In reformer John Calvin’s Sermons on 2 Samuel, he wrote:
When we have made a promise in the name of God and have called upon him, let that promise restrain and govern us in the future. For example,
· When a man marries, let him think, “When we promised faith and loyalty to one another, was this not done before God in his name?”
o Remembering that vow helps a husband to carry out his duty to live chastely with his wife and foster peace and harmony in his household.
o The wife also, in remembering that she is joined with her husband in the name of God and that marriage is a sacred thing, will carry out her duty.
· Likewise, fathers clearly promise to nurture their children because they have made the solemn promise in baptism, to instruct those children in the fear of God.
· A magistrate (politician) who takes the oath of duty to carry out his office will carefully think of this in remembering that he made this promise before God.
· People by and by will take delight in keeping this magistrate’s laws, and everything else will fall into place [because the magistrate is accountable to God].
· When people [businesses] make contracts with one another, their agreements will be faithfully observed when they can say, “We have in this called on the name of God.”
So, then, what shall we think when we see people using the courts to rescind all their promises, so that nothing prevents their reversing their contracts, and they spend their time working out ways to be relieved of their promises? They bring forward excuses such as: “I have been defrauded in a certain situation that would cause me too much loss”
In the end, equity and fairness will not be maintained unless people remind themselves, “God was witness when I promised a certain thing. Therefore, I must not seek to be absolved before men. The main thing is that I look to God, bring myself before his judgement seat, and examine my conscience so I may keep the obligation to which I once committed myself.” [Emphasis added]
Look to God to solemnize and anchor all relationships. Do NOT look to the courts for an escape hatch. Why go to God to anchor all of life’s most important actions (God’s perfect wisdom), then later ask the courts to destroy the anchor (man’s seriously flawed shadow of God’s wisdom). Government courts have no authority to overrule God. Man clearly has no authority to overrule God and is in a fearsome place when he attempts to do so.
Today’s broken American culture cannot be repaired without first repairing the home and family. The American home cannot be repaired without the prominence and dominance of God. As the American home goes, so goes America.
As America sinks into an ever-deepening cultural abyss, the appeal of materialism and other worldly desires weakens; the appeal of God and heaven shines brighter. God is STILL the answer to all life’s personal and cultural questions/controversies.
Thomas Jefferson wrote in the American Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The pursuit of happiness could easily and perhaps more accurately be replaced with the “pursuit of holiness.”
Holiness precedes happiness; holiness is a prerequisite for sustained happiness. America will be restored to its former widely-envied position as the last and only remaining “hope of the world,” when a significant portion of the people once again understand the importance and vitality of holiness. Why don’t YOU take the lead starting now?
Dr. Lloyd Stebbins 