We live in an upside-down world.
Success is demonized, abortion is celebrated, and the WNBA can’t figure out what the “W” in its name stands for.
While these manifestations of human depravity might be unique to our time in history, we’ve been at this game for a while.
In the eighth century BC, the prophet Isaiah uttered these words to the people of Judah:
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
The thing about living in the midst of spiritual darkness is that those who dare to oppose it are shunned, mocked, or even killed, as we saw with Charlie Kirk. According to tradition, Isaiah was sawn to death by Judah’s King Manasseh, and John the Baptist was beheaded for chastising the puppet king Herod Antipas for marrying his brother’s wife.
As Jesus said, “people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.”
While it’s easy to identify the moral shortcomings of our society, it can be challenging to acknowledge and confront our own. However, personal integrity is essential to succeed in transforming culture.
Saint John succinctly summarized the temptations we all face as “the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life.” I imagine these characterizations bring a personal struggle to mind for most of us.
The Apostle Paul warned that “if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
Paul knew what he was talking about from firsthand experience, and his story is proof that God can use severely flawed people to advance his kingdom when they turn from darkness and walk in the light.
Paul, who referred to himself as the “chief” of sinners, evangelized much of the Roman Empire and wrote nearly half of the books in the New Testament despite giving his consent to Saint Stephen’s death and persecuting the early church before he was converted.
Many other giants of the faith also led lives marked by immorality prior to their conversion and Christian witness.
Saint Augustine became an outspoken critic of the Roman Empire’s moral decay after he repented from a life of fornication. John Newton became a preacher and leading proponent for the abolition of the British slave trade after working as the captain of a slave ship. Chuck Colson, an advisor to President Richard Nixon who went to prison for his role in the Watergate scandal, later founded an international prison ministry and became a prominent Christian apologist.
While the moral failures of these men certainly shock the conscience, the shortcomings that hinder us from having an impact on our society typically aren’t quite so profound. More often, they’re subtle compromises with vices like lack of discipline, disordered priorities, gossip, and lust.
It’s tempting to dismiss these vices as minor character flaws, but for most of us, they’re more pernicious in destroying our witness than spectacular acts of wickedness. As C.S. Lewis writes in The Screwtape Letters, “the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”
How can we guard against losing our integrity in a world full of opportunities to compromise our values?
As Paul writes in his epistle to the Galatians, “walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
When we submit to God in our daily lives, Paul explains to the Philippians, we “shine as lights in the world,” illuminating the darkness of our “crooked and twisted generation.”
That’s what our upside-down world needs.
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