In Ezekiel 22 God is explaining the reasons for the pending judgment upon Jerusalem in Ezekiel's day. One reason is found in v.22, “Her priests do violence to My law and profane My holy things. They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they do not explain the difference between the clean and the unclean. They disregard My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them” (HCSB). A society has become spiritually corrupt when it no longer makes a distinction between what is sacred and what is common. The legalization of abortion by the Supreme Court has told American society that life is not sacred. As a result, the senseless killings in our schools and elsewhere will continue. I even hear churchgoing people treat God’s name as common rather than sacred. The Bible is no longer regarded as “the holy scriptures” (2 Tim. 3:15), but treated as just another book, unread by many. Sunday, the Lord’s Day (Rev. 1:10) is no longer a special, sacred day worship and rest, but is now common, like every other day. It has become a day for shopping, sporting leagues, and increasingly I am seeing even Christians schedule birthday parties and so forth before 2 PM on Sunday, requiring family members and friends who want to attend to miss the one time each week we have set aside for public worship. Houses of worship are no longer regarded as sacred by some, but have increasingly become places of mass killing rather than safe zones. Marriage is no longer “holy matrimony” in the eyes of many, but is treated as just another relationship to meet my wants and desires. Thus, whereas when I was a child, about 90% of my classmates lived with mom and dad, now that is the exception rather than the rule. Our bodies are to be treated as holy to the Lord (Rom. 12:2; 1 Cor. 6:19) and yet many abuse their bodies. And lest you think this is just an outdated, Old Testament concept, the requirement to be holy is in the New Testament as well (Eph. 1:4; Heb. 12:14; 1 Pet. 1:15-16; 1 Pet. 2:9; 2 Pet. 3:11). God is still holy, and He expects us to be holy.
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