Do you remember the days of good quality television shows such as, “Father Knows Best,” Leave It to Beaver” and “The Brady Bunch”? These were family shows that exemplified the importance of family structure and often had an underlying moral theme that was conveyed to the audience. Today, audiences are riddled with television shows that tout the “joys” of casual sex, drunkenness and the use of vulgar language. I was recently astonished to learn that a Disney show that my daughter enjoyed watching just introduced a lesbian couple. I was also dismayed by the recent events of the 2014 Grammys.
What happened to our standards in television? At one time it was taboo to show the bedroom of a married couple with only one bed. However, today it is not just the bedroom that is displayed. What happened to morality, ethics and decency? What happened to respect for parents and authority? What has happened to cause the stanch moral decline of America, a breakdown of the line between truth and lie, a blur of right and wrong, and a reverse of good and evil?
There are many examples of people throughout the Bible whose standards were lowered, which led to sin. Eve being tempted changed her thoughts on what God said about the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:1-6). Lot, surrounding himself with the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, gave his daughters to the menacing crowds (Genesis 19).
What happened is a lack of fear for God. In each dispensation, mankind has been commanded to fear God (Genesis 20; Duet. 6:24, et. al.; 1 Peter 2:17). The phrase to “fear God” or “fear the Lord” appears some forty times throughout the Old and New testaments. To fear God is to have an awesome reverence that leads to obedience. Adam and Eve didn’t fear God enough to keep from eating of the forbidden tree. Lot’s lust for Sodom and Gomorrah was greater than his fear of God.
As Christians, we must fear God and keep His commandments (Deuteronomy 13:4) and not let our standards be lowered along with the low standards of society. We are called, as children of God, to live to a higher standard and “not be conformed to the world but be transformed” (Romans 12:1).
We must always be mindful to reverence God by holding to His standards and by being obedient to His commands, because He is God our Creator and Judge. Solomon concluded Ecclesiastes with these solemn words, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (12:13-14).
