God’s People Walk in God’s Way
Introduction
Let’s read
Genesis 18:16-21
God’s people is a blessing to the nations when they keep, that is, walk, live in God’s way. John Stott said that “the greatest hindrance to the advance of the gospel worldwide is the failure of God’s people to live like God’s people.” When God’s people are no different from the world, when we walk in the ways of the world, we cannot be a blessing to the nations. Why should the world pay any attention to us if we are just like them? That is why we are called like Abraham to leave and go, to believe and obey. Only then can we go back into the world, and be a blessing to them. What is the world we should leave behind?
1. The Disobedience of the Nations
God’s conversations with himself and Abraham here in Genesis 18 happened within the context of the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah. These cities are a model of the sinful world. They are a model of our world today.
God came with two of his angels to investigate what is happening in these two cities. What prompted God to come down and see? It’s the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah. It is a cry of pain, a cry for help coming from those who are being oppressed or violated. It is the same outcry in Exodus 2:23-25 and 3:7 that motivated God to liberate his people from Egypt. The Psalms use the same word when appealing to God to hear their cries against injustice. It is the scream for help by a woman being raped (Deut 22:24,27). God came, God saw, and God judged because of his compassion for the suffering and his anger against injustice.
Genesis 19:4 mentions only the sin of hostile, perverted and violent sexual immorality. But in other texts the Bible elaborates on the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. Deuteronomy 29:34 tells of Israel’s unbridled idolatry like Sodom and Gomorrah. Isaiah 1:9-23 compares Jerusalem to Sodom and Gomorrah, full of bloodshed, corruption and injustice. Isaiah 12:19-20 accuses Babylon of pride like Sodom. Ezekiel 16:48 says that Sodom was “arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned. They did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them.”
Sodom is the model of human society at its worst. It is a place filled with oppression, cruelty, violence, perverted sexuality, idolatry, pride, greedy consumption. It’s empty of compassion and care for the needy. Does that sound familiar? Is this not the world we live in today? Every day we are confronted with bloody terror attacks, one more school shooting, social rioting, deep political hatred, global unrest, moral blindness. There is no longer a civilized pursuit of truth and social cohesion. There is now only hatred, division, dishonesty, and destruction.
If we are to be a blessing to the nations, if we are to show the world that there is hope, if we are to bring the nations to worship the only true and living God, we must leave our idols behind. The people of God either walk in the way of the Lord, or walk in the ways of other gods. There is no middle road or way. We must be radically different from the world.
2. Teach Our Children
But if we are to be God’s holy people, radically different from the world, then we must teach our children God’s way. If we don’t teach our children, the next generation, they will not know who they are, namely God’s people. If we don’t teach our children the Lord’s way, they will not know how to live as God’s people. And they will not know what they are here for, that is, to be a blessing to the nations. That is why Deuteronomy 6:7-9 is so important. “Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
That is why Jesus spent so much time teaching and training his disciples. He taught them what it means to follow him. Jesus sends us into the world with the command to make disciples by teaching them to obey, to do, everything He has commanded us. This we must teach our children, to be disciples and to make disciples who walk in God’s way.
3. Walk in the Way of the Lord
To walk in the way of the Lord means to imitate God, to follow God’s example. We do that by following Jesus who is God. To walk in God’s way also means to obey God’s commands. It is to follow the instructions, the directions which God gave us so that we can walk on, and stay on the right path of love, righteousness, and justice. Jesus taught and showed us this path. When we walk in God’s way, we will be blessed, and be a blessing to others. We show God to them.
Deuteronomy 10 explains the way of the Lord very well. Verses 12-13 — “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?” To walk in God’s way is to fear, walk, love, serve and obey the Lord our God. Micah 6:8 sums up the Lord’s way like this—“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
4. Do Righteousness and Justice
To walk in God’s way is to do righteousness and justice. The English words do not express the depth of meaning of these words in the Bible. Righteousness means to do what is right or expected. What is right? What is expected? God’s commands, the teachings of Jesus, the Word of God tells us what is right and expected. Righteousness means to do the right thing, as a parent, as a child, as a judge, as a leader, as a brother, as a farmer, as a business person, as a spouse, as a friend, as a worshipper, and so on. Righteousness is doing all that we ought to do in our everyday living, and to do what is right according to God’s Word.
Justice means “to put things right”, to intervene in a situation that is wrong, unjust, oppressive, or out of control, and to fix it. Justice is to do those things that will restore people, relationships, and circumstances to the ways of the Lord.
The moment we fail to walk in the way of the Lord, or fail to live lives of integrity, honesty and justice, we not only spoil our personal relationship with God, but we actually hinder God in fulfilling his promise to Abraham to be a blessing to the nations.
“A divided, split and fighting church has nothing to say or to give to a divided, broken and violent world. An immoral church has nothing to say to an immoral world. A church riddled with corruption, caste discrimination and other forms of social, ethnic, or gender oppression has nothing to say to the world where such things are rampant. A church with leaders seemingly obsessed with wealth and power has nothing to say to a world of greedy tyrants. A church that is bad news in such ways has no good news to share. Its words are drowned out by its life.” (Wright)
To walk in the way of the Lord means doing for others what God wishes to do for them. It means doing for others what God has already done for us. We know who God is. We know what God wants. We know it because we have experienced God’s love. Now we should go and do likewise.
5. What are we to do?
What are we to do? Ephesians tells us how we should, or should not walk, live, as God’s people. First, we must walk in distinctiveness as God’s new humanity (Eph 2:14-22). We must put off our old self, and put on the new humanity, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (4:22-24).
We must follow God’s example and walk in the way of love (5:1-2). We must reject the idolatry of sexual immorality. Because it contributes to the social decline we see, as well as the breakdown of marriages and families. We must do all we can to strengthen faithful marriages and healthy families. We must resist the multiple forms of disordered sexuality. We cannot approve of homosexual practice. But we must try to understand the deep heart issues they are experiencing. We must reach out with love, compassion, and justice. We must reject all forms of hatred, verbal or physical abuse, and the victimization of homosexual people, transgender people. God loves them. We are to be a blessing to them.
We must walk in humility, and reject the idolatry of power. In our sin we use power to abuse and exploit others. We exalt ourselves. We claim superiority of gender, race, or social status. These are the idols of pride and power. We are called to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ, and to do so in our marriages, families, and work relationships. We are called to practice gentle humility and selfless love. We must reject any form of abuse of one’s spouse, whether it is verbal, emotional or physical. It is incompatible with the love of Christ.
We must walk in integrity, and reject the idols of success and lies. In our craving for success, results, and approval we give up integrity. We make distorted, exaggerated or false claims. We must resist the culture of lies, and expose untruths. We are children of the light and must walk in the light and truth of God for we are the people of truth. Walking in the light is to walk in all goodness, righteousness, and truth (Eph 5:8-9).
We must walk in simplicity, and reject the idols of greed. Power and wealth are often obtained by oppression, deceit, corruption, faulty or unjust systems. Poverty, illness and early death happen because of a sinful and broken world. There are no simplistic explanations for these. We must replace self-interest and greed with the biblical practice of self-sacrifice, service, and generous giving. These are marks of true discipleship.
Thank and encourage you. You are a church striving to walk in God’s way. You are teaching your children’s God way. You are a blessing to the people in our community. Keep on living in God’s way. Keep your eyes open for new opportunities to bless others. We are not perfect and will sometimes fail and make mistakes. But we will repent, get up, and go on following Jesus. We will get tired, but we will rely on the power of the Holy Spirit. We will be renewed, and persevere. We are God’s people. Let us keep on living as God’s people in order to be a blessing to the nations, so that we can show and tell them the good news about the Hope of the nations, Jesus Christ.