As Christians we’ve watched our culture’s sexual revolution push further and further until it seems there’s little territory that hasn’t been made culturally acceptable. That has even extended into churches over the years, and at this point we’ve gone far beyond just having churches that declare homosexuality isn’t a sin and that God doesn’t really have any grounds for sex or marriage. Consider a couple of recent interviews that show just how far the sexual revolution is being taken by some in the religious world.
– Celebrity Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber declared that viewing pornography isn’t wrong, as long as it’s “ethically sourced.” In addition, she has encouraged women to send in the purity rings from their youth so she can melt them down and make a sculpture of genitalia.
– In another baffling article, HuffPost interviewed three unmarried ministers from different denominations about dating while in ministry. The three, – a homosexual man, a polyamorous man (currently with 4 girlfriends and a boyfriend), and a straight woman – all made it clear that they have no use for the Bible’s prohibitions for sex outside of marriage. One labeled expectations of chastity as “unreasonable” and the other two insisted that it’s up to individuals to determine what works for them.
You just can’t make up storylines this absurd. But what value do interviews like these have for us? After all, the world is going to continue to be the world, and as such the world will certainly do everything it can to co-opt Christianity and there’s little to be gained from simply pointing out how depraved some become. So why talk about it?
Because at the root of these wildly radical departures from the faith is a heart problem that can plague us all from time to time. The belief at hand, of course, is that our feelings should trump God’s Word in determining our actions. All 4 of the people mentioned above appealed to that line of reasoning in some way or another. They spoke of how putting shame on sexual sins was “harmful” to people and how it’s up to each person to determine how they feel about sex. The Bible makes it clear that following our own thoughts is a worthless endeavor. “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But whoever walks wisely will be delivered” (Proverbs 28:26).
We might not all go as far down the path as these false teachers, but it’s the same reasoning that can pull us away from God just as quickly. It’s something we all struggle with and have since Eve first gave in to temptation in the garden – did God really say that I’m not allowed to do such and such thing that I want to do? Or, why would God keep me from something that I want? “It’s okay for me to gossip about this person, because she treated me poorly.” “I know I’m not supposed to blow up in anger like that, but if you had seen how he spoke to me…” etc.
God’s holiness and man’s unholiness make it inevitable that there will be many times in all of our lives that God will tell us no to something that we want to do or something that makes us feel good. Re-studying the text over and over until we can find a way to make it say what we want (or just ignoring the text all together) just cuts God out of the equation.
Instead, the answer instead is to humbly ask what is pleasing to God – not what gives us what we want, not what is popular with the culture, and not what gives us an upper hand on others – when we open up the Scriptures. He is our God, our Savior, our Creator, our King. He can command whatever He wants of us, and the more we submit to Him and dwell on the Gospel, the more we realize that everything He commands is done out of His overwhelming love for us. And, as John pointed out, “His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).
We can’t let our feelings be our guide and walk by faith at the same time. The choice is ours each day. Seeing where the feeling-led road can end up, the choice certainly shouldn’t be a difficult one.
