让我们多花一点时间来探讨一个现实的情况，就是现今很多基督徒都好像「以法莲人」一样，善于步操，却拙于作战。他们带着自己的问题呼求帮助，但在面对圣经的要求时（其中一个要求是向自我死），他们害怕得好像老鼠一样，急忙跑进第一个找到的地洞里去。他们想得到快速的医治，却不愿意接受关于如何从自我中心悔改过来的建议。

我有时不禁在想，教会今天的现象，是否因为我们处于一个以逃避来面对生活的时代？美国作家斯克拉（Anna Sklar）在《出走的妻子》（Runaway Wives）这本书中透露了美国一个惊人的统计数字。她说十年前，每当有一位妻子离家出走、逃避家庭责任的时候，就会有六百个丈夫和父亲做出一样的行为；但是今天，每当有一个男人这样做的时候，就有两个女人在做同样的事情。

我提出这句话并不是要支持任何一方，只是想指出现代的趋势是越来越倾向于选择逃避来作为处理问题的方法。以前被社会视为耻辱的事情，现在的人毫不犹疑地接受；「放弃吧」这句话随时冲口而出。每当婚姻亮起红灯，出现危机的时候，解决的方法大多是：「我们离婚吧！」我不知道今天世俗的潮流对我们的思想有多大影响？我们在多大程度上容许世界将我们挤进它的框架里去呢？

We must spend some more time focusing on the fact that many of today's Christians are like the Ephraimites we spoke of a few days ago - good at parading, but not so good in battle. They cry out for help with their problems, but when confronted with the demands of Scripture, one of which is to die to self, they scurry like rats down the first bolthole they can find. They want a medicine man with a quick cure, not direct advice about how to repent of their egocentricity.

I sometimes wonder to myself whether this trend in today's Church is the result of our being brain-washed by an age that tends to make quitting a way of life. Anna Sklar, in her book Runaway Wives, uncovered an incredible statistic of American life when she said that a decade ago, for every woman who walked away from her home and family responsibility, 600 husbands and fathers did so. Today, for each man who does that, two women do.

My purpose in making this statement is not to take sides with either group, but simply to point out that, more and more, the modern trend is to choose the way of escape as the method of dealing with problems. Things that were once viewed by society as a stigma are now accepted without the flicker of an eyelid. "Let's just quit" are almost household words. A marriage gets shaky, hits a few rough patches and the solution is: "Let's get a divorce. How much of today's worldly patterns are affecting our thinking. I wonder? And how much are we letting the world squeeze us into its own mould?