While browsing through a magazine at an X-ray clinic, an advertisement caught my eyes. The bold headlines proclaimed something to the effect of, “It is WRONG! . . . It is Nationally Televised”. The ad promoted some upcoming cable channel roast of Playboy magazine’s founder and owner, Hugh Hefner.
It used to be in our nation when something was labeled wrong the implication was that the activity should not occur. Now it seems that wrong is delightfully accepted. How is it that evil has become such a good thing?
Meditation
Isaiah 5:20—Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
The Apostle Paul wrote the church in Thessalonica that:
The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12).
Why would anyone fall for blatant lies? Paul says it’s because the truth is no longer loved. Standards of rightness are considered confining. What once was honorable is viewed as stilted. Consider that God, in His precious love, sent Jesus to rescue the world from sin. He provided clear guidance that by confessing our sin and obediently placing our faith in Christ we could be saved. But instead of focusing on the gift of salvation and the truth behind grace, those who would rather live as they please, accuse God of being tyrannical, unfairly absolutist for His solitary solution to evil.
Oswald Chambers wrote in Studies In The Sermon On The Mount, that “A lie is not an inexactitude of speech, a lie is in the motive. I may be actually truthful and an incarnate liar. It is not the literal words that count but their influence on others.” Lying reflects the desire of the heart. One cannot embrace a lie without first divorcing the truth.
When Satan works his miracles and spreads God-rejecting lies, those who march to a self-pleasing beat fall easy prey to his agenda. Doing right becomes distasteful. Clear boundaries for decent speech are steadily erased to feed vulgar appetites. The American Library Association refuses to filter pornography from library computers. Its line that the First Amendment would be violated, supports its underlying theme that there is nothing wrong with exposing children to nudity. The obvious truth that pornography hooks and depraves those who feast upon it is denied for the freedom to sin—the true motive. Those who support safeguards are derided as puritanical which is also ironic since the Puritans were once considered noble and worthy of emulating.
What should we do in a society fixated on calling evil “good” and good “evil”? We should embrace Christ and cling tightly to His teaching. We should take inventory and determine just how much slippage has occurred in our lives. Finally, we never stop loving the liar. Even in a land that grows darker, God’s lights are needed—so shine on!
Inspiration
He who lies once is never believed again.—Polish Proverb
He who says there is no such thing as an honest man, you may be sure is himself a knave.—Bishop Berkeley
