https://esv.literalword.com/?q=revelation+18
Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Friday, 25 October 2024:
Revelation 18:3 – For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.
Sin and ungodliness are particularly associated with sexual immorality – sex outside the union of marriage between one man and one woman. How is the sanctity of marriage treated in America today?
Revelation 18:4 — Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues.”
You must choose between the success the world offers or the final victory God promises. The church must decide between syncretism with the world along with the comforts it offers or fidelity before God and eternal life God promises. The world (‘Babylon the Great’ – the ungodly religious-political-social-economic systems created by humans contrary to God’s love; the ‘world’ which exploits and enslaves mankind) entices with offers of power, wealth, and pleasure. Are these your goals in life? God calls his people to purify themselves from the sinful world. How have you established a life-style that shows you are devoted to God and not to the world? The more entangled we become with the ungodly systems of the world, the more likely we are to compromise ourselves and lose our true power and the harder it is to free ourselves.
Revelation 18:5-6 – …for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back as she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.
God does not forget unconfessed sin.
God will treat you the way you treat others and then some. No Christian has the right to receive the free gift of forgiveness through the blood of Jesus and then withhold forgiveness from anyone else.
Revelation 18:7 – As she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning, since in her heart she says, “I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and mourning I shall never see.”
Glory in self is sin. Rebellious people put their trust in self rather than God, and rebellious nations to the same. Both are cursed.
Revelation 18:9 – And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail.
In addition to sexual immorality, the ungodly are also associated with luxurious living. God gives us resources to take care of our basic needs and then to take care of others in need, not to live like kings and queens on earth.
- Isaiah 55:2 — Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.
- Matthew 6:25 — “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Revelation 18:11 – And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore.
The world will make money its idol, and God will tear their idols down.
Revelation 18:13 – …cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls.
Slave trade is part of the evil business practices of the world. Many Christians are enslaved in debt to bankers.
Revelation 18:14 – The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors are lost to you, never to be found again!
If you focus on material things, life gets quickly out of focus.
Revelation 18:23 – …and the light of a lamp will shine in you no more, and the voice of bridegroom and bride
will be heard in you no more, for your merchants were the great ones of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.
Evil lives on deception.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 25 October 2024: Consider what is motivating you to do what you are doing and will do today? Are you motivated mostly by fear, pride, duty, or by the greatest motivation of love? Are you chasing after worldly ambitions or are you truly following Jesus, one step at a time? What are you focused on today? Is it all about Jesus and fulfillment of the Great Commission and Great Commandment? Really? Take time throughout the day today to truly ask yourself, “Why am I really doing what I am doing?”
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 