Caving in and other such things
"It's not working!" I think we're foolish not to recognize when this is the case. To settle for the realizable best rather than pursue the unattainable ideal is sometimes a wise and even loving move. I know that's true from how God worked in scripture.Let me illustrate. In Deuteronomy 24:1-5 God gives legislation about divorce that Jesus said was a concession to the hard-hearted men who were abusing their wives (see Matthew 19:3-9). The same God who wrote Deuteronomy 24 wrote Genesis 2:18-24. One was going for the realisable best (to protect the oppressed women) and the other was God's permanent heart's desire. To waltz around Genesis 2 and build a life's practice on Deuteronomy 24 not only missed God's heart it said volumes about the wickedness of our own.
Though he approved of the legislation he gave in Deuteronomy 24 God didn't approve of the situation that led to him giving it and nor did he ever jettison his Genesis 2 desire for one husband and one wife for life. Still, in this instance the wise God settled for the realizable best rather than the unattainable ideal. (Of course he could have crippled or destroyed all the transgressors but that raises other questions about his overarching purpose. At this point he settled for legislation that was less than what he desired.)
But it would be a serious blunder to think that that's all God did about the hard hearts he was dealing with ("Make laws and sanctions to act as deterrents"). His own character and faithfulness expressed in the entire Torah and structure of the nation and its worship--these were protests against such hard-heartedness and they were a shaping process that was to keep the heart soft. This and more he was doing even while he wrote Deuteronomy 24:1-5
I judge that most Christians would admit that the biblical call to remain sexually pure is one tough call to live up to (especially when we're thinking about the young and unmarried), but they'd also insist that it's being difficult is no excuse to ignore or pretend it doesn't really matter. When non-believers are very angry with us (and sometimes their anger is warranted) they often think we're being self-righteous or blind to the realities of life or both. This may be truer than I think or want to admit but I don't think it's the whole story.
Sometimes we look the facts right in the eye and defy them. Even when we as Christians fall short of our aim we feel (or should feel) a healthy shame and we call our falling short "sin". But, you see, we think God has invested sexual activity with a lovely mystique and intimacy and with a profoundly rich theology. The Christian's view of sexual behavior can only be truly seen within the overall Story the Christian tells about God, creation, redemption and Christ and the church.
So I'd encourage non-believers to listen to us at our best rather than our worst.
Maybe Elton John or Madonna isn't the best model. Maybe the television series Friends or Happily Divorced or Sex & The City are more than a pleasant passing of the time. It might be they're positively injurious! Maybe child pregnancies and venereal disease are on the rise not because we aren't handing out enough free condoms and maybe "cheap sex" isn't the worst of it. It might be that cheapening sex destroys relationships and buries qualities like loyalty and patience and forgiveness and purity. Maybe at a level more subtle than we're aware of, sexual promiscuity cheapens the life that comes by way of sexual intimacy without loving commitment. Maybe promoting "sexual freedom" hurts more than a lot of individuals; maybe it infects an entire world.
Do you really think that the ease with which millions of us around the world abort developing humans, even late in pregnancy, has no connection (none?) with the way we view sexual intercourse? As they head for the bars and pubs,"Let's go get laid!" Or, "Maybe we'll 'get lucky'."
And the usual societal response? "Well, that's how kids see things these days and we might as well accept it. So hand out the condoms, pass round the pills, spend some money advertising 'safe sex' and move on."
Whatever! But God forbid that we should mount a sustained public programme to encourage relational faithfulness or a serious study about the effect of popular TV shows on the moral fibre of a nation.
A waste of money and time? Maybe, but it could hardly be a greater waste of time and money than the nonsense that's being advocated and funded by the think tanks and experts and governments. Maybe one day when the whole story's told we'll discover the profoundly sinister and calamitous effects of settling for less than sex within a loving marriage union; maybe then we'll recognize the awful blunder of a nation not trying to cultivate a climate for warm loving marriages.
Maybe one of these days churches and church leaders will stop allowing society to lead them around by the nose and take a stand instead of caving in to the demands of a society that wants them to more "tolerant" and "understanding".
But what can the Church do? What should it do? The Church must confess that any legitimate power it has is the power God exercises in and through it. The Church must confess that that "power" is not coercive and that it never was. The Church must acknowledge that God's saving "power" is invested in the Gospel and imbedded in the Church itself which is the embodiment of the Gospel. The Church's business in the world is to be the Church and to tell its Story. We have nothing else! No other power! God has given us no other power!
I'm aware how idiotic that sounds but someone light years ahead of me knew it sounded idiotic and spoke of our Story as a foolish preached message and he spoke of those who told it as fools [1 Corinthians 1:18-23 and 4:9-10]. The Church's business is not to show itself profoundly wise by elaborate means and sophisticated reforms--though it doesn't deny that God has gifted others with wisdom and talent.
With free hearts, tied to no form of government that will silence it, the Church preaches Jesus as wisdom, Jesus as righteousness, Jesus as the exemplification of true "power". The Church and its individual members will not adopt a holier-than-thou attitude! Being peopled by sinners it will admit its own failures but it will proclaim the purpose of God that climaxes in the blessed Lord Jesus and gather into itself sinners {sexual sins included] who are tired of their sinning, tired of the shallow lives they've been living; sinners who want better and, who by God's inspiring and drawing power, will not settle for less.
They'll be sinners who won't cave in and allow the current of society's dirty river to carry them wherever it flows. And if or when they fall, and many of us have and will, they won't continue to lie there and whimper. They'll get back up and continue the honorable fight as long as it takes.
I've known such people and greatly admire them and am strengthened by them! That IS power.
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