Save Yourselves

“And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.” (Ac 2:40 AV)

 

Now more than ever, this is true!  The word for ‘untoward’ means warped or perverse.  What was true of the generation to which Peter was referring is just as true, if not more, than today.  We live in a warped world.  What is right is wrong and what is wrong is right.  I have lived a short half a century and stand amazed at how far our world has fallen after sin.  The depths of our depravity still stuns me.  When I think I have seen it all, something else becomes apparent.  Peter’s advice is the best one can offer.  Being a participant in this present generation is a spiritual disease.  Our generation has gone completely mad!  Peter is revealing a basic truth regarding salvation.  There must be repentance and a separation.  There has to be a concern for one’s own soul above all other considerations.  One cannot concern himself with the interests or priorities of his generation.  He must come apart from it.  To remain in the crowd means to reject Christ and suffer an eternal hell so horrible, it escapes words.  The parents of the blind man of John chapter nine come to mind.  They were too worried they might be thrust out of the synagogue, so they would not accept Christ.  They feared their generation, being warped anyway, and rejected Jesus.

High school, for me, was a complete nightmare.  I was not in the popular crowd.  Just the opposite.  What gave me solace was listening to the stories my classmates told come Monday morning of how they spent their weekend.  Tales of drunkenness, drug use, and immorality filled the empty time of classes.  I can still remember where I was when it occurred to me these classmates of mine were insane.  I was sitting in a classroom in DeSales Catholic High School in the ninth grade.  I cannot remember what class it was, but I distinctly remember the room.  If I am not mistaken, it was probably homeroom.  I remember what I was wearing.  I remember being quiet and listening to some of the boys in my class talk about a concert they all went to.  I listened as they bragged about drinking and getting so drunk they passed out.  They bragged about how hard of a hangover they suffered.  I heard how they got a hold of some drugs and did them too.  I heard about the tales of immorality they bragged about.  One story after another as one tried to outdo the other.  Now, I know most of these tales were probably made up.  But still, to imagine it and desire it to happen is only slightly less offensive.  I remember listening to all this and realizing popularity and going with the crowd wasn’t all that fun.  It didn’t sound fun to me.  These were warped people.  They were perverse.  I wanted nothing to do with any of it.

Perverseness has touched every aspect of our culture.  It has become so ingrained, we don’t even notice it anymore.  We have come to accept it as the new normal.  Whether it is flaunting a deviant lifestyle or straight-lining on a sidewalk, we see it as unfortunate, but completely expected.  Salvation means coming out from all that.  Even if we are not a part of it, we are still affected by it.  Salvation means we do not allow the abnormality of our generation to affect our own life choices.  We come out.  We save ourselves.  We accept Christ and before this warped generation can go any more harm, we get ourselves out.  Peter is telling us our generation is a threat.  If not, he would not tell us to save ourselves from it.  We have to see our age as something the LORD must judge and get out of Dodge!  Escape to the word of God and His people.  Remove ourselves from undue influence this generation hoists upon us.  If not, we are going down with them!