How do we respond to God's call? Are our actions worthy of God? Are our choices the calling from God?
Colossians 1:9-12 Therefore, from the day we heard this, we do not cease praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding to live in a manner worthy of the Lord, so as to be fully pleasing, in every good work bearing fruit and growing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with every power, in accord with His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy giving thanks to the Father, who has made you fit to share in the inheritance of the holy ones in light.
2 Timothy 3:2-5 People will be self-centered and lovers of money, proud, haughty, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious,callous, implacable, slanderous, licentious, brutal, hating what is good,traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,as they make a pretense of religion but deny its power. Reject them.
Matthew 15:19-20 For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, unchastity, theft, false witness, blasphemy. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”
Government response to this through a warning imprinted on every pack of cigarette, that, "Cigarette smoking is dangerous to your health". My goodness! Many people are still addicted of inhaling nicotine. Is it not a suicide? The husband of my mother's first cousin recently died at a young age because of smoking. The siblings had been struggling to produce financial support for the hospitalization. The wife had to suffer sleepless nights to keep watch on him. Yes they able to generate the money needed but they wasted more than 100 thousand pesos because of medication and surgical operation that were failed because he died later on. Does the suffering stop after his death? No! Why? The siblings are now squeezing their budget to pay their debts. Is cigarette smoking God's calling?
Likewise, drunkenness is detrimental to one's health as it accumulates toxic to the liver. But my goodness again! The people are very smart. They use a magnifying glass to be sure of a higher alcohol content choice. In our province, many neighbors I know have died of the liver cancer. Their wives would almost convulse crying over the death of their loved ones which sweeps the floor to shine because of hysterical grief. Did the misery stop there? No! Why? The little children were deprived not only of the father figure who will defend them in all their aspirations but also of education and food that these alcoholic fathers are supposed to provide. Is alcoholism God’s calling?
Galatians 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness,idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions,occasions of envy,drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
In many instances, it is our impulses that bring us to early death. We could see the pleasure of the desire that attracts our cravings but we could not foresee the predicaments of the choices we made.
The call for everyone of us is to learn from the mistakes of the people behind us the people who are currently undergoing the same fatal situation because of complacency. Yes they set a horrible example but their negative behavior could teach us a positive character to recognize that life on earth is not about obeying thirst of the flesh but obeying the desire of the Spirit. When God says don't do it cautions us a good disposition as a sign of His consistent love. Jesus obeys the Father until death because He trusts that the Father knows best. If the Son Who has direct communion with the Father entrusts, the more that we should be the same as He is because we are completely dependent on Him.
Obedience on do’s and ts is the walk worthy of God; the don’ts that could prevent influence on vices which compromises health and the do’s which is mindful of being cautious and conscientious on every choice and action which perserves a beautiful life.
1 Timothy 1:9-10 With the understanding that law is meant not for a righteous person but for the lawless and unruly, the godless and sinful, the unholy and profane, those who kill their fathers or mothers, murderers, the unchaste, sodomites,kidnapers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is opposed to sound teaching.
Ephesians 5:3-5 Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is fitting among holy ones,no obscenity or silly or suggestive talk, which is out of place, but instead, thanksgiving. Be sure of this, that no immoral or impure or greedy person, that is, an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Colossians 3:5-9 Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry. Because of these the wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient. By these you too once conducted yourselves, when you lived in that way. But now you must put them all away: anger, fury, malice, slander, and obscene language out of your mouths. Stop lying to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices.
Since vice is a sin, it creates a proclivity; it engenders repetition of the same acts. This results in perverse inclinations which cloud conscience and corrupt the concrete judgment of good and evil. Thus sin tends to reproduce itself and reinforce itself, but it cannot destroy the moral sense at its root.
Vices can be classified according to the virtues they oppose, or also be linked to the capital sins which Christian experience has distinguished. They are called "capital" because they engender other sins, other vices.They are pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth or acedia.
Genesis 4:10 God then said: What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground!
Genesis 18:20 So the LORD said: The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin so grave.
Genes 19:13 We are about to destroy this place, for the outcry reaching the LORD against those here is so great that the LORD has sent us to destroy it.
Exodus 3:7-10 But the LORD said: I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry against their taskmasters, so I know well what they are suffering. Therefore I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them up from that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.Now indeed the outcry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen how the Egyptians are oppressing them.Now, go! I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.
Exodus 20:20-22 Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid, for God has come only to test you and put the fear of him upon you so you do not sin.” So the people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the dark cloud where God was. The LORD said to Moses: This is what you will say to the Israelites: You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven.
Deuteronomy 24:14-15 You shall not exploit a poor and needy hired servant, whether one of your own kindred or one of the resident aliens who live in your land, within your gates. On each day you shall pay the servant’s wages before the sun goes down, since the servant is poor and is counting on them. Otherwise the servant will cry to the LORD against you, and you will be held guilty.
James 5:4 Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers who harvested your fields are crying aloud, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
Sin is a personal act. Moreover, we have a responsibility for the sins committed by others when we cooperate in them:
- by participating directly and voluntarily in them;
- by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them;
- by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so;
- by protecting evil-doers.
Thus sin makes men accomplices of one another and causes concupiscence, violence, and injustice to reign among them. Sins give rise to social situations and institutions that are contrary to the divine goodness. "Structures of sin" are the expression and effect of personal sins. They lead their victims to do evil in their turn. In an analogous sense, they constitute a "social sin." - Catholic Catechism 1865-1869
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