Are You Willing to Live with the Consequences?
Posted: June 26, 2022 Filed under: Adultery, Avarice, Bible, Communion, Cross, Environment, Generosity, Integrity, Jesus, Justice, Money, Oppresssion, Parsimony, pleasure, Sex Leave a commentGuy Paul Morin! Maybe that name sounds familiar? “It was October 1984, when tragically a nine year old girl was murdered in Queensville, Ontario just south of Lake Simcoe. The Police quickly focused on Guy Paul Morin because he was odd and played a clarinet. (As an aside, we at Temple do not think clarinet players or other musicians are weird. You are weird for thinking musicians are weird.) Back to Guy Paul! This tunnel vision by the police led to a wrongful conviction of Guy Paul Morin. Eleven years later, he was acquitted after new DNA evidence exonerated him from the crime. He never got back those years in prison. A commission entitled the Kaufman Commission investigated the wrongful conviction of Guy Paul.”[1]
There are a lot of commissions now a days to investigate crimes and misdemeanours that have far reaching affects in our society. Some of these commissions are current and getting lots of press. Some of us just ignore them. I would remind you though that these commissions can be effective when not politicized. Commissions fight against the cancel culture. They fight against covering up the dark spots of history and aim at history not repeating itself. We Christians should not buy into the cancel culture. Why? Because the Bible is not a cancel culture book! It tells all the sordid details of its characters so that we would learn to avoid their same mistakes. Another recent book Bullies & Saints would be a good example of all those details in church history. However, the Bible is not a book of morals. It teaches about the evil in the world and the solution for evil found in something, or better yet, Someone. That Someone is God the Son come down to earth. He didn’t deny evil happened, but paid the ultimate price for it with His life, memorialized at the Cross, and now offers us grace to cover over, not cover up, our sins. The Cross was God’s ultimate Truth and Reconciliation commission. The truth is we have committed crimes and misdemeanours in breaking God’s law and yet God has reconciled through Jesus Christ. The Cross did more than put forth recommendations, but through it, God has changed us from the inside out so that we no longer need to live in guilt.
However, being no longer guilty does not mean that there are not consequences for our actions. Please explain this to your Muslims friends and neighbours because that is a falsehood being perpetuated that Christians can do whatever they want and God lets them off with it. The Bible makes it very clear there are consequences for our sins and we are to take sin very seriously because God does. God sent His best through Jesus Christ to deal with our sin. The Bible does not teach that grace cancels our crimes, just our guilt. We may pay for those crimes on earth with imperfect justice. This penalty is on the horizontal level. It helps bring justice on a human and relational level. However, every sin we commit against our fellow humans is also a sin against their Creator and our Creator. This is why sin is always against God and not just His image-bearers. Sin has not only a horizontal effect, but also a vertical effect. Case in point is David, who prayed to God in Psalm 51:4, when confessing his sin of committing adultery with Bathsheba and killing her husband, “Against You, and You only have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight.” David understood that his worst crime was against God. The Bible still teaches that there are consequences for our actions. And there is no better passage that describes this than Job 31. Please turn in your Bibles to Job 31! I have to tell you right now that Job 31 is completely weird when you first hear it, so I better give you some background first.
Let’s start at the beginning with answering the question who is Job? Job was the richest and most righteous person in the Ancient Near East. He lived sometime between Noah and Abraham. In the story, Job spends his days not living out the payoffs of being a great business man, but by praying for his children and making sacrifices for them if they had sinned. What a reminder to pray for our children day, even when they are adults. One day Satan comes to put “God on trial.”[2] As God suffers attack, so do we! And in Job’s case, in one day Job lost everything – his business, his employees, his family and after that he lost his health. He also lost his peace of mind and his security of being able to count on what he thought was God’s justice. Job even thought he lost his relationship with God. His friends and Job started a sort of “commission” on God’s justice. They wrestled with retributive justice. They asked, “who is innocent?” and “Who is to blame?” Job’s “friends” thought they knew the answer – nobody is innocent, especially Job, who must have sinned greatly because all of the suffering he was experiencing. But Job was blameless. Sadly, by this point in the story, Job has been found guilty by his friends. In chapters 29-30, Job describes what he did do so as to defend his good character. And in Job 31, Job describes what he didn’t do so as to defend his good character. However, Job is not only speaking to his friends who make up the jury. Job is appealing to God as his judge. You see, Job never lost his faith. He believed to the end that we must love God even when we can’t see His goodness![3]Do you and I love God when we cannot see His goodness? And will we fear God that we are willing to live with the consequences of not following Him? Let me drill that point home with us. Will we follow God and His ways even when it’s hard and we can’t see His goodness? Lots of people don’t! Will you and I? Job 31 will help us! Let’s read Job 31 in order to take God so seriously that we would be willing to live with the consequences of not following Him. Read Job 31!
I told you this passage was weird. Maybe a clue to why Job would say these things is found in Job 31:23 in the version of The Message: “The fear of God has kept me from these things— how else could I ever face him? If Only Someone Would Give Me a Hearing!” Job repeats this thought in verses 35, “Oh, that I had one to hear me! (Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!) O that I had the indictment written by my adversary.” Job was willing to give a signed affidavit to his innocence. Just wanted to know what he did wrong. What is Job saying? Bible scholar Francis Anderson explains, “Job uses a legal tactic called an oath of clearance in the form of a negative confession. The procedure was well-known in the ancient courts. A crime could be disowned by calling down a curse on oneself if one had not committed it.” [4] This was like us saying when accused of a crime, “Here’s my DNA! Check the surveillance cameras! Take my computer and phones! Do a forensic search of my internet history! And if you find anything, then lock me up and throw away the key. Give my spouse to another, my kids to be raised by their future step-parent. And also take all my money so I can’t make an appeal. I know that I am innocent that I will risk my reputation, my privacy, my family and my riches to prove it.”
By the time Job 31 rolls around in the “commission,” Job was desperate. He had no lawyer seen standing with him. He was willing to take the witness stand himself. He is willing to put God on the defensive almost like he was “accusing God.”[5] This was not like today when a persuasive prosecutor can convince a jury or judge and get a wrongful conviction like what happened to Guy Paul Morin. Justice is not always served here on earth, which is why Job makes his appeal to heaven! And we should too! Job still believes God is righteous and is not only his hope for a fair trial but for Job’s acquittal. Do we have such a faith in God – seeking His justice? As great preacher Charles Spurgeon said, “When men doubt the righteousness of God, their own integrity begins to waver.”[6] But Job kept his integrity, which is why Job wants a thorough investigation. There are areas of Job’s life that he is willing to be put under the spotlight. In broad categories, Job welcomes inspection into his thought life (v. 1-4), his words (v. 5-8), his sex life (v. 9-12), his work life (v. 13-15), his financial life (v 16-25), his religious life (v. 26-28), his hospitality ( v. 31-32), his integrity (v. 33-34) and his neighbourhood & environment (v. 38-40). We will examine those in a minute. For now, let’s agree that no one would actually let themselves be this investigated to this degree unless they believed they were truly innocent. Would you or I let people poke around in our lives that much? We might break out into a cold sweat if people saw our banking transactions or downloaded videos on our phones. The amazing thing about Job was that he was not under the law. He was not a Jew! He lived before the law that Moses received from God. Job had a law that was greater that was written on his heart. According to Romans 2:15, every human has this as well. We can’t use the excuse we don’t know the Bible or the Law. God has given us a conscience. Job understood this even if it was thousands of years ago. “Job not only argues his complete innocence in all these areas, but he goes even further by declaring that his conduct has exceeded mere obedience to the letter of the law, and that he has been faithful to its very spirit.”[7]
So permit me to explain these areas and may God put a spotlight on our lives, not so that we are exposed and embarrassed, but reminded to live right before Him. Do we fear God or people more? Are we willing to the live with the consequences for not following Him? Some of us might say today – “Consequences! What consequences?” Let’s look at the consequences Job was willing to experience and see how relevant they are to our own lives.
Let’s start where Job starts with this thought life, specifically lust. In Job 31:1, Job has made a covenant with his eyes not to look at a young woman. (And let’s not get legalistic about age. I suspect Job would not look lustfully at older women too as he is a man at least in mid-life having adult children). Notice some translations use the word “virgin” as the ESV translates. This was most likely because Job starts his defence with making a covenant to be not only live pure, but be countercultural. He was not going to take another wife or concubine as many of the patriarchs did in that day. They were polygamists to generate economic and political alliances as well as having large families to create a loyal workforce. Even though his wife wasn’t entirely supportive, Job was resolute not to lust. Recall how Job’s wife recommended to him after those horrific days of loss, “Curse God and die!” (Job 2:9) We men can sulk when our wives are not supportive and not meeting our needs. We can forget that our wives may be hurting as well, suffering from their own heartbreaks. So no matter if we are male or female, we can turn to sex, lust and pornography to try to fill our heart-longings for desire, connection and acceptance. This is so prevalent today because porn is so readily available on the internet. It’s free – monetarily – but there is a cost – a massive cost. You can lose your marriage, the respect of others, your ministry, your testimony and your peace of mind. But notice what Job is concerned about the most? He doesn’t just make a covenant with his eyes as a discipline or act of the will. This wasn’t just Job avoiding being on the Me, Too list of his day! Job had a greater desire for his purity. Check out verse 2, “What would be my portion from God above and my heritage from the Almighty on high?” Job immediately thinks about his relationship and reward from God. Job wanted to be on God’s list of the righteous and to see God. Jesus would put it this way in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” This is one of the best strategies I have learned to fight lust and porn in my life. When I am tempted to stray, I pray! And I pray this prayer, “God, You made this person beautiful and in Your image. Thank you! Please care for all their needs and save them with the gospel of Jesus Christ.” It’s hard to pray for somebody and just after them at the same time. Prayer awakens us to treat others with dignity as fellow image-bearers who could be family someday living with God and us in the new heavens and new earth for all eternity. I also recall Psalm 16:11 to fight lust, “You have made known to me the path of life: in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” This verse teaches us delayed gratification. Why have a momentary pleasure here on earth that will then result in earthly and eternal consequences when we could have pleasures forevermore? This is not to say that there are 70 virgins awaiting us in heaven as our Muslims believe or many sex partners as the Mormons believe, but that God has something better for us than fulfilling our lusts now. We must ask ourselves: are we willing to live with the consequences of lust? It will destroy our intimacy with God and our spouse! Living the porn again[8] cycle is an affront to being born again – born again by the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ!
Job invites the microscope to be used on with his thought life and then continues with the next area of dishonesty or more broadly, fact checking his words in verses 5-8! “If I have walked with falsehood and my foot has hastened to deceit; (Let me be weighed in a just balance, and let God know my integrity!) If my step has turned aside from the way and my heart has gone after my eyes, and if any spot has stuck to my hands, then let me sow and another eat.” In other words, Job was saying he welcomed the consequence of being unproductive and hungry if he was dishonest. Job saw the natural consequences of lying – a lack of productivity and a lack of sustenance. You lie, you most likely lead to you losing your job. If not today, in the future, when it all comes out. And if you lose your job, you don’t eat. Interestingly, the first lie we humans ever believed had to do with eating forbidden fruit. Are we willing to live with the consequences of dishonesty? I must remind you: losing your integrity and reputation for honesty is often hard to recover from.
The next area of investigation was Job’s sex life and whether he had committed adultery as seen in verses 9-12. This area is the most shocking. Job makes some outlandish and even unthinkable statements. Job said in verse 9 that if he was enticed to cheat, then his wife should grind or serve (NIV) another and bow down or sleep (NIV) with another. If Job was under the Hebrew law and he committed adultery, it would have meant stoning for him first and then his wife would be stoned for committing adultery with the man Job was passing her onto. Adultery was a capital crime because it literally has to deal with blood and breaking blood lines. It is one of the most serious crimes against God and our families. Verses 11-12 makes this clear, “For what a heinous crime; that would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges; for that would be a fire that consumes as far as Abaddon, and it would burn to the root of all my increase.” Job was essentially saying, “A one night stand should cause me to lose all I gained through my years of working.” It is not worth it. Maybe you are on the verge of destroying your life through sex? You about to let the flames of desire escape the fireplace in your marriage and burn your house down. God wants to bring you back from the brink of destruction. Don’t do it. Don’t misunderstand. I beg you in the name of Jesus Christ! “Job was not actually trying to exploit his wife or thought his wife would find love again in the arms of another. He was so confident of his innocence that he expresses what would be the most humiliating punishment for a man in the ancient world to endure.”[9] “He knows of no worse humiliation than disgrace to his wife; for a woman of his household to be shamed would have been the worst blow his own honour could suffer.”[10] Job would never call a curse on himself or his wife unless he believed he was absolutely innocent. To push one’s spouse to another’s bed shows contempt for one’s own body. Does not Ephesians 5:28 say, “In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself”? Are we willing to live with the consequences of adultery and the horrible devastation it causes us in losing our spouse, kids and friendships we have and most of all, our closeness with the Lord?
Job welcomed the investigation into his thoughts, his words, and his bedroom (a place that 55 years ago Prime Minister Elliot Trudeau[11] said the state had no place being because he himself was sleeping around.[12] Funny, actually not so funny, how the state has interfered more with the bedrooms of Canadians ever since, redefining marriage, making other deviant sexual practices a state of pride and then trying to mitigate the consequences of sexual immorality through abortion. Isn’t it ironic that the current prime minister and son of the first Trudeau in power is now speaking into sex lives of other countries’ citizens and their striking down abortion laws?) The next area of investigation Job welcomed was oppression in verses 13-15. Long before we had our current labour laws, Job cared for his employees. He did not oppress them! He did not traffic them. Look at verses 13-14, “If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant, when they brought a complaint against me, what shall I do when God rises up?” Job knew he was accountable before God for his employees. Such accountability is better than accountability to our shareholders or clients. Imagine you wake up tomorrow and first thing you do when you are commuting to work is acknowledge, “God, You are my boss and I work for You today.” You don’t even need to put on your vehicle that “Your boss is a Jewish carpenter!” Just pray it before work, during work and even after work as you hand your employees and co-workers back to God, especially when you encounter trouble at work. Do you seek God for wisdom at work? I believe this would help us treat the workers God created and put beside you in loving and right ways. What a difference that would make. Are we willing to live with the consequences of oppression? Your work life will suffer greatly if we try to dominate rather than serve our co-workers!
The next area is our financial life, particularly our stinginess or miserliness (v. 16-23). This is a lack of generosity! It is being tight-fisted! Look at verse 16, “If I have withheld anything that the poor desired, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail.” Causing the eyes of the widow to fail means to cause her to “lose her desire for living.”[13] We can so discourage people when they are in need and we have the resources to help them and they know it. We could just call it selfishness rolled up by greed like a joint at a Cannabis shop. It blows smoke in our neighbours’ eyes. My friends, are we willing to live with the consequences of miserliness and not helping the poor and needy? To be Scrooges? Think about how crime increases because we do not care for those in need so they feel they have no other choice but to steal. Sure, they are still responsible for their actions, but what preventative actions are we taking besides our cameras, alarms and security systems. The food bank is down 40% in donations over last year and has increased in serving another 200 families more a month. They now serve 1000 families/month in our city. You can donate to them. Better yet, serve at the Food Bank and other agencies caring for the poor. Stop at our Connect desk after the service and we will have somebody contact you and direct to you a way you can help.
Lust, dishonesty, oppression, and miserliness are areas of Job’s life that he welcomed inspection. There was also avarice as he describes in verse 24, “If I have made gold my trust or called fine gold my confidence.” Are we willing to live with the consequences of trusting in the security of our savings and retirement investments? The economy is so unstable. This is no place to put our confidence. Our confidence has to be in the Lord, not in our net worth.
Avarice is a type of idolatry as it seeks to find security and comfort in our resources. Job expands upon this by welcoming an inspection not only into his finances but also his religious or spiritual life. Money and religion are often closely related. When Job states in verse 26, “If I have looked at the sun when it shone or the moon moving in splendor, and my heart has been secretly enticed,” he wasn’t concerned that he was going to become addicted to astronomy. He was worried about becoming a sun or moon worshipper. This is why he says in verse 27, “…and my mouth has kissed my hand.” To “kiss the sun” was to worship a god.[14] These is made clear in verse 28, “This also would be punished by judges, for I would have been false to God above.” Are we willing to live with the consequences of worshipping other gods? They will enslave us.
So far Job has welcomed inspection into his thought life, his speaking life, his sex life, his work life, his financial life, and his religious life. Next Job welcomes inspection into his hospitality life. Look at verses 31-32, “If the men of my tent have not said, ‘Who is there that has not been filled with his meat? (The sojourner has not lodged in the street; I have opened my doors to the traveler).” We could call this the sin of parsimony. Maybe we are trying to live pure, watch what we say, be good employees, manage the money God has entrusted to us and are committed to church, but we have failed to be hospitable. Are we going to live with the consequences of not being hospitable and missing out on being enriched by others in our lives? Haven’t we learned yet the terrible outcomes of loneliness these past two years? Loneliness doesn’t necessarily cause mental illness, but as Pastor Louie Giglio, who struggled with a mental breakdown, says, “Loneliness acts as a vice-grip for mental illness.”[15] Louie’s transparency has helped many. Just being hospitable and telling people they are not alone and Jesus can bring light to darkness may save a life. Remember, when Jesus was dying on a cross, one of His closest friends was committing suicide.[16] Jesus cares and died for all sins including suicide. Are we really willing to live with the consequences of not caring for others? We are commanded to practice hospitality (Romans 12:13). When are you going to invite your neighbours over this summer?
Job has been an open book and welcomed a thorough investigation into his life. But we all have blind spots. This is why in verses 33-34, he invites the commission’s CSI unit into the deep corners of his life, “if I have concealed my transgressions as others do by hiding my iniquity in my heart, because I stood in great fear of the multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silent and did not go out of doors.” Job wants to be checked even to his motivations, particularly whether he was a people pleaser or lived in fear that he would not go outside. Maybe that describes some of you still living in fear of COVID? Be of good courage! God is with you! For others, are you willing to live with the consequences of trying to please people and actually never pleasing them? We can only please one person and that is God! And we please God by trusting Him (Hebrews 11:6). And for others of us, are you willing to live with the consequences of not dealing with the messiness of people’s lives and confronting sin? Of becoming a recluse? Isolation is no way to live!
Lastly, Job invites inspection into his environmental life. Look at verses 38-39, “If my land has cried out against me and its furrows have wept together, if I have eaten its yield without payment and made its owners breathe their last, let thorns grow instead of wheat, and foul weeds instead of barley.” Job was concerned about exploiting his environment and particularly harming his neighbour and their property. According to Genesis 1:26, God’s first task for us human beings was to care for and take dominion over the earth. Are we going to continue to live with the consequences of not taking care of our environment and neighbours? But what if we are not like Guy Paul Morin and Job? What if we are guilty and paying the consequences? I want to remind us that Jesus became a curse for us when we were cursed. Galatians 3:13 reminds us of God’s mercy, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us – for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.” The Communion Table is a reminder of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of the Cross. The Communion Table is a place to find help when we can’t deal with the consequences of our sins. Our sins require too great a consequence to bear. Right now, as we sing “I Need Thee” would you please take the time to not only pause and ask yourself whether you are willing to live with the consequences of your actions but confess those sinful actions to God?
[1] Source: https://lop.parl.ca/sites/PublicWebsite/default/en_CA/ResearchPublications/202077E. Accessed June 23, 2022.
[2] Quote from my wife Lori Stairs
[3] A great overview of Job can be found at Tim Mackie and Jon Collins, Job – The Bible Project: https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/job/. Accessed February 11, 2022.
[4] Francis I. Anderson, Job – An Introduction & Commentary (London: Inter-Varsity Press, 1976), 238.
[5] J. Vernon McGee, Job – Thru the Bible Commentary Series (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991), 150.
[6] editor James M. Renihan & author C.H. Spurgeon, Daily Treasure – 366 Daily Readings from The Treasury of David (Leyland: EP Books, 2021), 187
[7] Mike Mason, The Gospel According to Job (Wheaton: Crossway, 1994), 317.
[8] I am borrowing the title of Mark Driscoll’s book Porn Again Christian (Mars Hill Church, 2009).
[9] Daniel J. Estes, Job – Teach the Text Commentary Series (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 2013), 189.
[10] David J.A. Clines, Job 21-32 – Word Biblical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989), 1018.
[11] Source Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1811727781. Accessed June 24, 2022.
[12] This is well documented: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/pierre-trudeau-and-his-many-women/article791993/. Accessed June 26, 2022.
[13] Clines, 965.
[14] Anderson, 243.
[15] Louie Giglio, “I’m Not Okay … But Jesus Is” sermon, https://youtu.be/kg2BoUjtvY0, 2020.
[16] Ibid.
Commissional 