“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20
September 19, 2025
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” False. The misuse of words and the absence of the right words can become part of God’s judgment on nations that forget Him. “Violence,” “mental illness,” “hate,” “love,” “sin,” “evil.” What do you notice about this short list of vocabulary currency used or not used in our day? The word violence has become very elastic, departing from its ordinary sense of physical violence. Now speech itself has become a form of violence. The word hatred is used to characterize the moral beliefs of Christians. What is most noticeable is the almost total absence of the words evil and sin. Those who have no place for God in their worldview are left with “mental illness” as their non-judgmental nebulous term for their values rather than God’s righteous standards.
We must be on our guard lest we inadvertently buy into the reversal of man’s standards in the place of God’s standards for morality. Our words are carriers of either truth or error. Woe to that nation which revolts against God’s revealed truth.
H
“O Lord, I want to love you with all my mind. Help me to keep it clear with your precepts.”
“Evildoers can be so blinded in their moral judgment that their evaluations of good and evil are the exact opposite of God’s true perspective.” ESV Study Bible