Weekly Devotional 1-21-13 Fixing What’s Wrong
How does a society of people fix what’s legally or morally wrong within their society? An interesting question for sure. Many people would answer by controlling what is allowed or not allowed within the society by a set of laws and regulations. Other people may answer, “We have laws and regulations and yet these wrongs are increasing more and more each day.” They may say the answer is, “Society must make the penalties greater for violating those laws and regulations.” Others may say, “The means of committing those violations should be restricted or entirely removed.” But, do laws and regulations or penalties really fix what is legally or morally wrong within a society of people? The answer of course is proven to be no. So what is the solution?
The true answer is that the heart (the desires) of man must be changed. Until a person comes to the point where he (or she) detests that which is wrong, wrong will continue. It will not only continue, but will grow in complexity and in severity. Now, many will reject this solution and therein is the root of the problem. Until a person recognizes that there is something terribly wrong within himself (or herself) wrong will never be fixed. Having to have laws and regulations is evidence enough that there is something fundamentally wrong with man.
Years ago the Creator of the world gave a set of commands (laws), and if lived by, would end all wrong. Man in his rebellious state rejects those commands, those laws. In rejecting those commands (laws) man must rely upon his (or her) own sense of right and wrong which is of a debased nature. Man is a law unto himself, setting his own standards of conduct predicated on self which says I have a right of self satisfaction; whatever I want is okay, whether it violates societal laws or morality or not. Allow me to ask which brings harm, God’s (the Creator’s) laws or man’s own determinations? Consider His commands (laws),
“2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage… 3 You shall have no other gods before Me…4 You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth… 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them… 7 You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain…8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy…12 Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you… 13 You shall not murder… 14 You shall not commit adultery… 15 You shall not steal…16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor…17 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s” (Exodus 20:2-3; 4-5; 7; 8; 12; 13; 15-17 NKJV )
Now consider man’s determinations, “19Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like” (Galatians 5:19-21a (NKJV).
Every man (or woman) of course is not a murderer, nor an adulterer or adulteress, but man’s depraved nature leaves the door open for such deeds. Man has to be controlled either by outward influences or inward influence. As already stated, outward influences, i.e. laws and regulations, fail to do this. It is only when the inward man is changed that the laws and or regulations of society will be lived by, be it man’s law or God’s law. A change must occur in a person’s life before he or she can live by God’s law or even fully by man’s law. Lawful living is just not the makeup of fallen man.
It is difficult for the follower of the Lord Jesus Christ (a Christian) to live by God’s law (standards) because he or she battles with their old nature, but it is impossible for the non-Christian to so live. Remember the old axiom, “Where God isn’t, evil is, where evil is, God isn’t.” The two cannot coexist. Fixing what’s wrong will never be truly accomplished until man lives by God’s laws, not his own. The apostle Paul, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote, “Walk in the Holy Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16 NKJV). To walk in the Holy Spirit means to be under His authority, committed to His leading. Oh that the world, that you and I, would be so determined. Anything short of this prescription is doomed to failure.
Steve