One day when Jacob was preparing lentil stew, Esau came in from the field exhausted and hungry. “So Esau said to Jacob: ‘Quick, please, give me a swallow of the red​—the red there, for I am tired!’”​—Genesis 25:30.

11. What has happened to some Christians in modern times?

¹¹ Are you sometimes tempted to barter your Christian inheritance, everlasting life, for something as transient as a ‘bowl of lentil stew’? Do you, perhaps without realizing it, despise “sacred things”? For example, in recent times some Christians have fallen victim to the modern moral permissiveness. They seem to have Esau’s impatient desire to satisfy a physical craving. Just as he said to Jacob: “Quick, please, give me a swallow of the red,” have they not, in effect, said: ‘Quick! Why wait for honorable marriage?’​—Genesis 25:30; compare Genesis 34:1-4.

12. (a) How have some not shown appreciation for sacred things? (b) However, what action have some taken?

¹² Thus what has happened? A desire for sexual satisfaction at any price has become their ‘bowl of lentil stew.’ As a result, they have despised sacred things, including their relationship with Jehovah God and Jesus Christ. They have disdained integrity, fidelity and chastity. They have jeopardized their inheritance.