Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.  Genesis 19:14

We’ve been talking about mileposts on the journey of Christian maturity. Milestones like childlike-ness, the highs and lows of life don’t impact the quality of our walk with God, faith, self respect, worship… I need to point out that all these attributes are Christian-character traits. They are things that we as Christians ought to live out. But they aren’t a checklist. They aren’t things that we do to be mature Christians. Just the other way around: they are life-attributes of mature Christians. The difference? One flows out of our efforts, the other flows out of our character. These often take some time to establish.

That is especially true of today’s measure, stability. There are many places in the Bible we could go to look at this character trait, but the story of Lot is one often overlooked. To set up the story, God has decided to destroy the Sodom, the city Lot and his family live in because they were “arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy” (Ez 16:49). Problem was, Lot had an uncle (Abraham) who was praying (Gen 18:32) so God sent some angels to get Lot and his family out of town before the destruction began (Gen 19).

The angels told Lot to gather his family and get them out of the city. But when he warned his family about this they “thought he was joking” (v. 14).  The outcome? Not much of Lot’s family survived.

My point? Lot was so unstable in all his ways that when it came time for his words to matter, the people who knew him best didn’t take him seriously. Now Lot was a righteous man (2 Pet 2:7-9), but the value of his counsel was zero.

Compare that to Noah. He also got a warning about destruction coming upon him (Gen 6). He warned his family about the situation and they spent the next 120 years building an ark to preserve their lives. There’s no record of any persuasion on Noah’s part. They believed him.

Now does that mean that we shouldn’t joke around and enjoy each other’s humor? Does it mean we have to be somber and serious? Resoundingly, no! But when life does get serious, stable Christian will be taken seriously by those who know them best. They have a reputation for reliability. Their words are dependable.