Genesis 19 — Thoughts

What’s Influencing Your Life?

When Abraham and Lot decided to go separate ways, Lot chose to settle among the cities on the eastern Jordan plain. It was a choice that would come back to bite him.

First, Lot gets caught up in a war and needs Abraham to rescue him. Then, he finds himself in the line of fire of God's wrath. And all of this was because he made his home with those who had rejected God.

As Christians, most of us have gotten the message that "bad company corrupts good character" (1 Corinthians 15:33). So we strive to protect ourselves from negative influences, to "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5).

But this isn't a call to quarantine ourselves from the rest of the world. It can't be! We have a mandate to "Go into all the world and preach the gospel" (Mark 16:15). We follow a Messiah who was a friend to tax-collectors and sinners (Mark 2:15). So we cannot isolate ourselves for the sake of moral purity. We must integrate ourselves for the sake of the Gospel.

But we have to be careful about how we do it. We have to be self-critical and self-aware, always asking if we are allowing ourselves to be influenced by the Gospel and God's Word — or by something else.

The greatest threats to our walks with God aren't going to be obvious to us. Lot chose the Jordan plain because it was green and well-watered. He was so focused on the positives, he was blind to the negatives.

Is there anything in our lives that seems right but might actually be corrupting to our lives or compromising for our witness? It's something we should constantly be asking ourselves.

As David prayed, "Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:23-24).

(Originally written June 25, 2020)