The greatest immorality is not murder, hatred, cheating on your spouse, or homosexuality.
The greatest immorality is rejecting Christ as Savior and failing to acknowledge God. Romans 1 is famous for listing sins that unbelievers commit, and I think the worst of all the sins is the one mentioned in verse 28a: “Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God…”
The absence of God brings rampant decay.
So suppose that you have not committed gross immorality. You’re generous with your money, you don’t cheat or defraud others, you’ve always been faithful to your spouse, and you’re just an overall nice person.
If you fail to acknowledge God, then your life will start to decay.
Your ability to be kind is a gift from God. (We can also have a long discussion about motives and whether you are doing good deeds to earn your way to heaven or BECAUSE you have been saved by Christ. But that’s a conversation for another day. For now we can to focus on the great immorality of failing to acknowledge and give thanks to God.)
We ultimately need to remember that everything good we have is a gift from God.
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.” (James 1:17)
Suppose that you are good at being kind or showing grace. Our ability to show grace, our ability to breath every day, and even our ability to make a living comes from God.
“But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth,” (Deuteronomy 8:18)
Throughout the Bible, God issues warnings to not forget God or to refuse to even acknowledge Him.
He warns His people in Jeremiah 2 and then again in Romans 1 through the writings of Paul to not forget about God.
It’s tragic the way God speaks of His people when recounting how they forgot about Him. He was the one Who saved them out of Egypt, and they went to seek after false idols.
“This is what the LORD says: ‘What fault did your fathers find in Me that they strayed so far from Me, and followed worthless idols, and became worthless themselves?
“They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt Who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought and darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’
“I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and bounty, but you came and defiled My land, and made My inheritance detestable.
“The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD?’ The experts in the law no longer knew Me, and the leaders rebelled against Me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols.”
Jeremiah 2:5-8
If you are surprised at the increase in atheism and the rise of false teachers, you shouldn’t be. In Jeremiah, God points out how the “experts in the law” did not even know Him! Imagine that: the experts, the people who should be the ones others go to for advice, didn’t even acknowledge or know the One true God.
And yet God sustains us, gives grace to His people, and is perfectly holy and good. We should be constantly coming to Him and asking for His will and Kingdom to come above all else.
Jesus says in Luke 11:2 after his disciples asked Him to pray: “So Jesus told them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.”
Let’s not disrespect Him by choosing to not even acknowledge Him.
Spreadsheets and Overalls 