Week 47 Devotions

November 19 - - When talking about various examples of evil in the peaceful town of Mayberry, Barney Fife used to tell Andy they needed to take action against that evil. His words were specifically, that we need to, “Nip it. Nip it in the Bud!” In other words, whenever crime was committed, it needed to be dealt with right away before it got a toehold in Mayberry and infected others who would then follow suit. In I Corinthians 5, Paul addresses an ugly situation in the church at Corinth. A stepson was living in sin with his father’s wife (vs.1). Sadly, no one in the church was doing anything about it. Everyone conveniently looked the other way and said nothing to the individual. Not only were this young man’s actions sinful, but Paul contends that allowing sin to remain among them would have a terrible influence on the rest of the body. “Don’t you realize that if even one person is allowed to go on sinning, soon all will be affected? Remove this wicked person from among you so that you can stay pure” (vss.6&7). Elsewhere, Paul had written, “bad company corrupts good character” (I Cor.15:33). And, “It takes only one wrong person among you to infect all the others - - a little yeast spreads quickly through the whole batch of dough” (Galatians 5:9). The Proverb writer agreed, “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend” (27:17). Good people can either influence their friends to do good, or bad people will influence their friends to do evil. That is why Jesus cautioned his disciples to, “beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6; 12:1). He knew the hypocritical lifestyles and teach-ings of these so-called religious teachers could adversely affect his followers if they were not careful. So, Paul takes to task the Corinthian Christians for allowing this man to get away with his sin without confronting him on it. Apparently, Paul had written an earlier letter (vs.9) in which he told the Corinthian Christians not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. He clarifies his earlier remark by saying that he was not referring to non-christians. If that was the case, we would all have to go into a monastery and live in total isolation. “What I meant was that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a Christian yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or a drunkard, or a swindler” (vs.11). God will judge those outside of Christ, but it our responsibility to judge and hold accountable those who claim to belong to the family of Christ (vss.12&13). For, if we don’t keep each other accountable, who will? If we don’t hold one another to the higher standards set by Christ, who will? To be sure, our speech, even in confrontation should be “full of grace and seasoned with salt” (Colossians 4:6; Ephesians 4:15; John 1:14), but love demands that we expect righteous living from those who claim to be righteous. November 23 - - On March 3, 1991, Rodney King led Los Angeles police on a high speed pursuit. After driving through several red lights and stop signs, King finally pulled over. A video taken by a private citizen shows police officers beating King and the footage was televised over and over so that nearly everyone in America saw the beating taking place. Four of the officers were charged with using excessive force. When only one of the four was convicted on April 29, 1992, the acquittal of the other three triggered four days of massive riots. By the time the police and the United States Army, Marines, and National Guard restored order, the property damage totaled over $1 billion. More than 3,100 businesses were damaged. There were 7,000 responses to fires by the Fire Department. 55 people had died and there were nearly 2,400 people injured. A mob of people takes on a personality all of it’s own and it is usually ugly and evil. Individual personalities are consumed by the personality of the mob. People forget their personal moral code as they are caught up in the immoral anger of the mob. We see an example of that in Ephesus in Acts 19. Some of the local businessmen felt the preaching of Paul was resulting in the loss of revenue as the demand for idols decreased. Lies were used to incite people. Shouting ensued. Confusion reigned, and the mob was ready to take somebody’s life. Fortunately, reason eventually prevailed and the crowd dispersed before any-one was hurt. But, there are other stories in scripture of mobs out of control that did not end so peacefully (Acts 7:52-8:1; 14:19&20; 21:27-22:25). It does not take long for lies and anger to work it’s way through a crowd of people like yeast in bread (I Corinthians 5:6-8). Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel (Romans 1:16) and he was prepared to rush in and defend the truth (Acts 19:30&31). But, as the writer of Ecclesiastes reminded us, “there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven......a time to be silent and a time to speak” (3:1,7). Sounder minds prevailed and convinced Paul this was a time for him to remain silent and let the situation work out itself. As God’s chosen people (Colossians 3:12; I Peter 1:2), we will all be faced with times when we can choose to participate in the mindless meanderings of a mob. In that moment, we can refuse to belong to the mob, or we can stand for truth and try to bring sense to the mob (Acts 5:33-40; 19:35-41). But, “whatever we do or say, we are to do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3:17), with “our conversation gracious and effective so that we will have the right answer for everyone” (Col.4:6).