Tim and Miriam Valentine In Matthew 7, when discussing false prophets, Jesus says that “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (7:16). In this passage, we should note that they are talking about false prophets, not any ordinary person. Nonetheless, we talk about the fruit of the Spirit, and how the works of the flesh are “manifest” (Galatians 5:19), and we often make presumptuous conclusions about one’s eternal state, whether one who sins was never “saved” to begin with or that they lost their salvation, or whatever. But the case of Lot tells us that things are not so black and white, and cut and dry.
Lot in Genesis 19 gives us a mixed picture as to who he is. He recognized the two visitors as divinely appointed messengers and was willing to house and protect them, while the men of Sodom desired to harm them. This is good, and this deed separates Lot from the crowd. But Lot is willing to put his daughters in harm’s way to protect the two visitors, which is evil (19:8). The last we see of Lot, he is lying in a cave, drunk, and having incestuous affairs with his daughters (19:36ff).
Then two thousand years later, Peter makes reference to the overthrow of Sodom because of the evil people that lived there, but God saved “righteous” Lot (2 Peter 2:7). You’re kidding, right?
The lesson: we can’t judge who is “saved” and who is not. But we can focus on the great fact that God loves and saves the less than perfect (obviously!) and we should be very grateful for that. None of us has it all together. We do adapt to our environments, as Lot did, and often do not see sin as it is because of the culture in which we live. But we press on, resting in Christ, and if we sin ignorantly, God has forgiven it, and will bring it to our attention so that he can make us more like him. Keep pressing on!
