An aspect that strikes out in Christ’s ministry is His sense of urgency. He delivered His message in language that was broadly understood by both those who sympathised with Him and those who did not.

They had to change their ways and they had to do so immediately. The Lord knew the devastation (apart from the risk of losing one’s soul for eternity) that sin causes in our lives and to society at large.

Our world is sliding inexorably towards political, social and economic chaos. This is all the result of greed for money and power, indifference to the suffering of others and political and religious fanaticism. Christians call this sin.

Scripture makes it clear that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6, 23). One can thus also reflect about the heartache caused by the widespread use of artificial contraception, resulting in countless fatherless children, the killing of the unborn, the spread of STDs and an aging population causing enormous economic and social problems to society.

In our little country, too, the more laws are passed that gravely offend God, the more society groans and moans at the ravages taking place within it, especially within families. Those who refuse to see this and who congratulate themselves at the splendid secularised era ushered in will, in due time, as happened elsewhere, have this illusion shattered as they or those coming later vainly grapple to solve problems caused by their blindness and folly.

Christ made it clear that “everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (John 8, 34). The devil, a “liar and the father of lies”, as Jesus called him, would have us believe that in breaking God’s eternal laws we acquire some sort of freedom, which often only leads to bitterness and much sadness.