2 Thessalonians 2:7-8 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
1 John 3:4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
There is a disturbing survey posted at BREITBART.COM (thanks Shane for the link).
There it is reported that the degree of lawlessness among American teens is truly "alarming." They polled 30,000 young folks and discovered that lying, cheating and stealing is part of the lifestyle of about 30% of the teen age population. Most disturbing is that those youngsters in religious private school demonstrate the same behavior patterns. The only group that shows a better record are those in non-religious private schools, an interesting and perplexing data point.
We might begin to wring our hands at this and wonder how this circumstance has arisen. We might point to the cynical nature of much modern music and cultural influences (video games that make lawless behavior the means of "winning"). I don't think we need go that far. We only need look at the trees from which these young folks are the fruit. When we do it is not quite so much a problem "out there" anymore.
A single, seemingly trivial example might suffice. It is no longer unusual, when I am at a particular intersection I often cross, to have the first car in the oncoming lane to accelerate quickly and with tires squealing make an illegal left turn in front of me. It is irritating to the max but my irritation is not the worst consequence. What this behavior reveals, in the adult driving the other car, is a fundamental conviction that "it's OK if I can get away with it." The driver most like is not at the intersection for the first time. He/she could have gone another, slightly more circuitous route and avoided this intersection, but they chose not to. This is conditioned behavior stemming from past experience. It is lawlessness.
When Jesus speaks of those who have been faithful "in little" being given much in the way of responsibility in privilege, His words are directed at the little things in life. The ordinary circumstance when someone is not looking, that opportunity for self-gratification or enhancement in some form is possible, but which is illegal, immoral or both, is in view. Being faithful then requires an idea that virtue is its own reward, that integrity is more important than convenience, that breaking the least of the commandments and teaching others to do the same, by example or precept, is specifically condemned by Christ Himself.
Christians today need to awaken to the call for personal holiness in detail. To be sanctified unto the Lord is to turn away from lawlessness in all its wickedness at every level. How can we expect our teens to honor Christ with their lives as well as their lips when they see the wicked prospering at every turn and people, even their own role models, not taking notice nor speaking against it.
We have a problem.... a generation of vipers is not born from parents who are sheep. We need to fix it... now.
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