We Ought To Be Ashamed

 David Alan Black 

Today many of our nation’s leaders have accepted theological pluralism and therefore have no real basis upon which to make moral and spiritual decisions. It is appalling how often and where this evil business shows up. When the First Lady of the United States uses sexual innuendo to refer to her husband in public, can we be so deaf as to not hear all the warning bells? Not to do so is accommodation to the world’s spirit at a crucial point that eventually will carry everything else down with it.

Is the erosion of the sanctity-of-life view really so alarming in the face of the spirit of accommodation that characterizes our leaders in America? If we can put aside so easily the reverence a wife is to have for her husband, how will it be possible to restore respect for the preborn? We could use a lot of plain, old-fashioned respect in this world today. Too many, even of God’s people, impress us with power and performance but never learn how to be reverent and deferential. A truly great spouse is respectful. There is nothing weak or effeminate about it. Anybody can tell bawdy jokes. Only great souls are truly honorable.

Except the Lord built the house we labor in vain who build it. This is as true of a nation as it is of a family. The principal business of this age is accommodation and men-pleasing. It is easier to get people to bustle about in all kinds of religious activity than it is to get them to be the kind of New Testament Christians that will produce New Testament families. In the Book of Revelation, our Lord had something against the churches of Pergamos and Thyatira. In both cases He had to reprove them for their sinful tolerance. Note carefully: Our Lord judges us for what we tolerate. No doubt there are good Christian people in Washington and they are to be commended for their faithfulness to the Lord Jesus, but the Christ of the Lampstands will not tolerate false teaching and worldly living.

None of us is above reproach, but God sent His Son into the world to be the Adam of a new race, and as many as receive Him receive the power to become – and to behave like – sons of God. All I lost in the old creation due to sin I have gained in the final creation made possible through the blood of Calvary.

The world can never understand what the saints find so objectionable about crude humor. It is even more tragic when professing Christians allow themselves to be squeezed into the mold of the world, taking it and its values for their fashion plate.

Shouldn’t the church be more than a feeble reflection of the pagan world around it? If so, then we can start by the way we show honor to our spouses in public.