sweeping spiritual revival.
Now, stand by those standards as your personal “wall height meter” to measure your spiritual height. Do you need to personally adjust in any area of your life to meet His standards?
Jesus is the personal standard. The old WWJD is still the standard for our lives. The question is a simple guide to help us think, talk and act like Jesus. In the life you live, either you are guided by the word of God or by the world. By the world, it means the standards set by human beings. The standard set by people is sinking sand. God’s word is a reliable standard for individuals and nations. It acts like a mirror (James 1:22-25) and gives us the right perspective of who we are and who we ought to be. Take a look in the mirror.
A Spiritual Schizophrenic
“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins” (II Peter 1: 5 – 9).
After experiencing the marvelous transformation made possible after being born again we are thereafter to “give all diligence” to add to our spiritual stature these admirable attributes. These attributes are not optional. Taken together they lead to a well rounded character. We are to work in partnership with God to develop them. These traits are not to be in us passively, they are to abound. If a person does not abound in these traits they have “I trouble,” that is, they can’t get God focused in their life. Having forgotten what the Lord saved us from we tend to neglect what it means to have a new life in Jesus.
Persons having forgotten what the Lord saved them from and failing to grow in faith become spiritual schizophrenics, that is, they have developed mutually contradictory or antagonistic parts or qualities in life. The religious schizophrenic is the person who claims to be a true Christian and yet their life is not controlled by the Holy Spirit.
Virtue is a reference to moral excellence. A thing is spoken of as being virtuous when it is fulfilling its purpose. The purpose of our moral excellence is virtuous. Virtue, or moral excellence means fulfilling what you are supposed to do, which is to glorify God by your life by becoming like Jesus and following Him.
We are to evidence knowledge. The word for knowledge here (gnwsin/ gnosin) is not the one for intellectual knowledge, but the practical knowledge of understanding and application that comes with experience.
Self-control is an abstinence from the lust of the world. It controls all which includes reason, emotion and will through the knowledge of God’s word and will.
Perseverance as used here (upomonh / hupomon) literally means “to abide/dwell under that which is severe,” hence the idea of endurance. We are not to compromise when our faith is tested by trials. We have to persevere in our trials, living in a sin fallen world because things do not work the way God originally created them.
Godliness means to be sold-out for the Lord. In other words, godliness means to live completely for God and be joyful about it.
Brotherly love exists because of a likeness to the other, especially our Elder Brother, Jesus.
Self-sacrificial love chooses and commits itself to the best interest of the other. This is the love of God that is given to us, and it is the type of love that we should give others.
We are to give diligence to developing these attributes and not being a schizophrenic Christian.
A Parody Involving God and You
Consider the following in light of some of your personal challenges.
God said, “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another…” John 13: 34. Comes the response: “But God you don’t understand, if you had seen what they did to me you would know why I don’t love them.”
The omnipotent all powerful God said, “I was with you. You were not at Calvary, if you had seen what they did to my Son you could not have understood why love so great was expressed, and how He could pray, ‘Father forgive them…’”
God said, “…be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you” Ephesians 4: 32. “But God, you don’t understand, if you had heard what they said about me you would understand why I feel harshly toward them.”
The omniscient, all knowing God said, “I heard what they said. You were not at the mock trial of my Son when they profaned Him, mocked, and ridiculed Him, you could not have understood why I forgave them.”
God said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you…” Hebrews 13: 5. “But God, you don’t understand what it’s like to feel so all alone.”
The omnipresent, all present God said, “I know how you rely on feelings rather than facts. You were not in Gethsemane with my Son or you would know what being all alone is really like.”
God is ever present with you, “If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there” Psalm 139: 8.
God is more than equal to any adversity you have. “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear” Isaiah 59:1.
God even knows your thoughts. “God already knows our deepest thoughts” Romans 8: 27.
He is all present, all knowing, and all powerful. Add to that “God is love…” I John 4: 8.
His promise to Jeremiah is relevant in your life, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope” Jeremiah 29: 11. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
If the all present, all knowing, all powerful, all loving God has a plan for you, what flaw could there be in His plan? Why not commit to Him and in loving response resolve to obey Him? It is for your good to do so.
“Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him…” Psalms 37: 5 – 7.
The NLT version reads, “Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you.” That is a simple act with profound results.
Envy: The Green-Eyed Monster
There is so much in the Bible regarding envy it is expedient to consider it.
“It was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him” Mark 15:10.
Thus it is directly attributed to being a sin leading Jesus to the cross. Of all possible sins it is identified as being a primary cause of His crucifixion.
Shakespeare dubbed it, “the green-eyed monster.” Chaucer called it a: “foul sin… the worst of sins” because it is “against all virtues and against every manner of goodness.”
Envy is one bad sin, so we need to take a closer look at it.
Jealousy and envy are opposite sides of the same coin.
The obverse side, envy, is wanting what someone else has.
The reverse side, jealousy, is wishing they didn’t have it.
Envy is the act of counting the blessings of others rather than your own. It comes from a lack of appreciation for your own blessings.
From Bible time it sometimes manifested itself even in ministry. “ It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill” Philippians 1: 15.
Love is often corrupted by envy. However, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud” I Corinthians 13:4.
Envy is even indirect criticism of God. It portends you know better than God as to what you need and another has.
Can you rejoice over the accomplishments and possessions of others? Are you given to complimenting the accomplishments of others? It is a shield against envy.
Essayist Gore Vidal once confessed, “Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.” Is his confession characteristic of you to any degree?
Find your contentment in what God has provided. It is good to have ambition and strive for greater accomplishments as a workman that needs not to be ashamed. Do it without envying others’ accomplishments. We often feel envy in spite of ourselves, even though we don’t want to. It’s the great unsought sin which reveals itself often by curt, cryptic, crass, catty and terse comments. Replace them with praise. If you are prone to envy or even engage in a single act of it, acknowledge it to God and ask His forgiveness. Like any unconfessed sin it estranges us from God. That makes us vulnerable to even more varied sins.
“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind” I Peter 2: 1.
“Since we live by the Spirit, let us walk in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying one another” Galatians 5: 25, 26. (Berean Standard Bible)
What Are You Mad About?
Society today thinks of Christians as being mad, and we are. Christians today are mad at the world. We’re mad about movies, the media, and the militant movements. We’re mad about condoms in school, crime on the streets, WOKE, and drugs in our neighborhood. We’re mad about education, the impact of society upon our children, and abortion activists.
We are not mad with the people, but because the devil has deceived the world.
In our culture we must be known as truth-tellers, but we must be truth-tellers with tears.
Jesus got mad at the tomb of Lazarus. John 11: 33 is the shortest verse in the Bible: “Jesus wept.” That was liquid love.
In the face of death, Jesus didn’t only cry. He had a second reaction, He got angry. Yes, Jesus got mad. Jesus was “deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.” (11:33) “Deeply moved” translates the Greek word embrimaomai. (Embre-my-o-my)
NLT translates it: “a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled.”
The Greek word used in the account is a metaphor which was used to depict the fury of a warhorse about to charge into battle. The steed rears up on his hind legs, snorts through its nostrils, an expression for fury, paws the air, and charges into the conflict. To snort in spirit was the strongest Greek word for anger. It is the word used of Jesus. Face to face with evil, in this premature death of His good friend, He is outraged. Why? Jesus was angry and troubled at the destruction and power of the great enemy of humanity: death. Jesus would soon break the dominating power of death. Evil is not normal. As the Creator Jesus made the world good, beautiful, full of life, joy, and justice. Evil despoiled these.
About what was Jesus angry? Summarily His anger was at Satan for introducing evil into the world. He was angry over sin because it produced death. James 1:15 notes “… sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”
As with Jesus, we ought to be angry with sin without sinning in doing it. We are to love even the defiant. In “Strength to Love”, Martin Luther King, Jr., encouraged us to realize that “our responsibility as Christians is to discover the meaning of this command and seek passionately to live it out in our daily lives.”
We cannot penetrate our defiant society in public forums and rallies where tempers flare, but in personal relations. That is slow, but there is no better way.
Individuals who have a different world view than the Christian worldview have difficulty comprehending how we can love them and dislike what they advocate, but we must. Doing so in our post-Christian world is challenging.
Make love the talisman by which you are known.