A Clear Reflection

December 19

“Hear the word of the LORD, you children of Israel, for the LORD brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break all restraint; with bloodshed upon bloodshed,” Hosea 4:1, 2.

"Harlotry, wine, and new wine enslave the heart. My people ask counsel from their wooden idols, and their staff informs them. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, and they have played the harlot against their God,” Hosea 4:11, 12.

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man, for God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil,” Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14.

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God,” I Corinthians 2:12.

“Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, (and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,” Colossians 3:9, 10.

Notice the progression in the above series of verses. The first two lay out several sins that are common to man. They were indulged by men in Biblical days and they are commonplace among men of our generation.

People who consider themselves to be good and honorable fall into these transgressions with a lightness that defies understanding—unless we factor in their total disregard for the existence of a Holy God. Whether indulging the sins of the tongue, remember the Word tells us that “liars shall have their place in hell,” Revelation 21:8, as will those who swear falsely, along with the murderer and the thief and those who indulge in harlotry.

To bow before false gods is spiritual harlotry and the Holy One does not take lightly the idols that modern man bows before (entertainment, self-indulgence, political power, to name a few) any more than He could tolerate the gods of stone and wood that ancient man bowed before.

To practice these transgressions is to offend the One who has the power to relegate us to eternal punishment, but to receive the Holy Spirit is to open the innermost recesses of our person-hood to the candle of truth that He shines within us, revealing the horror of our sin-filled nature and contrasting it to the transformation that can occur in the bosom of who we are if we will but invite the Savior into our heart.

When we have done that, when we have put off the old man with his proclivity to worldly and godless practices, and have put on Christ, according to the admonition in Galatians 3:27, we will be renewed in our minds.

We won’t think the way we used to think, we won’t talk the way we used to talk, we won’t act the way we used to act. We will not allow the impulses that drove us when we were under the influence of the world to control us; rather, we will surrender ourselves to the control of the Holy Spirit.

We will no longer strive to please our ‘self,’ while succumbing to the snare the enemy of our soul lays before us, but we will strive to know the Lord Jesus in the beauty of His holiness and to allow ourselves to be a clear reflection of His character and His salvation and His love.