THE TEN DUMBEST THINGS (Part 10)

In the not so distant past, everyone in America seemingly held to the standards of the Bible and to what God said was right and wrong. You didn’t hear about homosexuality; adultery was frowned upon, and the biggest sins were seemingly lying and cheating. Now evolution is taught as fact, and we don’t even raise a whimper. Now babies are being killed daily, but again do we hear anything from Christians? One person has said, “We haven’t been quiet, we’ve been comatose!” In the church, and among Christians, we have come to accept what God says is unacceptable.

We hardly bat an eye anymore if someone tells us of another divorce in the church (despite the fact that God says He hates divorce). Adultery goes on a lot, often by more influential members of the church. We are not surprised. In fact, if anyone challenges us and says that our manner of life is “sinful,” then we ask, “Doesn’t every one sin? Who has the right to judge me and my sin when everyone else does it?” We justify the sin that has become prevalent rather than confront it and deal with it in the way God has said.

In Matthew 13:24–30, we read a parable of how Satan works.

Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’” (NKJV)

Notice that Satan does not sow the seed while the farmer watches. He is surreptitious in all of his dealings. Satan knows that it works best this way—the tares and the wheat often grow together without trying to get rid of the tares, because if you do, the wheat will be destroyed as well.

The sad thing about this is that as the tares grow, the wheat suffers. This is perhaps the best reason why Satan uses this effort so successfully. As Christians grow in the midst of the world (remember that the field is the world), it becomes easier to accept the unacceptable. If God says it is unacceptable—all of our thoughts and efforts to say otherwise still don’t change the fact that it is unacceptable! Sadly, when Christians do accept the unacceptable, the light of the church and the Christian is dimmed or even snuffed out. On the other hand, if Christians do not accept the unacceptable—in the midst of the world they will stand out as never before!

It is sad that the world has so infected the church that in many situations we can’t tell the difference. What do we need to do to change this?

WE NEED TO WAKE UP! It is time for us to be raised out of our stupor and ignorance of what is happening, and we must wake up to what accepting the unacceptable is doing to the Lord and His body.

WE NEED TO SPEAK UP!

WE NEED TO SHAPE UP!

We need to make sure that we are living according to what God says! Let’s not accept the unacceptable!

This article is a part of a series based on the book, The Ten Dumbest Things Christians Do by Mark Atteberry.