Lot: Portrait of a Modern Man
Abraham’s nephew, Lot, looks so much like today’s average believer. 2 Peter 2:7, 8 described Lot this way: “ …and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)…” The word “righteous” has several meanings, two of which perfectly fit this man: “ of those who seem to themselves to be righteous, who pride themselves to be righteous, who pride themselves in their virtues, whether real or imagined ” and “ in a narrower sense, rendering to each his due and that in a judicial sense, passing just judgment on others, whether expressed in words or shown by the manner of dealing with them .”* Lot hated what he saw around him in Sodom, the city that God was about to destroy because of its wickedness. And though he himself was a good man in an evil society, he apparently was not intolerant enough of evil to speak agai...