Good Morning Friends,
“Rescue those being led away to death; hold
back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, ‘But we knew nothing about
this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards
your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has
done?” (Proverbs 24:11-12)
In Germany, before and during World War II, most
Germans turned their eyes away from what Hitler and the Nazis were doing to the
Jews and other minority groups. That was even true of much of the church. Hitler
spoke the right kind of things and so the church did not oppose him. Hitler was
so powerful that opposition to him could have brought punishment on the church.
Life had become comfortable for the Germans and they didn’t want to rock the
boat. So, most Germans, although they didn’t participate in the horror of the
Holocaust, sat back and did nothing to stop it.
It wasn’t that the church in Germany in that
day was made up of wicked men and women. They were good people. But they made
their decision about what to do based on what would be best for them and their
church, not upon what was right before God. They turned their eyes away rather
than risk their lives and their comfort to stand against what was clearly
wrong.
Before we cast too many stones at the German
church, realize that most of America reacts the same way. Surveys indicate that
a majority of American adults make their moral decisions based upon either what
is best for them or best for the people around them that they love. That’s the same
motivation what led the Germans to avoid getting involved in the fight against
the wickedness of Hitler and his men.
To “rescue those being led to slaughter”
would mean putting our own lives and comfort at risk. That is what God calls us
to do. He calls us to do what is right and to stand against what is wrong, even
if it puts us at risk.
His, by Grace,
Steve
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