Waffles and spaghetti – just two common food items, right?  Yes, but these two foods can have a meaning other than just being something edible. They have often been used to characterize men and women but would it surprise you to know that they can also be used to describe how we interact within the body of Christ?  

​Some of us interact with others like waffles – we only allow certain people into our box.  Then, there are those of us who interact with people like spaghetti – we rub shoulder to shoulder.  We recognize the value of each individual made in God’s image, interacting with everyone and including everyone. This is exactly what we should be doing. We cannot compartmentalize within the body of Christ just as we cannot within our physical bodies. If our foot hurts, our entire body feels the pain. If our head hurts, our entire body is affected. The apostle Paul makes this point in I Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4 and Romans 12, reminding us that we are all impacted by other members of the body.  

Let me encourage all of us within the body of Christ to get out of the box and stir up some spaghetti!

"We all have a desire inside of us to fit in and to be accepted. We want to be liked by others. As we endeavor to be “liked” by others we can find ourselves caught in a vicious trap. We may “do, say, or allow” unacceptable or wrong actions to take place without standing as a believer should.

Lot, Abraham’s nephew, lived near the worldly influences of Sodom and Gomorrah. Over the course of time we can see that the friendships he made with the people from those cities took a drastic toll on his life and his family. If Lot could have seen the end of his life before he made his choices I am sure he would have made different choices. 

God’s Object Lesson – 2 Peter 2:6 “turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly”

1.     God brought about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah that they might serve as warning signs to all future generations.  In this case He produced an abiding memorial for all succeeding generations to recall as the divinely ordained "reaping" to all who would dare sow such flagrant ungodly behavior.

2.     Galatians 6:7 – “Be not deceived God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.”

The Impact on Lot – 2 Peter 2:7-8 “And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:  (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)” 

1.     He compromised to be accepted.
Their evil lives continued to be a burdensome weight upon Lot personally. He saw evil and he heard evil over and over. Their lives wore Lot down as his own conscience and soul rebelled against the filth that he continually witnessed around him.  
It is amazing (and to some extent encouraging) that Lot had not allowed his conscience to become so dulled that he was no longer pained by what he witnessed yet he did not have the courage to speak up.1 Corinthians 15:33 “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.”  

2.     He departed from Abraham full, but left Sodom empty with a conscience dulled by sin. Genesis 13:5-6.Genesis 19:15-17.