September 20, 2024

Passage Read: Acts 28 - Romans 1
Meditation Verses: Romans 1:28-32

Thought

Turning away from God results in all kinds of depravity, not just sexual immorality and perversion, but all kinds of unrighteousness and wickedness and greed and murder and strife and gossip and arrogance and rebellion against parents and all kinds of unkindness. God stands for every form of righteousness and goodness, and when men decide they no longer need to listen to Him, they open themselves up to every form of evil. When men choose to deny the existence of God or reject His righteous standards, they open the way to do anything they can think of. They cast off all restraint. God alone sets the standard for righteousness, God alone is the standard for righteousness. Remove Him and there is no limit to the wickedness man can conceive.

Application

All these behaviors are worthy of death. But when men cast off the Lord, not only do they do them, they also encourage others to do these things too. They want rebellion to spread; they want others to join them in their rebellion so that they are not alone, so that they can convince themselves that there's nothing truly wrong in what they are doing. They desperately multiply the unfaithful among men to salve their own seared consciences. It doesn't start with sexual perversion, but it ends up there. The only solution or right response to any of these behaviors is to exalt God once again, establishing Him as the standard of righteousness to which all of us are expected to rise. He is not optional, nor is anything He represents. Either He is God in all things and over all things or He is denied. If I want to escape any of these behaviors, no matter how socially acceptable they may be, then I must acknowledge God as my God and surrender all my "wisdom" to His. Whatever He says must be what I believe and obey.