Degenerating Into Anarchy
Anarchy is a lack of
organization and control, especially in a society where there is an
absence or failure of government. In simpler terms, it is
lawlessness.
If the workers did not get their
pay cheques, there could be upheavals and riots in the factories or
shipyards or any other working places. Sometimes there are violence,
chaos, burning of vehicles, properties or people, shootings and even
killings, depending on the severity of the conditions. This is
lawlessness in motion.
Even best friends, if they were
locked together in a room with no food and drink for a week, would
show forth their true colors. Sometimes, cannibalism would arise.
Without food or water for a long season of time, a man would eat his
neighbor alive! This is the animal instinct or the sinful nature of
man! In times of famines, droughts, distresses, sieges and wars,
even the refined, loving, delicate and tender parents would
degenerate so much as to eat their own children (Deuteronomy
28:53-57):
You shall eat the fruit of
your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters
whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and desperate
straits in which your enemy shall distress you.
The sensitive and very
refined man among you will be hostile toward his brother,
toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his
children whom he leaves behind, so that he will not give any
of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because
he has nothing left in the siege and desperate straits in which
your enemy shall distress you at all your gates.
The tender and delicate woman among
you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the
ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, will refuse
to the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter,
her placenta which comes out from between her feet and her
children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for
lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in
which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates.
Before judging how rapidly
others would degenerate into anarchy, we should honestly check our
own hearts whether we would do better. During the financial crisis
in the late 1990s, there were many riots, killings and terrors in
some streets of Asia. People killing people over a bowl of noodles,
a plate of rice or a bottle of drinking water!
No one is sheltered from these
tribulations and trials. When they come, they come. From the poorest
or weakest country to the wealthiest or most powerful or most
civilized country in the world, the heart of man is the same,
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9).
No one is exempted! Our true colors will show who we really are
during those difficult and despairing moments!
Sin Is Lawlessness.
Whoever commits sin also
commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. (1 John 3:4)
Lawlessness Exists Inside The Church.
Not everyone who says to Me,
'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does
the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that
day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out
demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And
then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me,
you who practice lawlessness!' (Matthew 7:21-23)
The Son of Man will send out
His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom
all
things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will
cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and
gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13:41-42)
Even so you also outwardly
appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy
and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:28)
Lawlessness Will Abound.
And because lawlessness will
abound, the love of many will grow cold. (Matthew 24:12)
Lawlessness Will Lead To More
Lawlessness.
I speak in human terms
because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented
your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness
leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as
slaves of righteousness for holiness. (Romans 6:19)
The
Mystery Of Lawlessness Is Already At Work.
For the mystery of
lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will
do so until He is taken out of the way. (2 Thessalonians 2:7)
Righteousness Has No Fellowship With
Lawlessness.
Do not be unequally yoked
together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness
with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? (2
Corinthians 6:14)
Therefore, Love Righteousness And Hate
Lawlessness.
You have loved righteousness
and hated lawlessness;
Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You
With the oil of gladness more than Your companions. (Hebrews
1:9)
He Who Endures To The End Shall Be Saved.
And because lawlessness will
abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to
the end shall be saved. (Matthew 24:12-13)
Written On:
6 September 2005