This is a picture of much of the world, including our own country. How many people equate our court system with justice? The human rights legislation seems to do little for human rights, but lots for those of terrorists and criminals. Our public institutions are increasingly losing trust. Even so, we are still far better off than some countries, where bribery is a way of life. We seek to improve things, political leaders promise to improve things, but the result seems to be only more darkness. We have no idea how to make things better.
The reason for all this is that our offences are many. We have turned away from God. We think we are sophisticated in having done this, but in reality it will lead only to trouble. We have truly turned our back on God. The result is that justice, honesty and truthfulness are driven back. Look at your society and ask if this is not a true picture of the world.
This did not please the Lord, so He sent His own salvation. The Lord is not pleased and wants to do something about it. Verses 16 and 17 remind one of the full armour of God in Ephesians 6 that Paul speaks about.
There are two strands to the Lord's action. One is to bring judgement on the guilty, the other is to forgive those who repent. We see this in Jesus' teaching. Despite all the popular misconceptions, Jesus spent lot of time teaching about judgement and hell. This was meant to induce an urgency, to make people realise the need for repentance.
This message will continue to go throughout the earth. It started with Jesus, and has continued to be proclaimed through the Spirit by the church.
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