Wild or Profane

Three events in the last few days have conspired to shed a different light on disobedience for me.  First there was an anonymous comment on a March post, “Accountability”.  Second, we had a discussion this morning on 1 Timothy 2 – 3 that covered what the text says about leadership in the church and the reality that many churches and denominations are ignoring what Paul wrote.  Lastly, the Moroccan pastor with whom I meet each Thursday and I were in Jeremiah 34 this morning.

The background of the comment and the discussion on leadership is what perhaps what made Jeremiah 34:16 nearly leap off the page.  Through Jeremiah God is telling Judah that their commitment to obey God and their subsequent ignoring of what He commanded profaned His name.

I do not think I have ever taken disobedience that seriously.  Yeah, pretty much I haven’t.

I have been reading a short book by D. A. Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God.  There is an extended quote that fits well here…

I recall meeting a young and articulate French West African when I was studying in Germany more than twenty years ago. We were both working diligently to improve our German, but once a week or so we had had enough, so we went out for a meal together and retreated to French, a language we both knew well. In the course of those meals we got to know each other. I learned that his wife was in London training to be a medical doctor. He himself was an engineer who needed fluency in German in order to pursue doctoral studies in engineering in Germany. 

Pretty soon I discovered that once or twice a week he disappeared into the red light district of town. Obviously he went to pay his money and have his woman. Eventually I got to know him well enough that I asked him what he would do if he discovered that his wife were doing something similar in London. 

“Oh,” he said, “I’d kill her.” 

“That’s a bit of a double standard, isn’t it?” I replied. 

“You don’t understand. Where I come from in Africa, the husband has the right to sleep with many women, but if a wife does it, she must be killed.” 

“But you told me that you were raised in a mission school. You know that the God of the Bible does not have double standards like that.” 

He gave me a bright smile and replied, “Ah, le bon Dieu; il doit nous pardonner; c’est son métier [Ah, God is good; he’s bound to forgive us; that’s his job].” 

D. A. Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2000), 65–66.

There it is.  That cavalier attitude that, quite frankly, I think too often I have toward my disobedience.  I know God will forgive, after all 1 John 1:9, right?

But God declared that disobedience was profaning His name.

I am due for a serious attitude adjustment.