“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” I Corinthians 10:13
When given a choice by his Uncle Abraham, Lot chose the choicest of lands to raise his cattle and family (Gen. 13:8-11). He left Abraham (named Abram at the time) the less appealing land and kept the “best” for himself.
His selfish pick may have appeared to be the best choice; however, there was one important matter Lot did not consider in picking where he would live. He did not consider what his soon-to-be neighbors would be like. As it turned out, the place he chose to live near the twin cities: Sodom and Gomorrha. These cities were known for their rampant sin, particularly homosexuality. It was there that the righteous man, Lot, chose to live.
It was not long before he was involved in the government of the city (Gen. 19:1, 9). He was not only living among wickedness, but he was involved in the choices made to help the city being managed. Shortly, his constant exposure to godlessness and sin affected Lot. The Bible says that he was “… vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked … in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;” (II Peter 2:7-8). The part of Lot that wanted to live and please the Lord was “irritated, harassed, teased, and disturbed” by the lifestyle he was allowing himself and his family to be exposed.
As a Christian, we usually cannot live on top of a mountain, away from the world and all sin. Most of the 
time we have to live around sin; see it in the workplace; hear it on the television, and be exposed to its consequences and involvement wherever we go. However, if we are not wary of it, and do all we can to limit its exposure we too will be “vexed” by sin. It will wear on us; and if we are not careful, sin will be commonplace to us. We will be hardened against it. Seeing or hearing sin will not bother us like it used to. The spiritual part of us will be desensitized to sin’s evilness. If we are not careful, we will even be involved in it; thinking that it is normal, because “everyone is doing it.”
Despite what the unsaved world is doing, sin is, and always will be, wrong. The only protection from being desensitized by it, or being involved in it, is to do one’s best to avoid its contact. If you are vexed by filthy language on television, there may be some channels you should never listen to again, or you may have to stop watching the “hellevision.” Filthy words creeping into your own language? Maybe there are some influencing foul-mouths that you should no longer listen to or associate with. Seeing things your eyes should not be seeing on the internet? Limit where you browse, or maybe you will just have to stay off the internet all together. Dirty images you have already viewed plaguing your thought-life? Avoid further looks and recite Scripture verses, particularly about what you are thinking. It is difficult to have the clean Word of God and filthiness in your thought-life at the same time. The filthiness will flee!
The key to keeping a holy, unsoiled life and testimony for the Lord is to separate (II Cor. 6:17) from the world. It is possible to remain undefiled in this ever-increasing sinful world. If we purpose in our hearts to not be defiled by ungodliness in this world, the Lord will do His part to help us. He will give the believer “a way to escape” sin’s vexing grasp; if the believer wants it!
“If you can get along with the world, then you are out of step with God!” — Dr. Harold Sightler
That separation you speak of from the world is growing ever more marked. As the world descends into wickedness and darkness, Christians that are separated are going to appear more and more different from the world.
My family is the typical Pentecostal Holiness family, I know you have a mental image of that and some idea of how we try to live for God….50 years ago, our lifestyle in terms of abstaining from the sin in this world would not have given anyone notice and those living in wickedness would have been the one’s drawing attention. However, now we stick out like a sore thumb.
I am reminded of the time a few years ago when we were in a major city as a family and we were standing in line at a fast food restaurant. I think it occurred to my kids first that everyone in the whole place was staring at us. It was then that we noticed the man in front of us who was the most effeminate male human I had ever seen, was wearing a tutu and prancing about….and he was the normal one. Apparently, we took that wrong turn at Albuquerque??
Some friends took a beach Holiday when their oldest graduated from High school. The day they showed up at the beach with their bodies covered in modest clothing, they were the subject of a lot of stares… my friend said he thought “who are they staring at, they are the one’s that are naked”. Kind of humorous, but it shows you how far we have come.
I pray that in these last days that the line would become more marked and that our witness as Christians would be ever stronger.
Amen, for your separation. My best friends are “peculiar”.
Before I ever knew what holiness was, God used a preacher to plant the idea of getting the TV out of our home in me.
Later, when my wife and I moved to our new house, we never installed a tv. That was about 20 years ago. Our kids have been raised without it. I can’t testify enough about the effect removing that from our home has had on us.
We felt that we could not control it. Both of us had grown up with unfettered access and knew at the very least what a time killer it is.
I wish I could say that we were super spiritual or something like that….but we weren’t.
I wonder now if we have the same challenge with broadband access…it brings wonderful content, like Bro Brinkworth, but also horrible wickedness.
I would love to hear you all expound on this. How do you feel about television? The internet?
We also had no TV for quite a while. The temptation was too great.
However, when my wife got sick, I hooked it up to an antenna. It is the only thing that I could find that would “turn off her brain” when the anxiety was bearing down on her. That just shows you what it does to ones brain and thinking. When I was a teacher I advised parents, with children that had problems concentrating and studying, to unhook the tube. The ones that did saw a change in their young persons behavior.
Yes sir, I saw with my Grandmothers late years that TV was a time killer for her…in a good way. She did make an effort to watch “decent” stuff. Although I will say that after being away from it for years, I often shared lunch with her in front of the screen and even the “tame” shows had a lot of stuff I did not want any part of. One example I can remember was Gunsmoke….watched it like crazy as a kid….but murdering, drinking, implied prostitution, etc… too much.
A mentor of mine once said about himself….I refuse to be entertained by anything my savior went to the cross for. Not a bad thought.
One can see the cycle of sin in the life of Lot. At first, he just pitched his tent “towards” Sodom! Next thing you know, he’s living in Sodom! Then Abraham had to rescue Lot from several nations that overthrew Sodom (that probably was Lot’s wake up call to get out of the sinful city of Sodom)!
Next thing you know, Lot is back living in Sodom and working as some type of judge sitting at the gate (Gen 19:1), Then God finally has to destroy Sodom to get Lot to finally leave that sinful city!
What’s interesting, Lot’s son’s in laws didn’t believe Lot when he told them God was about to destroy the city (Gen 19:14)! That means Lot had lost his godly influence while living in Sodom!
Sin always has consequences!