How does instability affect me and others?
2 Peter 2:14They commit adultery with their eyes, and their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lure unstable people into sin, and they are well trained in greed. They live under God’s curse.
Instability makes us vulnerable to sin and to leading others into sin.
Proverbs 13:17An unreliable messenger stumbles into trouble, but a reliable messenger brings healing.
Isaiah 30:12-14This is the reply of the Holy One of Israel: “Because you despise what I tell you and trust instead in oppression and lies, calamity will come upon you suddenly—like a bulging wall that bursts and falls. In an instant it will collapse and come crashing down. You will be smashed like a piece of pottery—shattered so completely that there won’t be a piece big enough to carry coals from a fireplace or a little water from the well.”
Instability invites trouble into our lives.
Psalm 41:9Even my best friend, the one I trusted completely, the one who shared my food, has turned against me.
Isaiah 2:22Don’t put your trust in mere humans. They are as frail as breath. What good are they?
Jeremiah 17:5This is what the Lord says: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord.”
Instability leads us to disappoint others.
2 Peter 3:15-16Remember, the Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him—speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction.
Instability invites misunderstanding or the twisting of God’s Word, which leads to disaster for God’s people.
Job 8:13-19“The same happens to all who forget God. The hopes of the godless evaporate. Their confidence hangs by a thread. They are leaning on a spider’s web. They cling to their home for security, but it won’t last. They try to hold it tight, but it will not endure. The godless seem like a lush plant growing in the sunshine, its branches spreading across the garden. Its roots grow down through a pile of stones; it takes hold on a bed of rocks. But when it is uprooted, it’s as though it never existed! That’s the end of its life, and others spring up from the earth to replace it.”
Isaiah 31:1What sorrow awaits those who look to Egypt for help, trusting their horses, chariots, and charioteers and depending on the strength of human armies instead of looking to the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.
Hosea 10:2The hearts of the people are fickle; they are guilty and must be punished. The Lord will break down their altars and smash their sacred pillars.
Long-term instability usually leads many to eternal destruction.
