Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Romans 12:10
Where have the values of honesty, personal responsibility, honor, critical thinking, financial stability (zero debt) and accountability, chivalry, integrity, punctuality, respect for all human life (yes, even the babies still in the womb of their mother), truthfulness, kindness, patience, working hard, and acknowledging God … gone? Are our values slipping away as technology (AI and “social media”) redefines what actual ‘work’ and ‘value’ is? Have we ‘watered down’ what actual sin is? Has lying become acceptable and normalized? Why? Has ‘self’ become the number one in all of our focus?
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Philippians 2:3
What has caused our society to become so loose and accepting when it comes to stealing, killing, and destroying? Have we been listening to the wrong ‘voices’… and believed them? Whose voice and values have we been taking as our own?
What did Jesus say?
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10
Can we recognize ‘who’ we’ve allowed to be authority and what their actual ‘fruit’ is? Not what they say … but what they do / have done. Just look around – at who is in control and what they actually do. Are they truly seeking God’s advice and wisdom or are they just out for themselves? What has happened to Biblical values and principles? What has happened to the ‘fear of God’? What has happened to actual … honor? To me it seems as a whole in our country now … our focus has become ‘self’. Not God.
Has sexual immorality decreased or increased? Has human trafficking decreased or increased? Has hatred decreased or increased? Has disrespect for your ‘neighbor’ decreased or increased? Has debt decreased or increased? Has real kindness decreased or increased? Has crime decreased or increased in the last 50 years? Has the ‘fruit of the Holy Spirit’ decreased or increased in all the Churches that dot our country?
The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender. Proverbs 22:7
Has our society gone from a country honoring Ben Franklin’s saying, “neither a borrower nor a lender be,” to a society that is itself deeply in debt to the tune of trillions of dollars? Have we all become ‘slaves’ to debt without even knowing it?
What do we ‘honor’ today?
In the opening scripture the word ‘honor’ here in Greek is τιμή which gathers the ideas of worth, esteem, dignity, and price. Whether used of God, of Christ, of people, or of material goods, the term always measures value and calls for a response proportionate to that value. Knowing this … what can we determine that we as a nation actually ‘honor’ now? What does your “Church” honor? The ‘tithe’? Money? Volunteer time? What does your city or county honor? It’s citizens? Or God? Whose values are being ‘promoted’ in the society?
Are we slipping into more immorality as a society? Why? Who defines the Truth for you? Yourself? Are you the ‘end all’ when it comes to Truth and what is best for you?
Here is the Truth. EVERYONE will account for their lives BEFORE God at the end. NO ONE escapes His Judgement and accountability. Either you accept the ‘payment’ of your debt that Jesus paid for you, or you will have to pay it to God … yourself. The enemy of God has worked from the very beginning to obscure this Truth, and lied to the human race.
Which lies have you believed and taken as your own “truth”?
Father …show us Jesus! Move Holy Spirit and show us TRUTH! Reveal our sin and iniquity within us. Help us to turn to YOU!