For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
This proverb carries the implication that many people will do borderline unethical (and sometimes outright unethical) things in order to gain the good graces of those with authority. It is the responsibility of good leaders to demonstrate that such behavior will cause someone to be in their bad graces, no matter how much benefit accrues to the leader from those unethical actions (even if they are only borderline).
The wicked proudly refuse to seek God. They have no room in their thoughts for Him. The wicked believe that they can do as they please and no one can stop them. They are so arrogant that they crush the powerless without a second thought. However, God sees the trouble they cause and the grief they inflict on the innocent. He will stand up for the fatherless and hold the wicked to account.
Paul starts today’s passage, and his teachings in this letter, by telling us that no one has an excuse for not knowing about God. God’s invisible qualities are demonstrated through the universe which He created. All one has to do is look. Despite the evidence, people chose not to worship God and refused to thank Him for creating them. Instead, they invented their own ideas about what to worship. In an effort to appear wise, they chose foolishness; choosing to worship gods made in their own image, or in the image of aspects of the world around them.
The result of rejecting God was that God allowed their sinful desires to corrupt their sexuality. When people reject God they degrade their bodies with sexual impurity. As I read this, when we reject God one of the first steps is that we degrade our own bodies while we seek sexual pleasure in inappropriate ways. This is quickly followed by degrading others in order to serve our sexual pleasure. Paul describes a progression which happens. Once one rejects God, He allows our sinful desires to harness our sexuality to take control over us. This leads to us treating ourselves and others as objects for sexual gratification. Part of that progression is that some people reject natural sexual behavior in favor of homosexual activity (women having sex with women, men having sex with men).
When people decide that it is foolish to believe in God, He allows them to think that foolishness is wisdom. The result of this is that when we refuse to acknowledge God we do things which should never be done, homosexual activity is but the least of these things. As we descend into such foolishness, we invent new ways of sinning. As we get caught up in such things, we know they are wrong, but continue doing them anyway. Worse still, we encourage others to do the same.
I know that for the most part I have just restated what Paul wrote, but it seems that so many in the Church today refuse to acknowledge as truth what Paul says here. It is important to remember as we read this that its primary purpose is not to allow us to judge others. It is to measure our own behavior. The first question it raises is, have we allowed our sinful desires to warp our sexuality? However, we need to read verses 29 through 32 and ask ourselves how many of these have we done (and continue to do)? Do we refuse to understand others? Do we break our promises? Are we heartless? Do we lack mercy?
David learned the lesson from his first attempt to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. This time he instructed that only Levites would be allowed to carry the Ark. Further he called all of the people of Israel to come and celebrate the moving of the Ark. This was to be an opportunity for all of Israel to unify and worship God. It appears to have worked.
David commemorated the event by writing a song which is recorded here. The verses which speak strongest to me today, which summarize what I see as the meaning of this song are verses 23 and 24:
Each day proclaim the good news that he saves.
Publish his glorious deeds among the nations.
Tell everyone about the amazing things he does.
I will strive to sing to the Lord each day. If in no other way, I will proclaim that God saves by publishing this blog, but I know that God is calling me to do more. This song calls me to work harder to publish more about God’s glorious deeds, to be more enthusiastic in telling people about the amazing things God has done.
