Monday, April 7, 2014

Ephesians 5:6-10 comments: the Christian example set in America


6  Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. 7  Be not ye therefore partakers with them. 8  For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
9  (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) 10  Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.

It is common today for people to take sexual sins lightly unless they are something that society generally finds disgusting, which is limited to a few things only and the list seems to be getting smaller and smaller every generation. But, these are things that incur God’s wrath so, apparently, our sexual attitudes and conduct are important to our Creator. Paul warns about being deceived by those who would dismiss these concerns as being irrelevant.

Isaiah 5:20  Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Christians are warned not to participate in the sins and sinful attitudes previously mentioned. They are to walk as light and examples before the world, examples of goodness, righteousness, and truth, having this evidence of the Spirit in them. They are to show to the world what Christ approves of, faithfulness to a spouse and a rejection of the lasciviousness of the world.

A glance at surveys on the subject would suggest that over half of  self-defined Christian spouses in the United States admit to committing adultery and even a quarter of Pastors. There are those who insist that self-defined Christians are just as likely to divorce as any other segment of the population. Christians have no moral authority in the culture and no standard to set that doesn’t seem completely hypocritical.

In one poll half of self-defined Christian men and one out of five Christian women admitted to being addicted to pornography. Nearly half of Pastors admitted that cyberporn was either a temptation or a current struggle for them. Christians are supporting and by the sheer number of self-defined Christians in America making the $100 billion per year pornography industry profitable.

As far as having the moral power and credibility before the world that Paul is demanding here American Christianity is a sham, phony, pretense for self-justification that has little impact in the way of example to set for the unbelieving world.

Who exactly are we pointing our fingers at when we talk about, “those people?”

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