Woe
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isa. 5:20).
The verse in context is bearing upon the present churches and institutions that influence and direct the churches. God warns us against improvised complacency. Such an act results in suffering, a kind that God does not wish to heal. Interpreting the verse from application viewpoint let us look at why many church-goers are seeing matters according to their will and substitute them with their own.
Obviously, to call evil good and vice versa, and to substitute darkness for light is vile sin. But first let us note that self-made doctrine or a doctrine which the Bible clearly does not teach and denounces is the sole reason for such a vile sin. If lack of knowledge is a simple reason for it, arrogance born out of denial and fear of losing ground is the main reason for it. This answers why one would desire to call evil good or substitute sweet for bitter. It then leads to the understanding that church-goers, preachers and administrators do it for profit of their own.
By far the fine wisdom in the above verse is that church-goers and their leaders who change the nature of evil and good do it willfully. It is the natural outcome of being born of Adam and Eve that sinned against God. On the contrary, no man or woman that calls Jesus as Lord by the Spirit commits such a vile sin. But if they are doing it, their confession and belief of Him has only been according to the flesh. They see Christ for this life only.
Every sin that a church and its leaders compromise against righteousness, every transgression which an institution and its members are silent upon, every iniquity which a church and its leaders defend with the strangest of arguments and every wrong doing which they blame on someone or some situation is an act of reversing and substituting. Such people will never be secure on this earth; neither will the consequence of their vile sin cease to appear.