Recognized for What They Are

February 20

“I saw under the sun: In the place of judgment, wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, iniquity was there. I said in my heart, ‘God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work,’" Ecclesiastes 3:16, 17.

The wickedness around us merits judgment; wickedness deserves to be in the place of judgment, but we don’t anticipate seeing iniquity in the place of righteousness!

There are some aspects of life and law and love that we expect to be squarely in sync with the immutable will of God.

We strive to anchor our lives to the truth that is eternal and in so doing, we anticipate a smooth flow of our day-to-day activity that will be totally compatible with the Lord’s perfect plan for us.

We endeavor to comply with His eternal law and in so doing, to find ourselves to be in right standing with everyone around us, for in our obedience to the law of God, we cannot imagine that we could offend any man.

The law of love, that tells us that we “must love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your strength and you must love your neighbor as yourself,” Luke 10:27, is one we obey to the utmost of our ability.

But sometimes God’s perfect plan for us seems to go awry. Sometimes our compliance with the law of God places us at odds with the law of man. And there are indeed times when in loving the Lord our neighbor takes offense in us.

What are we to do when our compatibility with the perfect law of the Holy One places us at cross purposes with the law of man—especially in these closing days of time when wickedness abounds everywhere? When our surrender to Him places us in the cross-hairs of human fallibility or even exposes us to governmental injustice?

At those times when injustice encompasses us and when even those from whom we anticipate honor and truth and integrity disappoint us, we may stand on the assurance of King Solomon in Ecclesiastes 3:16, 17, there is a time of judgment coming when all things will be recognized for what they really are.

In the meantime, may HE give us grace, by the power of the Holy Spirit within us, to discern the right and to abide in the right—no matter how void of righteousness the world around us may become in these closing days of time.