Living in the Spirit
July 20, 2015

Scripture Reading: 2 Samuel 11:1-15

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

 It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, ‘This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.’ So David sent messengers to fetch her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house. The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, ‘I am pregnant.’ –2 Samuel 11:1-5

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”* David had become so full of himself and his power he no longer bothered himself with going into battle against the lesser rulers. Perhaps he had become bored with the very thing that got him where he was. He was so powerful he could have anything he wanted and he took it. I do not know what Sir Dalberg-Acton discerned to be a “great man”. Jesus did say it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. (Matthew 19:24b)

Empires must be very careful about their use of power. The United States of America needs to be very careful about its use of power. I do not think great men are necessarily more apt to be bad than anyone else. I know we are all as capable of doing good as we are of doing evil. We most often suffer the consequences of our own behavior by knowing the right path and refusing to walk it.

Our government was created on purpose with a balance of power between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches to protect ourselves from the corruption of power. It was a wise move, messy at times, but wise.

Justice starts in each of our personal lives. God calls us to not only open our eyes, but our hearts and minds to living what is just, what is right whether it is what we want at the time or not.

Prayer: Lord, help us to live justice in all that we do. Amen.

*John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.