Contact
Resources
July DevotionalRight Behavior Follows Right ThinkingWoe 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! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! — Isaiah 5:20-23 God was speaking through the prophet Isaiah, not to the world of unbelievers but to the nation of Israel. The very nation that God had personally called out of the world, had lost (turned away) from its godly moorings and began drifting in the current of moral relativism. We see in the context that God had planted Israel as a prosperous vineyard but when he came to harvest the grapes, there were only wild grapes. Israel had become so much like the world around her that she was now useless to God. As a result, God took down the hedge of protection from around her so that she would be consumed (judged by God) by the wild animals. There is much confusion today as to what is the right way to think about life and the events of this age. Even among Bible believing Christians, biblical thinking has given way to worldly thinking. This goes beyond those externals by which we are tempted to judge godliness. As God told Samuel when Jesse's sons were being paraded in front of him in order to select the next king: "Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7)." God, who knows the heart, rejected all the sons that Jesse judged were "king material" and left David out tending the sheep. However, God judged that David was to be the next king of Israel. So, how does this apply to the church today? Our religion must go far beyond how we look on the outside; it must go beyond how dogmatically we vocalize our theological belief system; it must go beyond the condemnation of the world. Our religion must be so pure that we visit the widow and the orphan; so pure that we return good for evil; so pure that we love and feed our enemy. "Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:20-21)." As people who believe in the sanctity of life, we must stand for it firmly but lovingly. We must not resort to moral relativism by returning evil for evil. Because God's people didn't guard their hearts, they gradually began to take on the thinking patterns of those ungodly nations around them. As a result, they only produced sour, inedible wild grapes. God wanted Israel to produce plump, sweet, juicy, ripe grapes that were in keeping with the work He had done in them. God's had blessed His people so that everything they needed He had provided. But when His people began to emulate the world's thinking, God asked a natural question (Isaiah 5:3-4): "And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?" Christians must be thinking people. Thinking people don't simply dwell on a list of things that should not be done, they dwell on all the things that they should be doing as God's holy people. To use the example of the vineyard, Christians should have the kind of thinking that produces good fruit and entices the ungodly to change as they see the positive benefits of living for Christ. "And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:5-8)." — Pastor Patrick Ryan |
