What do you think of the days in which we live? More importantly, what should you and I do about it? As Christians, what exactly does it mean for us when we state the obvious “It is an evil time?” Are we to sink into despair and hopelessness?

The Bible has more to say than many think; not only what constitutes evil days, but how we should approach them as well. Look at Amos and the dark days he lived.  It was in Amos 5:13 that the statement itself was made: “It is an evil time.”

Those days were filled with injustice. Official judgments were pathetic. Those who were supposed to rule righteously, judge fairly, and protect the helpless were failing at every level for their own selfish ends. Sound familiar?

We live in times of such injustices coming at every level. Whether it’s the local official taking care of his buddy, or a high-ranking official fleecing a multitude, or a court failing to protect the helpless, it’s the norm of our times. The severely disabled, the elderly, the unborn, and the poor live without the common decency that should be afforded them. I just heard of a court approving a parent’s request for surgery to alter their severely disabled daughter for their convenience. They made it where she couldn’t grow anymore, gave her a hysterectomy to avoid any sort of monthly inconvenience, and the ethics committee of the hospital approved it! Yes, it is an evil time.

Our text laid it out plainly, but I am so glad the Lord has more to say. In Amos 5: 14-15 we are told: Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

The trouble with most of us is that we don’t have more to say. We moan and say “It is an evil time.” That’s it. If that were really all of it, it would be the most hopeless, depressing message imaginable. The Lord tells us what to do and moaning has nothing to do with it.

Seek the good. What the world is doing around you should have no effect on what you are doing. Despite the evil and death all around, you have the vibrant life of Christ and His fellowship. When the Lord in His holiness is forced to raise His hand in judgment, you can still be held close to His heart!  He “shall be with you.”

Then, hate the evil. Don’t be part of it. You treat those others fairly and provide honest and righteous judgement in everything. Yes, you will be the proverbial fish out of water in our culture, but what is at stake? Did you notice the last part of the above verses? (“ it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious…“) It may just be that you will extend God’s mercy to your own people. It’s not that you sway the Lord, or that He is indebted to you, but that you have made it so a Holy God can legitimately extend the mercy He wants to give.

Yes, things are a little bleak these days. Is our task just to gripe? No, we have much more to do now that “it is an evil time.”