Articles
Our Generation?
The Apostle Peter described his generation as perverse or corrupt. He did so just two verses after telling thousands of people who had killed Jesus what they must do to be saved from their unsaved condition (Acts 2:37-40).
Was he calling them perverse or corrupt simply because they had killed Jesus?
Perhaps that was his motivation, we simply don't know what all Peter was thinking, but we do know he "pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this perverse generation."" vs-40
If Peter were here today, speaking to us, I'm confident he would tell us to save ourselves too, but would he also say that our generation was corrupt? I'm going out on a limb here and give my opinion. I believe he would, because simply urging people to save themselves insinuates they need saving from something, but from what? Perversion, dishonesty, deceitfulness, lawlessness, scandalousness, disreputableness, discreditableness and any of a number of other synonyms of 'corruption' that can describe those who embrace worldliness and reject the teaching of Jesus.
Let's face it, outside of Christ there are countless things that render people as corrupt, ranging from their decisions to their speech to their honesty to their chosen lifestyle, things that make a mockery of the teachings of Christ. All of us have at times done these exact things, and perhaps we still struggle with some of these characteristic traits that we are called to leave when we come to Jesus. Accepting Him doesn't mean we never fall short again, we all do, but it means we put forth the effort to change and no longer live that way.
With all the mud slinging going on right now in the elections, all the name calling in politics and political correctness circles, all the worldly traits that we know Jesus says we must leave behind, we find ourselves face to face often with corruption, or as Peter says, perversion. We sometimes attach the word perversion to sexual misconduct, and it can be, but in general it simply means that things are distorted, misrepresented, falsified, or twisted. For sure, we see this type of behavior all around us almost every day. It only takes us browsing the web, looking at Facebook or turning on the nightly news.
We really can't run and hide from it all, but we can do what Peter told those on the day of Pentecost in Acts Chapter 2 to do, we can "save ourselves" by obeying Christ, submitting to His will and His way, and doing just as Peter told those people to do. Scripture says after Peter instructed them to "repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins" (Acts 2:38) that "Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day". (Acts 2:41)
We are called to leave perversion behind in a world that seems to thrive on it. The Bible tells us how. Lord help us!
