“What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.” (Isaiah 5:20)
Sadly, we find ourselves living in a world that is on a path of forsaking the sacred for the secular. Allow me to explain what I mean. First, what is the meaning of sacred? Sacred is whatever God proclaims to be holy and revered. The Bible is sacred, as is the name Jesus Christ. God and His laws are sacred. Anything associated with a holy God and the worship of Him. I Samuel 2:2 defines God’s sacredness as, “There is none holy like the Lord; there is none besides you.”
So what does secular mean? Secular refers to something that has no religious or spiritual basis to it. It is the belief that man does not need God. Secularism is a system of practices that disregard and reject any form of faith in God. Its primary objective is the total elimination of religion from society. Secularism teaches that there are no objective or absolute truths that define right and wrong. Instead, it makes man the center of determining right from wrong. Back in the time when Israel had no king, Judges 17:6 tells us, “All the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.” Does that not define what we are seeing in our culture today? We are seeing God removed from our schools, courtrooms and congressional hallways. Sadly, we are even seeing God removed from many of our churches. Situational ethics are replacing moral absolutes. Murder is tolerable because a woman has a right to do with her body what she pleases. Marriage is no longer defined by the standards God set forth. Secularism has no limits to what people want to do – as long as it seems right in their own eyes. In secularism, religion is but a relic of the past.
The worse thing about secularism is what it can lead to – it can lead to what the bible refers to as reprobate. Reprobate is literally “an unfit mind.” A mind that is incapable of properly preforming the function of any moral discrimination. A reprobate is one who “calls evil good and good evil, who calls dark light and light dark, who calls bitter sweet and sweet bitter,” as our focus verse says. The apostle Paul wrote about the sad results of reprobate minds in Romans 1:28 – “They did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved (reprobate) mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.” In other words, God gives them what they want because there is not repentance on their part.
My words of caution for this week are these. Be very careful to hold on to and adhere to what is sacred. Avoid at all cost what is secular. “Be holy in all your conduct.” (I Peter 1:15)
Darlene