The Bible consistently speaks of leaving the old way of life in terms of leaving the way of envy. Sins are like grapes, which means that they come in clusters, and so other things are consistently mentioned as well. A number of our sins do come in bundles. But one of the things we must …
A Serpent Impaled
It would be an easy mistake to think that the devil wants us all to become ethical relativists. But this is like thinking that the kidnapper wants the child to have some candy. It is like thinking the homeowner wants to the mouse to have a bit of cheese, and so he put some out …
We Don’t Understand!
I am visting California for a few days, and the fiscal/business woes here caused me to reflect on the mentality of those who are industriously ruining the country. The canker is well-advanced in some states — Illinois, say, or California — but the problem is everywhere.So why are Californians leaving California? What is causing the …
Three Kinds of Accusation
The human heart is not divided up into watertight compartments, and thus it is possible to make obvious distinctions in how we respond to accusation without making absolute distinctions. That said, people are generally put on the defensive by guilt, shame, or fear. Obviously, more than one can operate at a time, but generally one …
A World of Right Reason
When the apostle describes a generic condition of unbelief, it is interesting how he does it. When we lived in unbelief, what was the atmosphere we breathed continually? “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another” (Tit. 3:3). For …
God’s Gonna Cut You Down
Now if we come to the understanding that the devil is “the accuser,” and not God, what are we to make of the necessary holiness of God’s law? And how can we make sense of the Last Judgment? Doesn’t God run the Last Day, and not the devil? Go tell that long tongue liar,Go and …
A Blackmailed Planet
Perhaps you have noticed that our world runs on accusation. As distasteful as that reality is to everyone, we certainly act as though we know we need it. We accept it as a part of life, as a necessary evil. We use it for crowd control, we use it to direct kindergartners toward useful and …
A Lot More of the Old
As I listen to cultural analysts bemoaning the current state of American consumerism, and comparing it (to a disadvantage) to unnamed halcyon days of yore, I am struck by an inability to see the largest and most obvious feature of the whole set-up. The issue is not that Americans uniquely consume like nobody’s business, but …
Our Little Piggy Hearts
As we are now in the midst of farcical fiscal cliff negotiations, with the Republicans being lame and the Democrats being eeeevil, I thought I should handle this as a teachable moment. We should take these teachable moments whenever they arise, for there will be fewer and fewer of them as the clouds of economic …
Staggering Backward
Isaiah gives us a good description of what it is like to be ruled by those who have been struck with a judicial stupor. He also describes what it is like when a people are liberated from that rule. “The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful” …