Morning By Morning #205

Because of the violence against your brother Jacob…you will be destroyed forever…
While strangers carried off his wealth…you were like one of them.

Obadiah 10 – 11

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

Edom owed Israel some brotherly kindness in their time of need, but instead of helping, the men of Esau did nothing and, in effect, sided with Israel’s enemies. Special emphasis should be placed on the word you in our passage today: “You were like one of them,” as when Caesar cried out, “You too, Brutus!” A bad action can be made even worse due to the person who committed it. When we sin—we who are the chosen favorites of heaven—our sin is magnified and becomes a “crying” offense, like Brutus’s sin, because of indulging ourselves so grievously and sinning against our brother.

If an angel of heaven were to lay his hand on us while we are engaged in sin, he would not need any rebuke other than: “What! You too? What are you doing here?” Shall we—much forgiven, delivered, instructed, enriched, and blessed—dare to reach out our hand to do evil? “God forbid” (Rom. 6:2 KJV)!

Dear reader, a few minutes of confession may be quite beneficial to you this morning. Have you ever sinned like those who are wicked? Have you laughed at an unclean joke at a dinner party? Did the joke not even offend you, as though you were one of the lost? When others maligned the ways of God, did you stand by bashfully silent and thus become as one of the maligners to onlookers? When those of the world drove unfair bargains and business deals, were you a party to the deal? When others greedily pursued this type of vanity, were you as greedy for gain as they were? Is there any discernible difference between you and them?

Are you any different? This hits very close to home, but be honest with your own soul, making sure you are a “new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17) in Christ Jesus. But once you have made sure, jealously guard your walk with Him lest anyone will be able to say, “You are one of them.” You would never desire to share their eternal doom, so why be like them here? Don’t enter into their secret sins lest you come to the same ruin.

Side with the suffering people of God—not with the world!

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

As believers, there is a big difference between witnessing or ministering to the world and being like the world. Paul warns us:

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

2 Corinthians 6:14 – 17

Consistent with Paul’s message, James wrote: “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4).