"He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD"
It is really sad that we have lost sight of what wickedness is because this proverb is coming true in our day and age. Wickedness is behavior that is permanently beyond the boundaries of the Ten Commandments: when a person says that it is okay to regularly give into impulses to swear and be vulgar; when a person defends the impulses to rebel and lash back at authority; when someone says it is okay to give into sexual impulses outside of a lifetime-committed relationship called marriage between a man and a woman; when people justify that it is okay to take another's property because we don't like them or we disagree with them; when a person embraces the idea that scheming after another person's goods, property, and relationship is a good and altruistic thing. All of these things are currently true in American culture and this is an abomination to the Lord.
We don't understand God's definition of selfishness and sin. We want to do what we want, and we no longer want a god – any god – to tell us we can't do something we want to do.
Our culture is also embracing the idea that anyone who would restrict another person from being selfish or sinful is intolerant. We should let people do whatever they want. Who are we to judge them? We have completely forgotten the connection between righteousness and civilization. We take for granted that people will be civil and power will not be used abusively or corruptly.
We constantly hear: What harm can it do; who are they harming by doing that? The answer is that any selfish activity harms others and those beyond the Ten Commandments cause a breakdown in the fabric of society and the soul of the individual and the strength of the family. The breakdown is not displayed immediately or completely but weakens the individual, the family, and the community.
God does not hate these actions because He is a killjoy but because He knows that these actions will destroy our joy in relationships. They look like a shortcut to happiness, but they make others lose for one individual or group to win. When our culture, way of life, safety, and country are no longer in place, few will connect their destruction to the selfish impulses of wickedness. But we will have been corrupted from within and unable or unwilling as a culture to discipline ourselves away from the impulses to malicious selfishness. We wanted to allow certain members of our society to pursue their desires unfettered by convention or law or shame. Unless we repent and live in the restrictive box of the Ten Commandments, we will live to regret the destruction that is coming.
Until tomorrow,
Gil Stieglitz