As a Boy our family lived for a short time in a small west Texas oil boom-town that smelled like rotten eggs. We could detect the smell for several miles away whenever we approached the city limits, due to the oil wells nearby that were pumping and releasing the horrific odor.
When we first arrived there the stench was so strong that it completely took our appetite away. Yet, after awhile, our noses adjusted to the foul smell and we were not aware of it unless we left town for awhile. Then upon returning, we had to get used to the awful smell all over again.
Sin is like that. At first it smells really badly, but after being around it for awhile, one can become so used to it that it is no longer repugnant.
Swearing is a good example. Sweet dear old sisters who lead a sheltered life are aghast if they hear someone taking the Lord’s name in vain, but those who have to work in the world may hear it so often that it no longer shocks them.
Yet, God’s opinion of swearing has not changed. We remember the incident recorded in Leviticus when a young man was involved in a fight with an Israelite man and he “blasphemed the name of the LORD, and cursed.” Those who witnessed it brought the young man to Moses. It seemed that no one knew just what to do so they locked the boy up until they could determine “the mind of the LORD.” And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, “Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him.” That man never swore again. Has the Lord changed His mind about cursing since then? We know that He hasn’t because Malachi tells us, “For I am the LORD, I change not.”
What would happen if anyone who has ever said a swear word were to suddenly drop dead? No traffic, no one in the stores; the streets would be deserted. Just because everyone does it does not make it right, and as God’s children, we had better be careful that we are not guilty of this terrible sin. How thankful we are for forgiveness, for “If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O LORD, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.”
One thing we can say to the credit of Lot is that even though he was around the sinners in Sodom and Gomorrah every day, he did not get used to it. Peter tells us that God “delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.”
This disapproval needs to be our attitude toward the profane language of those around us. Of course we are wise to avoid bad company whenever possible, but sometimes our work is such that we cannot avoid hearing profane conversation. Let us not get used to the foul smell of sin, and let us never allow our bodies to adjust to it so that it is no longer repugnant to us.
Let us, like Lot, make sure that when we are surrounded by the world, we are “vexed everyday by the filthy conversation of the wicked.” And unlike Lot, let us pitch our tent as far away from the world as we can so that we and our family may be saved with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One