2Pe 2:7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
2Pe 2:8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
2Pe 2:9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
Of all the things we think of when we consider Lot and his family, righteous is not one we quickly associate with him.
Lot saw the green fertile fields and went that way. Lot saw. His eyes led him to a wicked area, even though he probably knew the reputation of the area. Even though he knew that there was corruption and perversion he went that way. He dwelt in the fertile plains of Jordan and cast his tent towards Sodom. He walked out of his door every morning and the first thing his eyes saw was Sodom.
He started in the plains of Jordan and slowly (or so I think) made his way toward Sodom.
Lot saw the easiest way to be successful and he took it. He went to where the green grass and water were. He went to the fertile lands, the popular place.
Lot became successful, Lot became a leader in the city. Lot was in the midst of the evil and he dwelt there. The Bible here says that his soul was vexed with the filthy conversation (lifestyles of sin) that were all around him.
Lot went and dwelt among sin and was vexed sorely in his soul.
In the course of events it is said that Lot decried the men of the city who were trying to get to the strangers and they said words to this effect "you came among us and now set yourself up to judge us? You live here and dwelt with us and now you want us to not be us?".
Lot had lost any assumed authority when it was no longer convenient for these people to listen to him, when he failed to go along with their plans, their desires, they no longer wanted him around.
Lot stood up for the men who came to his house, he put himself between them and the evil doers. What Lot did not realize is that he had already lost his testimony, he had already lost his standing.
He had already condoned their actions by his silence and now they didn't want to hear a thing he had to say.
He had let his family marry into that crowd, he had let his family mingle and make friends of the people of that city. He had not stood firm in his convictions, he had followed his wallet.
Lot tried to stand after sitting among them and he failed miserably.
Where did the problem begin?
When he looked toward Sodom. When he started slowly making his way there. When he chased after money and failed to see the wickedness around him for what it is. He mingled among them and became one of them and he failed!
He failed his family.
He failed his friends.
He failed the city.
He failed his God.
When he went to tell his family that God was going to destroy the city they thought he was joking. They didn't listen.
He had lost his testimony, his moral authority because they had never seen him take a stand until it was too late.
There is a reason God says to us come out from among them and be ye separate.
There is a reason He says not to look upon them favorably.
We are of them no more, but we are of God. We are of the family of God.
We are to be the light amongst them, not the life of the party.
We are to be the ones shining the Light of a Holy, Pure, and Just God on their actions. We are to love them but we are not to enable them, coddle them!
We are to be the ones crying out in their darkness, calling them to the light.
Not smiling at them as we silently condone their actions, their wickedness.
Not mingling and mixing in what they do, what they say.
We are to be vexed in our souls by their sins!
We are to be vexed in our souls by our sins.
We are not to be comfortable in their sin, complicit by our silence.
Do you look at the sin around you and say it is not my problem it does not affect me?
Do you say what they do in the privacy of their home does not affect me?
But it does. The more we turn a blind eye the more ground the sin will cover. The less we speak out about it the more it becomes accepted.
It starts small, but it grows faster in a vacuum. When we are silent, when we are not speaking out against sin, they will fill the void with their words and voices for sin.
Lot was in the midst of a godless society and by his silence he condoned it, then when the time came to make a stand he had no footing.
When it came time to be a light, he could not get them to listen because he had ruined his testimony.
Not by what he did but by what he did not do, what he did not say.
2Pe 2:8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
2Pe 2:9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
Of all the things we think of when we consider Lot and his family, righteous is not one we quickly associate with him.
Lot saw the green fertile fields and went that way. Lot saw. His eyes led him to a wicked area, even though he probably knew the reputation of the area. Even though he knew that there was corruption and perversion he went that way. He dwelt in the fertile plains of Jordan and cast his tent towards Sodom. He walked out of his door every morning and the first thing his eyes saw was Sodom.
He started in the plains of Jordan and slowly (or so I think) made his way toward Sodom.
Lot saw the easiest way to be successful and he took it. He went to where the green grass and water were. He went to the fertile lands, the popular place.
Lot became successful, Lot became a leader in the city. Lot was in the midst of the evil and he dwelt there. The Bible here says that his soul was vexed with the filthy conversation (lifestyles of sin) that were all around him.
Lot went and dwelt among sin and was vexed sorely in his soul.
In the course of events it is said that Lot decried the men of the city who were trying to get to the strangers and they said words to this effect "you came among us and now set yourself up to judge us? You live here and dwelt with us and now you want us to not be us?".
Lot had lost any assumed authority when it was no longer convenient for these people to listen to him, when he failed to go along with their plans, their desires, they no longer wanted him around.
Lot stood up for the men who came to his house, he put himself between them and the evil doers. What Lot did not realize is that he had already lost his testimony, he had already lost his standing.
He had already condoned their actions by his silence and now they didn't want to hear a thing he had to say.
He had let his family marry into that crowd, he had let his family mingle and make friends of the people of that city. He had not stood firm in his convictions, he had followed his wallet.
Lot tried to stand after sitting among them and he failed miserably.
Where did the problem begin?
When he looked toward Sodom. When he started slowly making his way there. When he chased after money and failed to see the wickedness around him for what it is. He mingled among them and became one of them and he failed!
He failed his family.
He failed his friends.
He failed the city.
He failed his God.
When he went to tell his family that God was going to destroy the city they thought he was joking. They didn't listen.
He had lost his testimony, his moral authority because they had never seen him take a stand until it was too late.
There is a reason God says to us come out from among them and be ye separate.
There is a reason He says not to look upon them favorably.
We are of them no more, but we are of God. We are of the family of God.
We are to be the light amongst them, not the life of the party.
We are to be the ones shining the Light of a Holy, Pure, and Just God on their actions. We are to love them but we are not to enable them, coddle them!
We are to be the ones crying out in their darkness, calling them to the light.
Not smiling at them as we silently condone their actions, their wickedness.
Not mingling and mixing in what they do, what they say.
We are to be vexed in our souls by their sins!
We are to be vexed in our souls by our sins.
We are not to be comfortable in their sin, complicit by our silence.
Do you look at the sin around you and say it is not my problem it does not affect me?
Do you say what they do in the privacy of their home does not affect me?
But it does. The more we turn a blind eye the more ground the sin will cover. The less we speak out about it the more it becomes accepted.
It starts small, but it grows faster in a vacuum. When we are silent, when we are not speaking out against sin, they will fill the void with their words and voices for sin.
Lot was in the midst of a godless society and by his silence he condoned it, then when the time came to make a stand he had no footing.
When it came time to be a light, he could not get them to listen because he had ruined his testimony.
Not by what he did but by what he did not do, what he did not say.
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