… who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—
Summary: How we judge others tells others about the standards we judge by.
If, like Lot, you are “tormented in [your] righteous soul by the lawless deeds [you see and hear]” then that says something about your heart.
The next question is whose standard are you measuring “lawless deeds” by?
There are three general categories of standards I would like to suggest:
1. Personal
2. Legal
3. Godly
If you are tormented because your personal standards are being ignored, then you are always going to be unhappy. For one thing, individual people, no matter how connected or powerful, cannot control the thoughts and actions of everyone else. Secondly, personal standards change with moods and situations. It is doubtful even you as an individual can keep up with your own rules.
Legal standards are another matter. Legal standards are subject to personal standards. We can ‘interpret’ the law in different ways, depending on what we want or what we personally think is right. Then, if we have the means and the inclination, we can take the matter to court and argue before a judge. In the end, legal standards are only as moral and legitimate as the people who enforce them.
The third category is godly standards. These standards are immutable because God is unchanging. God’s standards are fair because God is selfless. They are righteous because God defines what is right.
It is this third category of standards that caused Lot to be tormented. He knew in his heart what God considers right and wrong.
So what does God consider to be “right and wrong?”
Does he want us to apply our personal values to other people’s behavior?
Is he interested in condemning people because they have not correctly applied the law?
Or, is God concerned about something else?
When asked this question, Jesus replied:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
Did the people of Sodom and Gomorrah love God above all else?
No.
The “law” that they ignored was God’s law.
This, more than anything else, is what tormented Lot and caused the downfall of these two cities. They ignored their Creator, ignored his Law, and proved it by their “lawless deeds.”
Application: Do a self-check. Whose standards are you applying when you make a judgment about the world around you? Yours or God’s?
Food for Thought: What is a Christian response to the “depraved conduct of the lawless?”
I’m sort of thinking and typing at the same time (just in case you wondered). I had to first really ponder the phrase “tormented in his righteous soul.” What popped in my head was “righteous indignation,” although I’m not saying its the same thing. If someone insults you unprovoked, then it is natural and acceptable to be offended. Where you take that offense though is another story of course. The offense is taken because of it trespasses against basic rules of engagement, of how we treat each other. To be “tormented in your righteous soul” means that the things going on around you that trespass against the very basic of God’s “rules:” “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The people of Sodom and Gomorrah blatantly defied both of these two commandments, and it tormented Lot. Whereas I don’t agree with Lot’s choice of real estate, he still does have something that I don’t have enough of: not just being bothered by sin, but being tormented by it. What is a Christian response to the “depraved conduct of the lawless?” It should hurt our hearts enough that we take it to God in prayer. Our response should be that we ask God how to deal with the sin around us, as well as in us. I’m not saying it is our job to “clean up the world.” I am saying that I was once in darkness too, and God gave someone the right words to say that pierced my heart so that I could recognize my sin. So, I think a Christian response is to pray for the opportunity and the words to say that would help someone to turn away from their sin. If I’m off base, please let me know. 🙂
Chris,
You “think and type” very well! 🙂
One thing I like about your response is the part about turning to God in prayer. This is something I need to work on as well. I tend to want to “fix things” and sometimes that includes other people as well. As you point out it is not our job to “clean up the world.” It is our job to reflect God’s light in the world. These are two very different things!
Thank you!
Thank you Jeff and Chris. Good stuff. My response to the question is simple today: the gospel.
Rich,
The Gospel is always an appropriate response! Thank you!
11-02-2021, 2 Peter 2b-8, What is a Christian response to the “depraved conduct of the lawless?”
While in the Hospital last week, I had excellent Nursing care as I recovered in a “private room”, and they would rotate as their shift required. In each case they would comment on my good blood pressure, strong pulse or something positive, and I would tell them how Great my God is for taking care of me. Met two Christian Nurses this way and we talked about the Lord as they performed their duties.
My third christian nurse was Leslee. During her first check on me she told me she had been working 12 hours and was pulling another 5 hours before going home. I could tell she felt pressured, talked fast, moved fast, stayed on task and left immediately when finished her nursing duties, and I could see great strain on her face. On her second visit, she came in and I was watching Fox News. She did her job and quickly left.
Then she returned early, just to talk. She told me how I was the first person she had seen watching Fox in days, and how refreshing it was. This led to my telling her about my Christian faith and she told me how she was also a Christian and how very hard it was working at this Hospital because they all had to be so very Politically Correct all the time.
We had more great talks as she hurried with her other patients and began coming back to mu room much more often, she wanted to talk about our Lord and the world around us. Eventually, the strain totally left her face, she was much more relaxed and smiling, but she remained very disturbed about the growing evil in world around us.
God used me to explain to her how it was His purpose for us to remain on this earth, after our salvation, as His Lights to the world around us. He went into detail about how we had to see the evil before we could be used to fight it and how the battle was His not ours. Our job is to love others so much, we will allow Jesus Christ to do His work through us. Today we live in what the Marine Corps called an extremely “target rich environment”, protected by God with lots to do. Leslee’s eyes were watering up so I shut it down.
She did keep coming back often, we continued to have great talks and when I left, we shared a big Christian hug ( totally blew off all COVID protocol ) as we said goodby and she told the wheelchair lady “ This is my buddy.”
Today I know I was in the hospital for more than surgery. There is purpose for everything we do. I see the evil all around me, I hate what it is doing to people I care about but learning to stay focused on my mission from God and be quick to say “here I am Lord” when He calls..
Ron,
Thank you for sharing your story. It is a beautiful example of sharing God’s light and having it reflected back. You also make a great point that God’s timing is based on what he sees as needs, not what we see. Of course, he knows a bit more that we do! 🙂
Your question was very timely for me. Kinda like maybe He is using you and your blog also.
Maybe. 🙂
Yesterday’s and today’s question are very connected. And since I wasn’t on yesterday I’m mixing a bit.
How to look for righteousness, discern unrighteousness (depraved conduct), and how to react as Christians?
I love the aspects of life that are hard to balance or understand, they reveal God’s unfathomable wisdom and knowledge. Such as, ‘be holy for I am holy’, or ‘ shrewed as serpents and innocent as doves’ or ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ or ‘credited as righteous’, or ‘blood of the covenant shed for many for the forgiveness of sins’, or ‘the Lord our God is one’ or ‘discernment’. They all sound simple, but are difficult to do and then again, are they as simple as they seem?
Is it judgement for me to call one righteous or unrighteous? Well, would God tell me to be shrewed or discerning if I wasn’t supposed to ‘judge’ righteousness or unrighteousness ever? If one can be credited righteousness, how can we observe it? How can a just God forgive sins? How can mankind take on God’s holiness? How can sinners love?
I love that Rich’s answer today is the gospel. The mystery that the gospel is. That we who understand and accept it can still be dumbfounded by it!
I asked how can we observe righteousness if it can be credited because when I look at Lot, it’s hard for me to see righteousness. God tells Abram go sojourn, leave your relatives. And Lot follows Abram around for a while. God promises Abram land and Lot tries to choose the best looking land and leave the other stuff for Abram. Two strangers visit the city, people come to ‘have relations’ with them and he doesn’t just say no but offers up his daughters to that fate instead. I don’t see a righteous Lot. Is righteousness seen by means of comparison? Comparison to who?
How can we observe unrighteousness if righteousness can be credited? How do we know who has or hasn’t been extended this grace?
James tells us that faith and works have to work together. Faith for salvation (simplified – credited righteousness) is perfected by works. But perfected means not yet perfect but on its way, therefore we still won’t see perfect righteousness in people. But as I saw stated yesterday, we will see admission of fault and action to remedy the fault. Can we say the seeing unrighteousness is then inadmission of faults? But what about the law? It cannot produce righteousness, but can it tell us what to look for in the righteous? Is it fair to use the law as a standard for those who were before the law was made? They didn’t know better, right? What about the fruit of the Spirit, how does that play into this?
I am asking a lot of questions, but I am not really answering them, because these are wrestling points. In the end God is judge and He has allowed for our covenant partner to take the fall for our unrighteousness. And we get the grace to become more and more righteous. The standard is God. Lot didn’t get a lot of good righteous acts recorded but he still saw the flaws around him and tried to remedy them with imperfect solutions. When God told him to run, he ran, when He told him to not look back he didn’t. So we do get to see him listen to God’s instructions.
Sodom we are told was wicked. And we see with their interaction with Lot, they will not admit fault. Should we be surprised, when we see the lost acting wickedly? Doesn’t proverbs tell us that the wicked cannot sleep until they have done something evil(4:16)? Or that correcting the wicked receives insult(9:7)? Can we expect those who do not believe in God to live by God’s standards? Or to desire to live by a ‘non-existant God’s’ standards(by their understanding)? No, as Chris put it “our job is not to clean up the world” and it wouldn’t go so well if it was our job.
But we need to see (discern) the lawless deeds of the unrighteousness, see them as wrong, in order to avoid doing the lawless deeds, but without condemning them because that’s not our place. But also love them as you would love yourself…….
So essentially, this is the longest and most confusing ditto ever.
Our response should be love from an aching heart. The offering of the gospel. And a Lot of earnest prayer.
A,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts today! You obviously have a curious mind and a gift for asking questions! 🙂
A couple of thoughts:
I deeply appreciate your comment when you wrote, “I love the aspects of life that are hard to balance or understand, they reveal God’s unfathomable wisdom and knowledge.” This is something I wrestle with personally, and I am glad you pointed out that there is something worthwhile in the struggles we might encounter in life.
You pose many good questions. This one seems especially pertinent:
“If one can be credited righteousness, how can we observe it?”
We will be talking about righteousness more in the coming days. This question is a good one to keep in mind as we work through Peter’s letter.
Another question that you posed was, “Can we say the seeing unrighteousness is then inadmission of faults?”
I like this question because it speaks to our human tendency towards pride. It is often pride that keeps us from admitting our faults, and pride that puts self before all else. Going back to your question about observing righteousness, I think you might be on to something here.
Finally, I appreciated your questions about Lot’s questionable behavior, but also that you pointed out that he obeyed God when it came time to run away from Sodom and Gomorrah.
Thank you for sharing!
Thank you A I enjoyed your comment.
As a Contractor,..I would probably say,..You’re Fired!,..
As a believer in Christ I kinda just shake my head,..sometimes I have to laugh at it all because of the stupidity of it all,..laughter is the best medicine,..it may not be the right thing to do,..but what is these days? Seems like whatever seems right is wrong and whatever seems wrong is right,..One thing for sure is that the gospel ( As Chris pointed out ) will always be right and will never be a wrong,..As with prayer,..such a vital necessity these days,..
Thanks for sharing the moments of your divine visit in the hospital Ron,..very touching,..
John,
I have to agree about laughing! It is such a joy to be able to breathe deeply and chuckle or laugh at the absurdity of the world. Of course there are times we have to cry as well. (Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8)
I’m not sure what a Christians response to the depraved conduct of the lawless is or should be except a reflection of Christ. I may be wrong and I’m still learning so please have grace, understanding, patience, kindness and compassion to help guide me. It’s nice that some Christians have had conversations with me to realize right from wrong, getting me to see a better way to live and why. I’d like to think that those Christians that have helped me turn from sin and to follow Jesus would try to help the lawless the same way. Not judging them or treat them bad for not knowing Christ but to show them who Jesus is and why He died for them.
Mr. T,
You are on the right track! In Matthew 5: 43-48 Jesus addresses this question. “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”
Following Jesus on this path is hard, at least it is for me. Yet, it is very rewarding. It is a bit like the game of “Hot Potato.” When we worry about the wrong in the world we carry the potato. When we pray for those who do wrong we give the potato to God. He actually prefers that we do that. It is a sign that we trust him. He likes that! 🙂