Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Friends and Associates”
Our Bible verse for today: “When I say to the wicked, “O wicked man, you will surely die,” and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved yourself.” Ezekiel 33:8-9 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “If you see something, say something.”
Many years ago, as my career as a Navy officer was nearing its end, I was near the top of the chain-of-command on the ship I was assigned to. There were two officers higher than me, the Commanding Officer and the Executive Officer, but I was close to the top.
At one point I became aware of a serious problem taking place on that ship that needed to be corrected. I attempted to work with my superiors to correct it but got nowhere. I should have then brought the issue to the attention of higher authorities, but I didn’t.
Later, after the issue had persisted and eventually became an even more serious problem, the Commodore (my boss’s boss) had to conduct an investigation to determine what happened and why. During my interview with the Commodore I explained the things I had been aware of and the steps I had taken to try to deal with the situation. I’ll never forget what he said next. He said, “Jim, since you knew there was a serious problem, and you knew that despite your best efforts it was not being corrected, why didn’t you go around your boss and bring the issue directly to me? If you had, we wouldn’t be in this situation today.”
And he was absolutely right. In my situation on that ship, I had a responsibility to speak-up, and to keep speaking-up, until that serious situation was dealt with. Unfortunately I stopped speaking-up when I should have persisted.
Speaking-up like that is Biblical. As the people of God we are required by God to say the things that need to be said, and to keep saying them until corrective action is taken. That’s the lesson God was teaching the prophet Ezekiel in 33:8-9, and it’s a lesson God repeats over and over again all throughout the Bible. Moses was required by God to speak-up to the Jews and to the Pharaoh. All of the Old Testament prophets were required to speak-up, and then to keep speaking-up, whether the people wanted to hear it or not. In Galatians chapter two the Apostle Paul told of the time he needed to publically confront Peter to correct him.
There are too many other Biblical examples than I have time to address here this morning but the point is clear, we have a responsibility to speak-up when we see things that aren’t right.
The philosopher Edmund Burke once famously wrote, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” We could amend that to say, “All that is necessary for error to persist is for others to remain silent.”
When we see something that is wrong we have a responsibility to the Christian community and to the society at large to speak-up about it. And if the issue is serious enough, we need to keep speaking-up about it until it gets corrected.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 