"The Moral Negative" August 27 Readings: Isaiah 4-5, Romans 16, Psalm 102:10–16, Proverbs 21:14–15

Today's Readings - Isaiah 4-5, Romans 16, Psalm 102:10–16, Proverbs 21:14–15

Devotional - The Moral Negative 

We live in a culture that is a moral negative.  

I am not talking about “negativity,” the bogie-man of the new age.   Actually, I am convinced negativity can be honorable.  Of God’s ten laws, eight of them are stated in the negative.  “Thou shalt not.”  That is an 80% negativity rate.  Flawed human beings need limits to inhibit our sinful behavior. Negativity is not all bad. 

I am talking about the kind of negative you develop a picture from (back in the old days before these new-fangled digital cameras took over).  On the photographic negative, dark colors appear as light and light looks dark.  The image is reversed.  A moral negative exists when right and wrong, good and bad, moral light and dark are reversed.  There have always been people with morally negative consciences.  The culture of the moral negative develops when this kind of conscience becomes prominent in a society.  

In Isaiah 5:20, God spoke through the prophet and said, 

Woe to those who call evil good

and good evil,

who substitute darkness for light

and light for darkness,

who substitute bitter for sweet

and sweet for bitter.

Woe to the culture of the moral negative. 

Is America such a culture?  Need I even argue the point? Our Supreme Court regularly issues decrees that turn biblical morality on its head. The evil today is not to do evil, but to call evil evil! We’ve watched in horror as one video after another has been released displaying for all to see the unspeakable wickedness of Planned Parenthood, and people defend it as “Women’s health.” We’ve seen the release of stolen data from Ashley Madison evil site, where married people went to have affairs. The shame is just beginning to descend. Evangelism is called hate speech, tolerance of evil is seen as a virtue, and our government leaders have begun to restrict many of our most precious freedoms. Dark is light and light is dark. We have become a nation of the moral negative. 

A couple came into my office asking if I would do their wedding at our church. We talked for a while and I figured out that they were not living their lives in accordance with the Scriptures – not even close. I said that I didn’t think I could perform their marriage unless they were willing to submit themselves to Christ and to the word of God. There was not a hint of shame or sorrow for sin in them. Not a bit. There was a lot of anger. How dare I call their lifestyle and choices into question? “We are good people,” she declared. Think about it. They came into a church to ask a favor and were angry that the church would not compromise its beliefs and convictions for their benefit. They were not willing to bow to Christ but wanted the church to bow to them. A moral negative.

America has always had its issues. We’d like to see it as a Christian utopia in days gone by, and there is much that has been admirable about our land, but our history with race and the treatment of minorities (blacks, the native peoples) makes the claim of Christian utopia impossible. We’ve always been sinners, in one form or another.

But in recent years, moral depravity has taken us to the brink. Who is to blame? Shall we decry the liberals, the pornographers, the traffickers, the abortionists? God has pulled back the curtain of societal and systemic abuse of women in every corner from Hollywood to evangelical churches. Of course, the deeds of the unredeemed are evil! But God’s word lays the blame elsewhere. Never blame the darkness for the darkness. We are the light of the world, responsible to reflect the light of Christ into the dark world. We are the salt of the earth. We ought to look within and ask if we are shining the light of Christ and letting the salt of Christ inhibit decay.

Are things hopeless?  Not at all.  Israel, at the end of the period of the Judges, had embraced debauchery in a way that might have made Hugh Hefner blush.  They were a culture of the moral negative.  But, Israel’s greatest days were only about 50 years in the future. 

How did things change?  One man, a prophet named Samuel, gave himself to God and his ways.  He led Israel and proclaimed truth for many years.  He anointed a king who was “a man after God’s own heart.”  David led Israel to its greatest days of glory. 

Nothing is hopeless in this world.  When the Colonies had turned to Unitarianism, skepticism, and spiritual apathy, God visited us with a Great Awakening.  He did it again after the Revolutionary War.  The amazing Welsh revival swam the Atlantic and revived our land at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. 

Will God do it again?  I don’t know.  But we will get nowhere by cursing the negative.  We must recommit ourselves to being the salt and light we were called to be; to proclaim the life-transforming gospel of Jesus Christ.  

Oh, Father, develop my life into a print of your glory. May your light shine through me and may the salt of Christ never lose its saltiness through me.

Think and Pray

Which of the readings spoke most powerfully to you today?
Is the Spirit of God moving you to repent of something you are doing, to begin something new, or to change something about your life as a result of your readings? What?

How do you deal with the "moral negative" in which we live?
Do you despair? Become critical and condemning?
Or do you, in the power of Christ, shine the light of truth?