Seek good, and not
evil,
that you may live;
and so the Lord, the
God of hosts, will be with you,
as you have said.
Amos 5:14 ESV
You who profess faith in Jesus Christ, who claim him as your
Lord and Savior, but who do not honor him, submit to him, or walk in obedience
to him, “Seek good, and not evil.” You who profess to worship God as your only
God, but who are idolaters, self-indulgent, immoral, corrupt, and living for the
lusts of the flesh and for self-pleasure, “Seek good, and not evil, that you
may live.”
You who pretend righteousness so that others will think well
of you, and/or as a cover-up for your sinful practices, but who are secretly
sinning against God and against others behind closed doors, or where no one else
can see, “Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God
of hosts, will be with you, as you have said” (as you have claimed he is).
You who believe you are in God’s good graces merely because
you acknowledged Jesus Christ’s existence or sacrifice for our sins, or you said
some words after someone else, or because you merely confessed him as Lord and acknowledged
that he had risen from the dead, and so you were convinced you were saved and
bound for heaven, don’t be smug, thinking you can keep on in your sinful
practices and that God will do nothing.
You who live in the USA, who think you can’t be touched by
tribulation, or by severe persecution, or who are under the false impression
that we in America are the “good guys” of the world going around the world
spreading peace and good will to all people, and so you think nothing bad will
happen to us, don’t be fooled! Don’t be taken in by the lies.
We are under the judgment of God, as a nation, because of
the atrocities our nation has committed throughout the world in the name of God
and in the name of freedom and democracy.
For, our nation is morally corrupt from the top to the
bottom. Lies and deception abound. And, the church in America, for the most
part, has gone the way of the world and of big business, and they have turned
God’s house into a marketplace, and they are unequally yoked together with
unbelievers, and they are following after the teachings and the gospel of men
instead of after the teachings of Jesus Christ and of his gospel.
Immersed in Culture
Although God has blessed this nation, in many ways, for many
years, he has also disciplined and chastised her, too, in order to get her to
repent of her wicked ways. But, she forgot the discipline soon after, and she
returned to her wicked ways and to following after the desires of the flesh,
rather than following after the ONE who created all of humankind.
The church across America, for the most part, has lost its
saltiness and has hidden its light which is supposed to be the light of the
world which she is to shine in the darkness so that all may see.
Instead of going out into the world with the gospel of our
salvation, she has been convinced to become one with the world in order to “win
the world,” but to what? Not to Christ! She has been convinced to immerse herself
in today’s culture so that the world will feel at home with her and will feel
accepted by her.
She forgot her calling, which is of God, and she has adopted
the calls of the world, instead, and the teachings and the gospel of men in
place of the teachings of the scriptures and the gospel of Jesus Christ. And,
she is trying to reach the world for organized religion and to build kingdoms
of men, and so she is following business marketing schemes instead of the Holy
Spirit.
And she is silencing those who are preaching the true gospel
while she is also convincing prospective “believers” that they don’t have to
leave their sinful lifestyles behind to follow our Lord in obedience to his
commands.
So, the Lord is warning of divine judgment (See Rev. 2-3),
and he is calling his wayward church to repentance and to renewed walks of
faith in him. But, he is saying that if they do not repent that judgment is
most certain. For, God disciplines and he chastises those he loves, and he will
chastise (judge) his adulterous, unfaithful, disobedient and covenant-breaking
people. And, this is because they continually dishonor him and disobey him.
For, the vast majority of the church in America has bought
into the cheap grace gospel message which says that we can continue in our
sinful practices without guilt and without remorse and that we are still
forgiven our sins and guaranteed heaven as our eternal destiny, which is a
mockery of what Jesus did for us in dying on a cross so that we could die with
him to sin and live with him to his righteousness.
And, if we begin to feel guilty over our sinful practices,
they say, if that is where we are, living in sin, all we have to do is just
claim who we are in Christ to appease the guilt and to convince ourselves that
God is smiling on us even when we are steeped in rebellion, idolatry,
immorality and willful and defiant disobedience to his commands.
So, with this comes no commitment to our Lord to leave our
lifestyles of sin behind us or to walk in obedience to his commands, and so God’s
standards of conduct that he put in place for us to follow have been “thrown
out the window,” so to speak, and instead they just console people in their
sins.
Hate evil, and love
good,
and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the
Lord, the God of hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
Amos 5:15 ESV
But, we are to hate evil, and love good, not hate good and
love evil, which is where many who profess the name of Jesus are living their
lives.
For they are being taught that it is bad to repent of sin
and walk in obedience to Christ’s commands, for they say that is works-based
salvation and it is to be avoided. And, they are being told or led to believe
that their sins don’t matter to God once they “believe,” and so they can go on
living in sin while they reject the idea of walking in obedience to Christ and to
his Word.
Yet, we are to do what is right in the eyes of God, not what
is evil and/or what is right in the eyes of humans in their deceitful scheming.
For, God has called us out of darkness into his wonderful
light. He has called us to forsake our former lives of living for sin and self
to follow our Lord in obedience to his will and to his ways. And, he has called
us to now walk (in lifestyle) according to (in agreement with) the Spirit of
God and not according to our flesh, if we want to inherit eternal life with God
and to be saved from our sins.
And, he will fill us with his Holy Spirit and pour out his
spiritual blessings on our lives. Although we will go through trials which test
our faith, and we will be hated and persecuted for righteousness’ sake, we will
be at peace with God, and he will use us for his glory in bringing others to
faith in Jesus Christ, too. But, that faith results in lives which die daily to
sin and self and which daily submit to Christ as Lord and do what he says to
do.
And, not only do we need to be living that, so that truly we
can be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, but this is the
message that we need to be giving out to others, too, so that they can know
Christ and walk in freedom from bondage to sin.
For, if we want to have the hope of salvation from sin and
eternal life with God, then we must walk (in lifestyle) according to the Spirit
and no longer according to the flesh. For, if we walk according to our flesh
(in practice), then we will die in our sins because we refused to die with
Christ to our sins and so be saved.
[See: Lu. 9:23-25; Rom. 6:1-23; Rom. 8:1-17; Gal. 5:16-21;
Gal. 6:7-8; Rom. 2:6-8; Eph. 4:17-24; Eph. 5:3-6; Tit. 2:11-14; 1 Pet. 2:24; 1
Co. 6:20; 2 Co. 5:15, 21; 1 Jn. 1:5-9; Jn. 14:23-24; 1 Jn. 2:3-6; Jn. 8:31-47;
Rom. 11:17-24; 1 Jn. 2:24-25; Col. 1:21-23; Jas. 1:19-25; Jas. 4:7-10]
Shine On
By Ann Aschauer
So shine on through the darkness;
Be the salt and light for all your world.
Live for Jesus, 'til you see Him,
And your faith has its reward;
Shine on through the darkness;
Let His love shine through you all your days.
Go and win your generation for the Lord.
c Ann Aschauer 1990
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