Well, we are the servants of God. And some of us are stewards. This text is aimed particularly a those whose job it is to look after the servants: the stewards, to keep the metaphor going.

Or in modern terms, pastors, elders, bishops. There is a temptation here to use this position and power not to serve God as much as your agenda: be it to enrich yourself or indeed run the church as a state, as some renaissance popes did. The wiser clerics read their Augustine, their Acquinas or even their Calvin: and left power to the secular arm.

Calvin did not run Geneva: the city council did. And he did not win every argument. That is inevitable. Indeed, one could extend this from the church to those who find themselves in power, either as politicians or employers: those who depend on them are also servants of God.

Treat them with dignity.

“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

(Matthew 24:45-51 ESV)

What we can say is that the elite hold God in contempt. They will call any move to violence by protected classes as a reason to disarm. They even have blamed the victism of the San Bernardine shooting: since they were icky Christian converts and of the right, they deserved the bullet. And they have the gall to tell us not to pray.

Speaking of the elites in the media, politics, and on college campuses, “they openly attack sacred American values and the people who cherish them with ruthlessness, and contempt, and downright hatred.” Loesch then described their one agenda as one fueled by “unholy arrogance.”

As Guy and Mary Katharine wrote in End of Discussion, Loesch noted that the far left “advances its power by any means necessary, namely shaming and silencing any dissent.” Why? If we don’t have these discussions and debates, they’re not at risk of losing them. By default, they win if we stifle honest debate about the threats posed by radical Islam and the endless political window dressing called gun control. Case in point: Last week, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest couldn’t name one mass shooting that would have been prevented by Obama’s gun control proposals to The Wall Street Journal’s Byron Tau.

During the campaign against prayer, the major news networks were of course praising the NY Daily News headline saying, “God isn’t fixing this,” concerning the San Bernardino shooting. The Media Research Center’s Newsbusters division was on the case, noting that CBS’ Gayle King said, “ I think the headline’s very powerful.” Weatherman Al Roker chimed in saying, “while that’s good intentions [offering prayers], thoughts and prayers aren’t getting – this isn’t fixing this problem.” The only network not to get in on marginalizing prayer was ABC News’ Robin Roberts, who said offering prayers helps the families of the victims.

One should not be that secure and that confident in oneself. Christ will come; either to save the world, or your time on earth will end. In both cases, there will be an accounting.

Leaders, what you teach matters. People will act on your teaching: if the lie is big enough and said enough times it will be accounted as the truth. But there will be consequences.

Make no mistake — this is a free fall, not a slide. We aren’t slipping down the proverbial slippery slope; we’re diving into the abyss, plunging right into the bowels of Hell. The only developments that could halt our descent are an apocalyptic asteroid strike, the fall of civilization, the return of Christ, or, less likely, a drastic generational rebellion against the perversity and insanity of our age. Unfortunately, I don’t believe my generation will lead that rebellion — although a bold minority of revolutionaries will certainly try — but perhaps our kids or our kids’ kids will be the ones to turn back the tide. (Then again, we aren’t really having kids anymore, so I guess that brings us back to the fall of civilization as the next most immediate remedy.)

As I said, this is what happens when you remove moral absolutes, shame, and judgment. For years, schools, parents, the media, even some churches, have taught that nothing is inherently wrong, nobody can judge, and nobody should be ashamed of anything. That lesson has sunk in, to devastating effect. The more we hold up shamelessness as an ideal, the more we rob ourselves of our dignity, which is what shame is designed to protect. The more we become something like monkeys who run about grunting and flinging our feces around, metaphorically.

There is an accounting in this life, for our actions indeed have consequences. And in the time to gome.

Pray that you are of Christ, and covered by his death in your place, and God has the grace to allow you into his presence. For you do not deserve it. Justice would demand that you are accounted with the hypocrites.