By: Stephen McAlpine
I’m teaching my 16 year old son to drive.
When you teach your child to drive you become aware of what is going around you on the road. Hyper-aware.
And one of the things you become hyper-aware of is the number of people who run red lights. Not even remotely amber lights. But red lights.
And you warn your child about running red lights. And, sadly, you have to warn your child about the dangers of the person who runs red lights coming through the green-lit intersection through which your child is driving. What parent has not shuddered at the thought?
Of course people don’t get their licence and just start running red lights. No. They run amber lights. First when it has just turned amber. Then when it’s been amber for some time. And eventually when it’s not even remotely amber (even at a squint), and it’s completely red. And often they’re speeding up to do so.
It’s safe of course. That’s the reasoning. There’s no reaction time from those whose light is about to go green coming from the perpendicular. So no one will be coming through. Until, of course, someone does.
Running Amber Lights
In reading – yet again – of another grievous sin that disqualifies a person from ministry – a public person again, it reminds me that there’s every chance that that person was running red lights for some time, having gotten used to running amber.
When a grievous, disqualifying sin is exposed in someone’s life – on that brings shame on them, cruel public debate, and hurt on their family (and often on another non-famous family), it’s often the case that that person became complacent with running amber lights.
At first just turning amber. Then – as they become used to that, or feel less and less sting – amber for a little longer. And then a little longer.
Until there’s usually a point, which in my hyper-vigilance with my son I notice, when their wheels are speeding onto the white line as the light turns red. No brakes there. Just pedal to the metal.
The Scriptures remind us “do not be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness” (Hebrews 3:13). What that simply means is that sin will start you off running amber lights and getting away with it, until you start to run red lights. And you might run red lights for some and get away with it. Until one day – Bam!
Here’s that verse in its context
“See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice,do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” (Her 3:13-15)
A couple of things:
First, it’s possible that anyone can run a red light. The writer does not pick out the leaders of the Jesus community to warn. He warns everyone (brothers and sisters). Don’t assume it only happens to the person on stage giving the talks.
Secondly, it’s a daily routine of examination and encouragement to ensure that we do not start to run red lights. Daily examination by oneself in the light of Scripture. Daily encouragement from others.
Thirdly, – and perhaps it goes without saying in light of that – this needs to be done in community. If we are running amber lights with the possibility of then turning red, then having a trusted group of people to be encouraged and exhorted by is essential.
One of the warning signs of someone running reds is that they privatise their life, whether shutting themselves off from church if they are a lay person, or keeping people at arm’s length from their lives in they are a public leader.
So, sadly, when we do start to run amber lights and then red ones, our desire to be open about such matters shuts down. Why? Because our sin is not simply deceiving others, it is deceiving us!
Fourthly, and critically, time will eventually run out for those running red lights. Perhaps, like the most recent example in the Christian sphere, because they have to confess it publicly or because they are caught. But in a sense that’s the sweeter pain.
Traffic Coming the Other Way
The great tragedy of course is that we run one red light too many. We become inured to the process. What started off as a dangerous thrill becomes commonplace. Until something happens.
The truly awful experience would be for the “Today” of the passage – the opportunity to enter God’s rest – closes. For Jesus to return – or for you to die – in your sin, would be a truly terrifying experience. We need to be sobered by that reminder.
The least terrifying is to either confess or get caught out in this age because it gives us a chance to repent! I’ve been sobered in the past by at least one person who failed to repent in this age. The Bible gives us no comfort about a heavenly future if repentance is absent.
The passage, by equating the Christian community with those wandering the desert after Egypt, gives no false assurance to those who would die in their sin. Hardness of heart in the desert led to exclusion from the Promised Land.
Yet of course there’s a comfort in these verses too:“We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.”
However at the same time, as I get older (57 last week) I realise that it’s holding an original conviction for an extended period of time. As in the letter to the Hebrews, we can drift away without realising it.
In fact I know of people who in the last third of their lives give up on Jesus for the sake of either an obvious sin, or a less obvious one such as pride in their own learning.
I want to say to them – and have – “Come on man! You’ve only got 20 years left, keep going!”
There’s something sad about a once-zealous Christian who held a firm conviction about life and faith, drifting off from it even as they age. Running amber lights for so long that they get used to it as the years pass.
For all the shame and heartache of being exposed now, it is the exposure of unrepentant sin on the last day that is most disturbing surely. Running red lights will be exposed before the One to whom we must all give account.
1 Samuel and Running Red Lights
I’m reading 1 Samuel at the moment and in the story, right at the beginning in chapter 2, we see an ungodly leadership running red lights. It’s something of a metaphor for the whole nation, as it turns so often away from God.
Eli the priest, has two sons who have been warned and warned about their sinful behaviour, and their abuse of God’s people (their greed sexually and in terms of power), and yet they do not heed the warnings.
They are sleeping with the women who attend the house of the LORD, and – in their greed – abusing the true worship of God’s people by rejecting the proper forms of sacrifice prescribed by the LORD at Sinai, for their own gain.
Running red lights. Running red lights. Time and time again. Getting used to it.
Until it’s too late. And judgement comes in the words of a prophet. And here’s the hard part. Even though Eli warns them:
“His sons, however, did not listen to their father’s rebuke, for it was the Lord’s will to put them to death.”
These lads are dead men walking. But that’s not the most sobering part of it. Often we view the disaster that occurs when we run a red light as a natural consequence of our sin.
But in this passage, God allows the two priests to keep running red lights. And keep running them. Their refusal to hear God’s voice is God’s doing! It was his will for them not to listen.
This is an active personal judgement, not merely a passive, abstract judgement. God won’t be mocked by their sin, so he uses their sin to mock them. And we don’t like to dwell on that. But we should.
Stick to Green Lights
So how do we ensure we don’t end up in the wreckage of our own sin due to our propensity to run red lights? Well, stop running amber ones for a start! And then if and when we do, ensure that we are not hardened by sin’s deceitfulness through confession both to God and before our trusted Christian community.
The trick to not being hardened by sin’s deceitfulness is to be softened by the truthfulness of repentance. Not vague repentance about general stuff, but specific repentance about those amber lights.
So let’s hold our conviction firm to the end, and ease off that pedal when we see the lights turn amber.
Article supplied with thanks to Stephen McAlpine
About the Author: Stephen has been reading, writing and reflecting ever since he can remember. He is the lead pastor of Providence Church Midland, and in his writing dabbles in a number of fields, notably theology and culture. Stephen and his family live in Perth’s eastern suburbs, where his wife Jill runs a clinical psychology practice.
Feature image: Photo by Georgi Zvezdov on Unsplash