Not everyone who follows the pathway of faith has the same relationship with the Lord. Some, like Abraham, enjoy the Lord's appearing, are attracted, and begin to pursue Him. Others are more like Lot in that they are following the Lord outwardly but only have very limited experiences of the Lord inwardly. Their following the Lord is mostly according to someone else's telling them what to do rather than having a living relationship with a living Lord. Lot is a warning to us that we should actively seek to follow the Lord ourselves. If we only go along with others without definite experiences of the Lord of our own, then we are in a very risky place. We may be defeated as soon as we have opportunity to make our own choices.

As soon as Lot left his uncle Abram his condition began to go down. His uncle's influence had kept him before then but that was quickly forgotten. First, he was attracted by the greener grass (the prospect of easy riches) in the plain at the bottom of the valley. He was already going in the direction of Sodom when he chose that part of the land. (In the Bible (Gen. 13:13) Sodom represents the sinful aspect of the world, the world of sin.)

It did not take too long before Lot had left his tent and moved right into Sodom. He went right back there after Abram rescued him when the people of Sodom were taken captive. He was not willing to leave even when the Lord was about to destroy the whole place. The angels had to seize his, his wife's, and his daughters' hands to pull them out. They had become so addicted to the sinful life in Sodom that almost nothing could separate them from it. When they were fleeing Lot's wife looked back longingly which shows that her heart was still in Sodom. Afterwards, when they were hiding in a cave overlooking the devastation on the plain, Lot's daughters thought that they and their father were the only people left alive on the earth. So they made him drunk with wine and lay with him. The fact that they could do such a thing shows how much they had been corrupted by the sinful environment their father had brought them into.

The story of Lot is a serious warning to those who have received God's salvation. The Bible calls him a righteous man (2 Pet. 2:7-8) and the Lord did rescue him when He was judging the sinners. Nevertheless, Lot lost everything by getting involved with sin. Even his descendants were corrupted. It is also a warning to people in general. Today society proclaims that there is nothing wrong with any kind of lifestyle, that it is all up to one's personal choice. But God has His standard and He hates improper relationships, especially sodomy (Rom. 1:26-27). When the Lord comes again He will judge all man's lawlessness. Until then we need to do our best to keep ourselves and our families from the corruption of the world.