| Be very careful, then, how you live … |
| —from Ephesians 5:15 |
Do you obey warning signs? I am tempted to opine that you probably obey most warning signs unless you happen to have a Concrete-Random Mind Style™, as described in the ground-breaking work by Professor and Phenomenologist, Anthony F. Gregorc, Ph.D. People with the Concrete-Random Mind Style™ tend to sincerely believe that rules do not apply to them. Rules, they believe, apply to lesser mortals—people who are not as intelligent, wise, or discerning as they are.
Fortunately, only a relatively small number of people in the overall population have the Concrete-Random Mind Style™. The rest of us usually obey most warning signs. If we’re told that some piece of machinery is dangerous, we stay back and keep our distance. If we’re told that a chemical might easily catch fire, we keep sources of ignition well away from that chemical.
In the spiritual realm, our sin nature that we inherited from Adam—and which we have done a pretty good job of feeding by our own sinful behavior—keeps us from heeding certain warning signs that God places in our pathway. Most of these warnings come from God’s written Word, the Bible. One example is contained within the words of the Apostle Paul, found in Ephesians 5:15-16:
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
Here, Paul enjoins “Christ’s-ones”—Christians—to make a determination to live wisely, and by so doing, make the most of every opportunity that God may give us to represent Him to a needy and dying world. Our motivation comes forth when we recognize that the days in which we live are evil days.
The late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. contributed many wonderful and profound words that have guided several generations of people toward a more harmonious relationship with each other. While some still cling to the idea that we are strongly divided along racial lines, we only have to look at our own lives to realize how far we have come over the course of the last 70 years. Nevertheless, we must realize that some have still bolstered the idea that people of non-Caucasian races are always and forever at a disadvantage. If that claim has any truth at all, it is based more on behavior than on race, more on socioeconomic class than on race, more on news media coverage than on race, more on a striving for political advantage than on race.
But, in my personal opinion, one of the statements of Dr. King that is often quoted does not fully ring true to the teachings of Scripture. This phrase comes from King’s use of a quotation developed by Unitarian minister and prominent American Transcendentalist, Theodore Parker, who first used the phrase in a series of ten sermons he published in 1853. In one of those sermons, Parker wrote:
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
As a Universalist who believed in the ultimate full reconciliation between all humans and God, it is easy to understand why Parker might have made such an assertion. However, if one takes that phrase purely in the temporal sense—that is in the sense of the “here and now”—I would have to strongly disagree. Within the context of our present world, there are many situations where evil has prevailed and will continue to prevail, until Christ returns at the end of the age to bring true reconciliation to all creation, including all humankind.
For example, take the matter of income redistribution. Jesus said, as recorded in Matthew 26:11 and Mark 14:7:
“The poor you will always have with you …”
Now the context of this verse has to do with the way a woman chose to use her financial resources: whether to buy expensive perfume to anoint Jesus just prior to His suffering, death, and burial, or give that money to feed the poor. Nevertheless, the concept that Jesus emphasized has always proven true throughout all the pages of history. Some people will be rich, others will be poor, still others will be somewhere in the middle of the economic continuum. There will not come a day, no matter what schemes humans may try to devise, whereby everyone will have equal financial resources. Even within the context of Marxist Communism, without fail every application of that flawed theory has always produced a larger and ever-growing number of poor people and an ever-growing smaller number of very rich people, who retain control of the systems of production and justice within a nation so enslaved by that evil philosophy.
As followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, Dr. King’s quoted statement only has true application if it is viewed within the never-ending hourglass of eternity. Once Christ returns and the full reality of His Kingdom is realized—including the rewarding of His followers and the casting into utter darkness of all those who have failed to bend their knee in fealty to the Great King Jesus—will it be possible to achieve true and lasting justice.
As we begin another new day, let’s remember to follow this warning from the Apostle Paul and live wisely. That includes rejecting the foolish ideas with which our current society continually bombards us. We cannot, we must not, allow our evil culture to try to define what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Anytime someone outside the household of faith tries to tell us how Christians should think, live, and act, we should immediately and wholeheartedly reject such advice. After all, we have God’s blessed written Word to guide us. And, we have the guidance of the indwelling Holy Spirit. What more do we need to heed the genuine warnings and loving instructions that God has given us.
