Strife and Sedition
The sermon highlights how the abandonment of God's fear and the rise of wicked lusts lead to strife, sedition, and the departure of righteousness and peace.
Clement of Rome speaks about the downfall of honor and happiness due to envy, strife, and disobedience. He highlights how righteousness and peace have departed as people abandon the fear of God and follow their own wicked desires, leading to unrighteousness and envy that brought death into the world.
Text
Every kind of honour and happiness was bestowed upon you, and then was fulfilled that which is written, "My beloved ate and drink, and was enlarged and became fat, and kicked." Hence flowed emulation and envy, strife and sedition, persecution and disorder, war and captivity.
So the worthless rose up against the honoured, those of no reputation against such as were renowned, the foolish against the wise, the young against those advanced in years.
For this reason righteousness and peace are now far departed from you, inasmuch as every one abandons the fear of God, and is become blind in His faith, neither walks in the ordinances of His appointment, nor acts a part becoming a Christian, but walks after his own wicked lusts, resuming the practice of an unrighteous and ungodly envy, by which death itself entered into the world.
Sermon Outline
- The Cause of Strife and Sedition
- The Effects of Envy and Strife
- The Departure from Righteousness and Peace
- The Abandonment of God's Fear
- Blindness in Faith
- Walking in Wicked Lusts
Key Quotes
“Hence flowed emulation and envy, strife and sedition, persecution and disorder, war and captivity.” — Clement of Rome
“For this reason righteousness and peace are now far departed from you,” — Clement of Rome
Application Points
- We must prioritize the fear of God in our lives to prevent the rise of wicked lusts and envy.
- Restoring righteousness and peace requires a return to God's ordinances and Christian values.
- Faith in God should guide our actions and decisions to prevent strife and sedition.