Leaving Babylon pgs. 43-44
As Babylon mastered the art of administering pleasure to us, her ultimate goals became clear. She dangled instant gratifications before us while she hid her price tag. We eventually learned that nothing in her is free; there was always a price to be paid for what she offered—our time, our families, our integrity, and, most of all, our souls. She taught us that everything is for sale. Remember, this is her occupation, for she is a prostitute. She seeks to soothe the weary, the abused, the frustrated, the angry, the jealous, and the vengeful with pleasures and satisfactions of the flesh.
Without the truth of the Word of God in our minds, she ruled our thought life and guided our emotions toward behaviors that seem to satisfy our longings, initially. But sooner or later we had to pay her price.
Many times she would entice us to her ways through minor issues in our lives—the things that did not seem harmful, such as distractions or frustrations. We did not recognize when she planted her seeds in our minds. Therefore, we allowed them to linger as she fed them and grew distractions into neglect of our families and other responsibilities. She fed our frustrations and sadness with unhealthy habits until it sprouted into vines of addictions and obsessions. We could no longer see joy in what God has given us, and we became depressed, angry, and unproductive people.
Our relationship with Babylon began at our conception and ran deep and long. Her beginnings in each of us began insidiously—secretively. We were born into this world of sin, vulnerable to its appetites. Without God, we were helpless to find safety and freedom from her.
Our only hope was within God and His love, who gave us the gift of free will, and with it, we could chose between good and evil. We had the truth of God’s Word, which also ran deep, and it was the only thing that could stand in the face of evil. It is the unchangeable standard that held the key to humanity’s rescue and victory.
Many of us were taught human goodness. However, this goodness, when tried, would often crumble in the face of the enticements and arguments of Babylon. We saw our societal norms changing every day to the acceptance of more and more destructive behaviors as our human goodness failed in the battle with evil. Our behaviors were being modified daily by the temporary positive reinforcements of Babylon. We, unknowingly, embraced the viper that gradually seeped poison into our lives. As the poison flowed deeper into our minds, we could no longer tell good from evil.
The apostle Paul wrote about this condition in his letter to the Roman church (Rom. 7:13–25). He talked about wanting to do good, but evil was ever with him. When he desired to do good, in his humanness, he would fail. He explained that there was a law or force that turned him toward evil. There was something in him that was so powerful that he identified it as a law or a rule that was living in his mind. Something had taken a grip on his way of thinking, something that he had no control over.
Paul concluded in Romans 7 with the declaration that he was wretched, that he could not be a good man even if he wanted to. He had recognized his helplessness in his relationship with Babylon. He recognized that he was her slave. In the final verses, he asked the question, “Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin?” (24b, nlt). He then answers this question with, “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord!”
times, like me, you learn that Christ’s counsel on our agendas is priceless!
