Reference verses: Deuteronomy 5:1 through 6:1
After dictating the Ten Commandments, God wrote them in stone. He said nothing else.
These laws were given by God Himself. They are an indictment against the obvious traits of human nature. Therefore, all moral conduct and theory hangs on the commandments. Redemption is the only hope for fallen humanity as proven by the human trespasses of these commandments. Those who habitually violate these moral standards create turmoil for us all.
God is the ultimate executioner. Secularism believes we can cheat the executioner because “there is no executioner, therefore morality is for the masses so we of the upper classes can cheat.” Every facet of business, every facet of sports, every facet of our culture is inundated by greed and immorality. Human depravity is obvious, everywhere, and economic crises are the result of lawless greed. The human heart, left untransformed by God’s redeeming grace, will always gravitate away from God. The greed of a few at the top of corporate America will extract a tremendous price from all of us.
As critical as these times are, people can still be reformed by transformation through the saving knowledge of the Gospel of Christ.
Secular values will go up in smoke when God judges the wicked by the power of His Word. Eternity’s values cannot long be ignored or denied. What is humanity coming to?
Our social problems cannot be solved by passing more laws, which take away more freedom; we cannot legislate righteousness. Virtuous behavior requires a change of heart toward Jesus Christ and, afterward, Bible doctrine must be inculcated and lived out by the individual.
Salvation is personal, studying God’s word is personal, and reversing the trends of our society must be accomplished one person at a time. The flesh is weak but the Spirit is strong through digestion of Scriptural principles. Society as a whole benefits as a whole when enough individuals are virtuous. The converted soul is capable of virtuous life on a consistent basis (Romans 8:3,4; reference also Romans chapter 2).
Ethics and personal responsibility must dominate a society, or society will be dominated by a dictator. Unacceptable and contemptible behavior must be defined by the people and enforced by the people, not by ever increasing laws and severity.
All generations must learn right and wrong and then live in accordance. Why? Because moral and ethical behavior is written in the heart of human beings, the result is harmony, not hate. Inner peace, not aggressive behavior and intolerance.
Christ is the secret to inner happiness and a virtuous society.
Everyone should be productive. Production (work) is reflective of God, and every job should be respected and dignified as an expression of the divine image inherent to believers in every human being. The first mandate from God, in Genesis, was, “Take care of the garden” (Genesis 2:15). Work is natural to us as created human beings. Before the fall, work was carefree and pleasurable. After the fall, God imposed a curse (Genesis 3:16,17).
Cursed in the original Hebrew means pain and toil, laborious or travail. This implies difficulty for earning a living and, as a result, raising a family. It also implies that our struggles are to remind us of our own nature and God’s nature. Scripture also states that idle time is not good for us. We as a people must not be driven by self-interest and personal expediency but by every principle of God, which was designed for the benefit of every man. We must not accommodate our sinful state – we must harness it and plow the earth. In doing so we fulfill God’s mandates of “till the ground and share the harvest” and we benefit.
An amoral society cannot be a self-regulating system of supply and demand because greed and human nature cannot be restrained. As a matter of fact, it is a stimulant – a motivator. In a society of self-interested people, self first replaces self sacrifice, self first replaces the common good, personal ambition replaces charity. Self-interest creates aggression and intolerance.
As autonomous self-centered sensate society is contradictory to Scripture and encourages the unrestricted sin nature to exploit our common man, rather than elevate him and push him up the ladder of self-esteem, success, and moral obligation. Morality and a free society depends on the individual. Individuals must choose to make the ethical decisions. Christians, as the salt of the earth, must flavor society with the spiritual resources that create and maintain a healthy moral climate so free enterprise can prosper all of us and freedom can protect all of us.
Society has an ecosystem that depends on individual morality. America must recapture its heritage of political liberty, economic freedom, moral responsibility, and devotion to creator God. Also compassion for one another, respect for our justice system, and live with eternity at the reins of our hearts through Christ our Lord.
Pray as never before that God will have mercy on believers while judging the satanic influence that has captured our culture and the world. Amen and Amen.
December 20, 2008