Living in “tornado alley,” many in our area of Illinois are grateful for the meteorological messages we receive from local radio and television stations that tell us of a “tornado watch” (i.e., conditions are such that a tornado could form) or a “tornado warning” (perhaps a funnel cloud has been seen aloft or has touched the ground within the area of the warning).  Such warnings are invaluable pieces of information designed to protect the attentive from the dangers of an approaching hurricane.  God has given us similar warnings concerning perils to our soul, and we should be both thankful for and attentive to those warnings that we might avoid potential harm.  One such warning follows.

“Men shall be . . . trucebreakers” (II Tim. 3:3).  The word trucebreakers has been variously translated or defined as implacable, irreconcilable, unappeasable, unforgiving.  Vine explains that a trucebreaker is “one who cannot be persuaded to enter into a covenant or agreement, and so one who is not to be appeased.”

At first glance, perhaps this would seem to be a small problem, which affects few people and produces minor consequences.  But this peril is one of the distinctive characteristics of this age—so much so that it has been enshrined in law.  How many marriages are torn asunder, how many couples divided, how many children forever devastated on the basis of a divorce granted on the grounds of “irreconcilable differences”?  In the course of human history, has there ever been an age when so many marriages have been dissolved on the flimsiest of whims?

What does it say about a culture that views the most sacred and significant of bonds as something to be dissolved on caprice?  What does it say about a culture that ruins the lives of the weak and defenseless—their own children—for the convenience of the adults who brought them into this world and have a responsibility before God for their nurturing?  What does it say about a culture that regards holy matrimony as a thing of convenience to be skirted when it becomes inconvenient and to regard an institution ordained by God as a human contrivance that may be abandoned when it no longer pleases one of the parties involved? Yes, this form of “trucebreaking” is truly a sign of peril.  It evidences selfishness, stubbornness, rebellion against God, disregard for His institutions and His will, and a shocking disregard for the most basic human responsibilities.

Yet, many of us who might never contemplate divorce feel comfortable practicing this perilous sin in other ways.  The Word of God says that wisdom is “easy to be intreated” (Jam. 3:17).  For example, we stubbornly refuse to be reconciled to a brother in the Lord or refuse to forgive one who has truly repented of an offense against us.  And how many churches have been divided over something as inconsequential as the color of the new carpet or the amount of the budget to be dedicated to repairs? 

When the spirit of the age is characterized by people who must have their own way, who refuse to resolve differences according to Scriptural injunctions, who hold to their positions at all costs no matter the weight of evidence against them or the charitable pressure to submit brought upon them, then the age is truly perilous.  A spirit that refuses to be appeased or refuses to be reconciled is one that is in gross rebellion against God and, consequently, a danger to itself and those around it.  An age characterized by such a spirit is truly perilous.