“…(for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)— …”
tormented his righteous soul
Lot took a glance at the sin of Sodom, and he was tormented by what he saw. “Tormented” carries the idea of mental torture or torment. He was tormented by the lawless deeds he observed.
A person who is “tormented” experiences mental anxiety and sorrow about what he sees. What Lot saw tormented his heart. The sins of Sodom tormented his righteous (born again) soul. He knew enough truth for this situation to torture his soul.
from day to day
Lot’s soul was tortured on a prolonged basis. The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah grieved and vexed Lot’s soul. His soul was vexed day in and day out with their sin. Guilt was an ongoing feeling in Lot’s soul. Evidently, he constructed a guilt complex in his soul.
by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)—
Lot saw and heard too much. The sin of Sodom was blatant. It was out in the open, much like it is in our day. When a civilization does not care about blatant sin in its society, that society begins to devolve. This was the testimony of the Greek and Roman civilizations. Those civilizations decayed from within and disappeared as world powers. Will historians in years to come to write about the erosion of our society during our watch?
“Lawless” means unprincipled. Their deeds carried no standards. Lawlessness pertains to what is not consecrated or devoted to God – unholy, impious, and godless. Here it refers to people who do not subject themselves to God’s law. The idea is not simply doing what is unlawful, but flagrant defiance of God’s known will about what homosexuality is.
PRINCIPLE:
A principle of victory over sin is not to build a platform for sin so that sin can gain a foothold in our lives.
APPLICATION:
Lot was vexed, but he was not vexed enough to pick up his belongings and leave Sodom. He evidently didn’t care enough for his girls and his wife to leave when he should have. Are you in a situation where you are dwelling too long? Get out of the situation and not allow for a platform of sin to develop in your soul.
There is a valid separation from sin and even sinners (2 Co 6:14). Many young women go into situations thinking that this is an opportunity for some fun, but it ends in great pain for them. It would have been better for them to separate from that crowd in the beginning.
