Don't Blame Society
Introduction
Everyday we see on television or hear on the radio or read in the papers where people caught breaking the law where the attorney tends to blame either society or their environment for their actions.
According to an attorney's defense, the criminal's environment must bear the burden for his/her crime or other illegal and despicable acts. Equally true is the defense for juveniles who are wild, reckless, on drugs, or committing other crimes. The blame for all their wrongs lie not with them but in the environment in which they were raised or in which they lived - that is what many say today. True, a good environment and a good home are desirable and good communities are something we all seek. Good conduct on the part of family and neighbors does indeed make good conduct possible; however, where exactly is the blame for the condition of our neighborhoods, our towns, our cities, our country, our world?
I. The History of Sin
A. Sin’s Beginning
Sin did not begin in the slums or bad neighborhoods. Sin began in a perfect garden - Eden! A perfect environment does not prevent, prohibit or bar sin. If sin can turn a Garden of Eden into a pig sty, what then can it do to a less than perfect place? Even a perfect environment failed to produce a perfect man, woman, or family.
B. Society’s Answer
The moralist's and the social/ ethical do-gooders go astray here and don't know what they are really talking about in their answers to crime, drugs, and illegalities of all kinds. They push for better housing saying it will make better people if they live in better houses. They cry for better playgrounds as if that will keep children off the streets. They advocate better food diets as the "right" foods will produce "right" people. They want better living conditions for those who are serving time in prisons and jails, as that will cause the prisoners to have a "respect" for that which is correct and proper.
Those who think they know how to heal our society are blind and they fail to see that all of the things they think will work to correct human habits cannot produce better people. Better people come when their hearts are made better by God's transforming grace.
II. Personal Accountability
Every Single Person Is Directly Accountable
A. The Blame Game
It is our natural tendency to blame somebody or something for that which we do wrong. Prolonged illness is blamed on the failure of the doctor or the medication. Bad grades in school are blamed on the teachers or the school system.
To pass the blame is as old as Adam. You remember when Adam was approached by God that he, and later Eve, tried to blame someone else. Adam blamed Eve. Eve blamed the serpent. Basically, they were saying, "It wasn't my fault.. Adam even blamed God for having given Eve to Him.
B. The Corrupt Nature
One cannot pass sin off so easily. We are sinful by nature and the quicker we face up to it and seek help from God, the better we will be. Unless we are willing to face our own sins and admit them, we will never ask for help. We are not going to submit to surgery unless we are convinced we need it. We will not deal with sin until we are honest before God about our wrongdoing.
Don't believe them when criminals, law breakers and unrighteous people blame their faults and crimes on their communities and/or families or their "upbringing."
Satan has turned people into criminals, sinners. We need to consider the source of all evil. Get at the root of the trouble or you will never find your way out.
C. The Answer
An anxious mother gives all her attention to the high fever of her child, but the doctor gives his attention to the infection which is causing the fever. In the same sense we have blamed society but we are only seeing the symptoms and because of this we are allowing the disease destroy us without seeking the cure. We are not facing up to the fact that the Devil still lives and still seeks to destroy and ruin God's supreme creation - US.
Certainly we are to be concerned about the slums, family backgrounds, playgrounds, etc., but we must view them as the PRODUCT, not the PRODUCER of what is wrong - sin. Our sinful society and world exist because of man's transgression. The world and society didn't produce sin or man's transgressions.
Our society may have gotten this way under the devil's influence and power but the devil is the one who started and caused all of this in the first place. When a person knows Jesus, he/she will oppose sin and all that sin produces. When a person knows Jesus, he/she will help make our society and world better.
III. Conclusion
A. A Futile Attempt
No person is going to become more righteous or even more moral when he/she spends his/her time blaming someone else.
B. A Real Answer
Only when he/she cries out to God for forgiveness can God help him/her. Only when he/she cries out for God can God reach down and lift him/her out of the depths of sin.
C. An Honest Evaluation
Will we go on blaming everything and everyone else for our own short-comings? Or will we face up to the fact that we are down-right sinful and there's no one to blame but ourselves?
If you are not a Christian, there is no one to blame but yourself. You have heard the gospel before. You know that Jesus is the answer - the only answer!
Christians, it is past time for us to come out of our shells of self-pity and self-righteousness and it is time that we made our mark in our society and world. Let Jesus be seen in our lives.