Corporate Guilt

May 14

(Luke 10:12-15 NIV) “I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. {13} "Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. {14} But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. {15} And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths.”

(Joshua 5:3-6 NIV) “So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth. {4} Now this is why he did so: All those who came out of Egypt--all the men of military age--died in the desert on the way after leaving Egypt. {5} All the people that came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the desert during the journey from Egypt had not. {6} The Israelites had moved about in the desert forty years until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died, since they had not obeyed the Lord. For the Lord had sworn to them that they would not see the land that he had solemnly promised their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

We stand in front of God as individuals. We are judged by whether or not we have repented of our sins and trusted Jesus for salvation. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ. But there is a sense in which we are accountable for the sins of our city and nation. There is such a thing as corporate guilt. As Jesus speaks woe in Luke 10, he pronounces God’s judgment on entire cities. We bear some responsibility for what happens in our community and our nation. If we do not stand for the Lord and live for Jesus -- if we do not reflect God’s light, call for repentance, and pray for our nation -- we are corporately responsible for its demise. We cannot simply point fingers at the “unrighteous” and blame them for contaminating the place where we live. We live there too, and we share responsibility. There is such a thing as corporate guilt. -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day