For that righteous man, dwelling among them, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. 2 Peter 2:83
Have you ever heard a positive sermon on the person of Lot? Neither have I, not that I can remember. We can easily pick holes in his character and his lack of a testimony in the city of Sodom. He was a man who minded earthly things, who compromised with the world about him, who became involved in Sodom’s politics, who had a pathetically poor influence on his own family. Easy to criticize, right, but I think he would fit right in with Christians in our world today.
Lot obviously knew about the gross sins that were Sodom’s hallmark, and yet he was willing to serve as one of the city’s judges. He had to consort with men whose lives were vile. The same evils that marked Lot’s time are prevalent among us today, and yet we ignore or say nothing those things so we can proceed with our own personal agenda. We have forgotten how God told Israel to come out from among them and be separate, and touch not the unclean. I know, it is not our business to campaign against the world’s evils. But we are not to consort with them, either. But, just as Lot found, it becomes easier and easier every day to tolerate, and then condone the evil. But what is it doing to our own souls?
Our text tells us that Lot’s soul was vexed every day. The evil about him had its impact on him. He was a wealthy man with a high position in the community, and yet he was unhappy. The comforts and social life in Sodom did not bring him joy or peace. He must surely have realized how much more content was his Uncle Abe out in the wilderness. If we compare their lives with ours, we will find that you and I are living much more like Lot than like Abraham. And yet we will find that all the comforts and ‘benefits’ of living in sinful circumstances won’t make us any happier than Lot was. Too many of the Lord’s people are living too close to the cesspools of this sinful world, and we are paying a terrible price in vexation of soul, in loss of testimony, and failure to preserve our own families.
We need to separate ourselves from the things that God hates, even if we lose out on some of the trinkets and popularity that appeal to our flesh. We can be happier than we are today if we stop vexing our souls with the world’s filthy conversation. -Jim MacIntosh