The Obedience of Faith Continuing Reflection 2

Did you know that unrighteousness is malignantly “evangelical” and seeks to convert you to its own way?  This last verse of Chapter One is alarming:

Romans 1:32  “Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”

Let me share a memory with you.  I am a recovered alcoholic and I had better never forget it.  Towards the end of my second year of sobriety (forty years ago) we had a Sunday morning baptism at the Church I was serving.  Following the baptism we went back to the home of the parents for a baptismal party where we were met at the door by the child’s grandmother with a drink in her hand.  She was obviously too merry for 11:30 in the morning.  The first thing she did in greeting me was offer me a drink.  I said, “No thank you, I don’t drink,” but she did not want to take “No” for an answer.  She was drinking and she needed me to join her in her dissipation and she continued to press me to join her in drinking.  Not just once, but several times.  At last, in frustration, I said, “I don’t drink because I’m a recovered alcoholic.”  She responded, “You can’t be.  You’re too young.”  For the rest of the party she made herself scarce and avoided me like the plague.  Above all it was apparent that she, who was having a problem with alcohol, needed the priest to join her so that she could feel justified in drinking that early in the morning. 

Never mistake the malignant evangelicalism of evil.  What the unrighteous want you to do is to share in their wicked deeds so that they can avoid the challenge with which your life confronts them.  In the context of the sexual immorality of our day it is clear that those who do such things desperately seek our approval, for the very thing they want to avoid is that those deeds are not in the sight of God acceptable.  That is one reason why there is such a press towards the acceptance of same sex marriage in the church.  For them it is a terrible thing that you avoid the sparkling sins that for them is the very sign of their liberty from an oppressive God.  But be careful, the next chapter will be merciless on the self-righteous who themselves have their own sparkling sins.