The Virtue of Submission

Today we will be looking at 1 Peter 2:13-17.  In this section Peter goes on to instruct believers in the virtue of submission; especially in light of the previous point that we need to live honorably among unbelievers.  Now any virtue has its proper boundaries and priorities among other virtues.  Thus submission as a virtue is often rejected in the modern era because of evils done in its name.  Some Muslims will kill those who do not accept Islam out of submission to Allah.  There are Christians who have followed pastors into suicidal situations out of submission to the “man of God.”  Submission has also been used as a stick against women to endure physical and emotional abuse.  Thus for many it is a code word for unquestioning obedience.  When they hear the word they immediately shut down and reject whatever follows.

The meaning of submission is literally to take your proper place under an authority.  It is the opposite of rebellion.  With any virtue, it has its place and sometimes runs into conflict with other virtues.  Thus any virtue requires us to think.  We will do best when we think with the mind of Christ and according to the Scriptures because it will save us from the self-justification that is so prevalent with our own thinking.

Submit To Human Government

Because of the false accusations against Christians mentioned in verse 12, Peter goes on to teach believers to take their proper place under human government.  Some of these false accusations were that Christians believed that Jesus was king and were a rebel group against Rome.  There were other accusations as well, which is why Peter is telling them to live in such a way that those false claims will be counteracted.  Our representation of God and Jesus Christ calls for us to have an above board approach to how we live in this life.

Next he gives the scope of “every ordinance” or every human institution and at every level (King to governor).  Governments have laws and delegate authority out to different levels.  The king was the highest authority.  In light of other passages it is clear that "every" here does not exclude exceptions.  However it does apply to every kind of government humans design.  Within godly reason we are to submit to every human government that we find ourselves living under.  So our starting place is simply doing our part to cooperate with the government and obey its laws.

Peter mentions the legitimate function of governments and that is to restrain evil through punishment and encourage good through protection.  The Bible is clear that God allows governments to rise and at his timing causes them to fall.  Believers are to live with a baseline of submission to the human governments not out of agreement with all their actions, or belief that they are good.  Rather, to keep from giving the impression that God’s people are rebels.  God has not told us to take over the kingdoms of this world.  He has told us that he would do that and then hand the kingdom over to the saints.

In verse 16 Peter mentions that they should submit, but as free people.  What does he mean?  True submission should flow from freedom.  Submission is not about slavery.  If we turn it into slavery then we have prostituted what the virtue is meant to be.  Christians have been set free.  However, we are not set free to do evil.  Freedom must never be used to either openly pursue evil things, or secretly pursue them.  Thus believers freely choose to serve the interests of God rather than their own.  Is it not true that our actions sometimes have caused people to say that God is evil?  This is what Peter seeks to avoid.  God, who is the highest authority, asks us to serve these lower authorities as righteously as we can out of respect for how we represent him.

Perhaps it is time to deal with the obvious question, “Is there ever a time not to submit?”  The simple answer is yes.  However, our flesh can abuse the idea that there are exceptions.  When we look to the Bible there are two obvious exceptions that we should mention.  When Israel was in slavery in Egypt, Pharaoh had commanded the Hebrew midwives to kill any Hebrew boys who were born.  These women pretended like they were trying to do the job, but told Pharaoh that the Hebrew women kept having the babies before they could get there to help.  Here we see how virtues can conflict.  Submission is good but killing a baby regardless of its gender is worse.  Even the lie that they tell Pharaoh would be recognized as a lower priority.  This is not situational ethics.  Rather it is recognition that virtues have boundaries.  These ladies properly drew the boundary at taking the life of another or infanticide.  Another situation is found in the book of Acts with Peter and John.  They had been taken by the authorities and commanded to quit teaching and promoting Jesus.  They respond that it is better for them to obey God than men.  Here they have been given a direct command from Jesus.  Go into all the world and make disciples of Jesus.  They would have to disobey God in order to obey their “proper” human authorities.  Thus they refused to comply.  However, notice that they always submitted to the punishment.  Instead of stirring up a revolt against the Jewish leaders or Ceasar they stood and spoke firmly on Jesus and accepted whatever punishments they were given.  Thus submission requires us to think and have a clear understanding of what God wants from us.  It is not unquestioning obedience to human authorities.

Peter goes on in verse 17 to give a series of commands.  Honor all people.  Love fellow believers.  Fear God.  Honor the king.  Notice that honor begins the list and ends it.  Also that honor is directed towards “all people” and also “the king.”  Just because people are lost and do not know God does not mean that we are free to de-value them.  Honor basically means to value them.  We honor or value those in the world with two motivations.  Our actions can adversely affect our fellow Christians.  Love cautions us to not act in a way that would foolishly bring harm and hurt to our fellow brothers.  Thus we should be motivated by love.  However, we should also fear God.  God has often used evil governments or even evil people to chastise those whom he loves.  We are not above doing wrong and when we do God is not always going to use a Christian to rebuke you.  If we fear God then we will honor any authority that we are under knowing that we too need restrained from evil.  It is recognition that I am a sinner saved by the grace of God and that there is value even in fallen people and corrupted institutions.

Further Thoughts

Rebellion must never be romanticized.  There are some who are unable to take their place under any authority.  Their over-powering need to have no authority over them brings pain, suffering, and hurt to themselves and others.

Submission alone must never be the greatest priority.  In our own country men like Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. recognized that we can properly refuse authorities for the right reasons.  They rejected violent methods often in the face of violent authorities.  By doing so they gave a clear public testimony that they were doing good.  Even in their “disobedience” they were submitted to the overall rule of law and authority.

Regardless what governance we live under we are to do our best to obey its laws without disobeying God.  We are in a better situation compared to many.  We have precious little excuse.

Lastly, we must beware self-justification.  Our justification must truly be from God himself.  We must operate with the mind of Christ and the direction of God’s Word.  Only then can we properly represent Him to this world.  Pick up your cross and follow Jesus!

Virtue of Submission Audio

Living Honorably In This World

Generally, we talk about honor only when we are referencing the military.  However, in 1 Peter 2:11-12 all Christians are called to live honorable lives.  What is honor?  At the root of honor is the concept of value.  We ought to live in a way that is good and valuable to society, regardless of whether that value is recognized.  To have honor in a dishonorable society is a unique pickle.  True honor is not defined by what the crowd values.  It is inherently valuable and “ought” to be valued by all men.

It is precisely this situation that Peter talks to in this passage.

Living Honorably Begins With The Inner Battle

Verse 11 points out that there is a battle that goes on inside of each believer.  God is not interested in people who appear to have value, like a kind of “fool’s gold.”  Rather, he wants our outward honor to come from battles that have been won inside.  If we try to act honorable without having fought those inner battles we will not have true honor, nor will our conduct truly make a difference.  It will eventually implode because it lacks foundation, and we all know that foundations are valuable.

First he calls them “beloved.”  This is important because in verses 9 and 10 he had reminded them of the book of Hosea.  They were like the adulterous Gomer that had sold herself into slavery to follow her adulteries.  Yet, Hosea, who represents God, had purchased her back to himself from the auction block.  Imagine that guys or gals.  What if you had to go buy your wife or husband back because they had purposefully sold themselves into prostitution?  Would you do it?  God has done that for us.  Those who were not loved through Jesus now become “Loved.”  You are loved by God and therefore should be loved by his people.  You have been given a place in his family.  Like a concerned older brother, Peter “begs” them to fight this inner battle.  He is coming alongside them and urging them towards the good and warning them against the bad.  No matter how this inner battle goes, we need to always keep in mind that if we have believed in Jesus then we are God’s beloved.

Next he reminds them that they are foreigners and strangers.  If you follow Jesus and fight this inner battle then you are going to stick out as strange in the cultures of this world.  Like any foreigner living in a foreign land we can forget our heritage and be assimilated.  Though this is not evil in the natural sense, it is bad spiritually.  In a world that is not fighting the “inner battle,” we stick out when we do.  It can be easy to give up and be assimilated.

So what exactly is this war?  Peter says that the lusts, or strong desires, that are based in our fleshly bodies war against our soul.  Did you ever think that your 5 senses are being used by your lusts to fight against your soul?  What would you be willing to sell your soul for?  What is your price?  The faith in Jesus that resides in your soul is hated by the lusts of the flesh.  Like a little baby that is used to getting its way, it screams and fights for control.  But unlike a little baby, the lusts of the flesh are able to kill faith and destroy our soul.  Jesus said in Luke 21:19 that when we are going through trying times we can take possession of our soul by being patient.  Trusting God in the fire and knowing that he will bring you through; waiting on God beside the Red Sea and knowing that he has a plan of deliverance; these are the things that are the valuables of our soul.

Peter says that they need to abstain from the lusts.  Literally, we should create a separation between us and them.  This tactical maneuver is meant to protect our faith and not lose our soul.  Joseph does this literally when Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce him.  In our lives we have many outward temptations, but they are working through inner lusts.  If a computer is a temptation to let sexual lusts take over then what are some means that we can do to abstain and separate ourselves from that temptation?  Lust always tells us that “Jesus isn’t enough.”  It tells you that you need something that God says you don’t.  Or, that you don’t need something that God says you do.  Boiling it all down, it is the same argument as Satan used in the Garden with Eve.  Leave God behind and satisfy yourself.

Let me remind you of the gospel, good news, of Jesus Christ.  Before you ever get to doing something good for God, you already have all that you need in Jesus.  When you put your faith in Jesus and follow him, you have all wisdom, power, joy, love, hope, and anything else that you will ever need.  Jesus is the wisdom of God, the power of God, the joy of God, the love of God, etc…  To have Jesus is to have everything you will ever need.  This simple truth can be forgotten by those who fall to temptation.  But it can also be forgotten by those who fight against it.  God does not love you because you have conquered temptation so well.  Nor does he despise you because you have done so poorly this week.  God completely love you, before you ever do anything in this battle.  He loves you because you have believed on His Son whom he sent.  The problem is not solved so much by doing more as it is by believing more.  Don’t let the lie of lust cause you to doubt these truths.  And, don’t let successes in this battle cause you to fall to the lust of pride.   Simply trust God.  When you fight them you are protecting what you already have between Him and you.

Living Honorably Moves to Conduct And Action

Honorable conduct is that which is morally good and brings glory to God.  Of course we need an unchanging means to measure the goodness of our conduct.  Society cannot be a good judge of what is good because society is always changing.  God has given us his sure word so that we can always know what is honorable no matter what society we are in.

Honorable conduct must always be lived out in the midst of those who are not honorable and are lost.  Peter refers to the Gentiles.  Literally this is all the nations and people.  In that day none of these nations and people knew God.  They were all lost.  We have to live out God’s morality before people who are plunging madly ahead into pleasing the lusts of their flesh.  This is not easy.  In fact we will be often rejected.  That is what Peter means when he says that some “speak against you as evildoers.”  They may call you bigots, haters, ignorant, Judgmental, Intolerant, Out-of-touch, etc. but we are to continue living out what is good.  Why?  It really is valuable, honorable.  They really do need us to live for God before them.  They really do need to see it and rub up against us in their lives.  It is the only way they are going to have any hope.  It is not important that this world embrace us.  But it is important that they observe us living out what is good before them.

Peter reminds them of a coming “day of visitation.”  The day of visitation is a reference to a biblical concept that from time to time God inserts himself into a person’s life, or a nation’s affairs.  When he does it is an opportunity for grace and mercy.  If we receive him and follow him we will find miraculous grace.  But if we reject him we find ourselves handed over to judgment.  This is precisely what happened to Israel when Jesus came.  Those who embraced him found grace and the miraculous activity of God.  But those who rejected him went on to experience the judgment of God as they were handed over to the effects of their rebellious hearts.  If we have lived out the truth before the lost, they have a chance to believe in the day of visitation.  There will be something within them that remembers that strange person who lived differently because of Jesus.  They may be saved.

Food For Thought

We don’t appreciate good things until they are taken away.  Don’t let the rejection of today cause you to quit fighting the inner battles and living honorably.  You won’t win any accolades of this world, but you will make a big impact in some one’s life.  Those who speak ill of you today, may come knocking at your door tomorrow.  Will you help them or be offended?  God help us to work for Him and not ourselves.

Lastly let me just say, God is faithful to visit individuals and nations at His appointed times.  We need to be faithful knowing that God is faithful.  America has had several visitation by God and I don’t know if we have another one coming.  But it is our job to be faith because no matter what, this world is headed for the biggest visitation of them all—the second coming of Jesus Christ.  Maranatha!

Living Honorably audio

Hungry For God’s Word

Today we return to our study of 1 Peter, starting in Chapter 2.  Unfortunately we are unable to supply the audio for this sermon.

You may not connect being hungry with the Bible.  However, this is a metaphor that is employed throughout the scriptures.  Like bread is to the body, so God’s Word is to our spirit.  Just as some foods are not as good for us as others, so certain thoughts and ideas are not as good for us either.  What do you hunger to eat spiritually?  If it isn’t God’s Word then you might be in spiritual danger.  Let’s look at 1 Peter chapter 2.

We Need To Desire God’s Word

Peter ended chapter 1 with a powerful reminder of the place that God’s Word had in their salvation.  It was through the Gospel that was preached to them that they believed and were born again by the Holy Spirit.  However, the Word is not just powerful in making us spiritually alive.  It is not just something that we need to get started and then can go on without.  We need it every day.

Peter instructs them to have a desire or yearning for God’s Word.  It is not the Bible’s fault if I don’t desire it.  It is “good food.”  It is exactly what my spirit needs to grow and be alive in this world.  So, if I do not desire it then the problem is in me.  That is why Peter commands them to desire God’s Word.  Change your mind, change your actions and your heart will follow. 

Laying aside the old nature is a necessary component to approaching God’s Word.  In fact much of God’s Word reminds us of this need and explains why it is necessary.  Laying aside is a picture of taking off things that are hindrances.  Putting on the proper attire for dinner with your spouse also involves taking of the dirty clothes of the day.  When we approach the Word we are approaching a very intimate thing that God provided for us. This is clearly not an exhaustive list.  However, lets walk quickly through the five things mentioned.   Malice is any ill-will or evil inclination we might have towards others.  Deceit involves craftiness and hidden motives that are generally for the benefit of self.  Hypocrisy is a form of deceit in which we pretend or act differently than we really are.  Envy is a step beyond jealousy.  It doesn’t just wish it had what you have, but desires to take what you have and despises the benefit.  Lastly, evil speaking is a very broad category.  It can spoken behind another’s back or spoken to their face.  Either way it involves saying bad things with our mouth that hurt others.

This brings us to the analogy of a little baby.  All babies need to grow and all babies yearn for milk.  Our spirit has been born again by the Word and we need it to spiritually grow.  Thus we need to yearn for it.  Growth is not just about size.  A baby can grow in size and still remain a “baby” in mind.  Thus spiritual growth is not just a matter of a certain number of years reading Scripture.  Just as a baby takes in food, digests it, and draws life from it, so we too must spiritually take in God’s Word, digest it, and draw life from it.  Notice that food only gives a baby the strength to grow physically and mentally.  However, choices are made along the way.

The word translated “pure” in reference to the milk of the Word is closer to the idea of sincere.  It literally is “not deceitful.”  God’s Word does not have any hidden motives for its own ends.  It is the sincere Word of God.  To embrace it we are going to need to “un-embrace” those philosophies and ideas of the world that are deceitful.

Do you think that you can spiritually grow to the point that you are like Jesus?  God is able to do that which is impossible.  However, we must want it.  We are going to have to go after it by hungering for his Word.  When we receive God’s Word like a child it will yield spiritual growth.  But if we approach it as an adult who has it all figured out, our own deceived nature will blind us to the Truth and keep us from new birth and life.  In verse 3, Peter seems to be alluding to Psalm 34:8.  “O, taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!”  Taste points to an intimate experience.  I haven’t just observed the LORD.  Rather, I have fed upon his Word.  I have taken it in and found his ways to be good.  That doesn’t mean nothing bad happens.  It is good in that it is helpful and beneficial and righteous.  Peter is not so much questioning their experience as he is emphasizing the “oughtness” of their needed desire.  If you’ve found the LORD to be good then you “ought” to desire his Word.

We Are Being Built By God

Next Peter uses two metaphors that come directly from the Temple in Jerusalem.  The first has to do with the temple building itself.  We are living stones in a new temple that God is building.  This building is a spiritual temple that is made of people instead of stones.  Thus, before God allowed the 2^nd Temple to be destroyed, he first had his faithful, Son Jesus lay a foundation for a new one.  The temple in some ways is finished in that it is spiritually functional and the Spirit of God dwells in it.  However, in another way it is still being built as new believers are added to its coursework every day.  Notice that these stones are rejected by the world but chosen by God.  He doesn’t choose us because we are perfect, but because we are shapeable.  Many great stones of this world will not allow God to shape them.  Many great builders of this world have no place for Jesus himself.  They reject him as an unfit stone.  When you embrace Jesus you are no longer a part of those who “fit” in this world.  But worry not.  God fits you into his spiritual temple.  You have a place in his temple given by him.  No one can take it from you and you have every bit as much right as any other stone to be a part of God’s temple.

There is a personal and a corporate sense to this.  In a personal sense, God works on you to make you into his temple.  It is a work that goes the length of our life.  All along, though, His Spirit dwells within us and communes with us.  On a corporate level, we have been placed in his temple.  We are already shaped and fitted into place.  Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you do not have a place in God’s people.  That is a work that God does by His Spirit through His Word.

The next metaphor is the priests who worked in the temple.  We are holy priests in His new temple. Israel was used to priesthood being defined by biology or genetics.  You had to be a levite.  However, all believers in Jesus become priests in God’s new temple.  Not just priests but holy priests.  God is holy so we need to minister before him in holiness.  How can I do this?  Clearly I must first be “clothed” with the holiness of Christ through faith in him.  But I also need to pursue personal holiness by repenting of sin and removing it from my life.  This is part of my spiritual act of worship.  When I lay sinful thoughts, desires, and actions on the altar, I am allowing them to be destroyed in honor of God.  I also minister to God through prayers, praise and self-denying acts of loving service in Jesus name.  Lastly we minister by mediating between God and the lost of this world.

Peter uses Scriptures from Isaiah and Psalms to point out that Jesus was rejected.  He was the chief cornerstone of the new temple, but the builders rejected him.  The builders also rejected those who believed on Jesus and followed him.  We must not reject God’s Word, but rather desire and yearn for it.  That is how God builds us up into his holy temple and his holy priests.  You cannot receive Jesus AND reject his word.  How often people try to say something like this, “I believe in Jesus, but I can’t accept this verse here….”  Or they say, “Jesus never said what the Old Testament says.  So I believe in him but reject it.”  Those who say such things are deluded.  Jesus is the Word and the Word is speaking of Jesus from Genesis 1:1 all the way to Revelation22:21.  None of the Scriptures are in contradiction to Jesus and Jesus is not in contradiction to the Scriptures.

In verses  9-10 Peter ends with reminding them that they had become the people of God.  Israel had been identified for so long as the people of God.  But in Jesus God is doing a new thing.  For “whosoever will” of Israel that would join themselves to him, he took a remnant and put it together with people from every tribe, race, and tongue on earth to be the people of God.  Jew and Gentile alike in one body that belongs to the Lord, we have been chosen by God, made royal through our adoption into his family, made holy by Jesus, and special to him.  Special is literally the idea of purchased.  God “paid good money for us.”  We are special not just because we cost so much, but because God was willing to pay so much.  In fact, it is he who makes you special.  Don’t look at yourself trying to find something special.  You look to Him.  He is the special one who makes us rejected ones special.

Food For Thought

The enemy knows that his only hope is to get us to reject or ignore God’s Word.  That way we will not only fail to grow, but we will also spiritually die.  He hates what you have and what you stand to gain.  He will do anything in his power to convince you to throw away the best thing you could ever have.  Don’t be deceived by this world.  Let God fit you into his people and shape you into his temple that he loves to dwell within.

Same-Sex Marriage: Is It Really About Fairness & Equality?

We continue this week talking about the issue of “same-sex marriage.”  Today we are going to deal with the issue that is often raised concerning fairness and equality.  “You get to marry who you want.  So keeping us from marrying is unfair.”  Or another way this may be approached is to say, “Marriage is a good thing that you are keeping homosexuals from experiencing.  It isn’t fair to keep such a good thing from us.”

Being how marriage is an institution of God and not mankind or government, it is important for believers to not be drawn into emotional arguments that sound good.  Thus we all would agree that it would be wrong to keep people from a good thing.  However, in this case, it is not the good that they seek that is being objected.  Rather, it is the changing of that good thing, marriage, into something different then it was made to be.

Today I am going to take some time to walk through Romans 1 and 2 in order to deal with this charge that Christians (and therefore also God) are not being fair or treating homosexuals as equal.  Clearly, God rejects homosexuality as a good and proper expression of sexuality.  Thus the argument is not about fairness.  It truly is about propriety and the definition of what is “good” sexually.  For Christians this is defined by God, not the passions and desires of an individual or a majority of society.  Let’s go to Romans 1:18.

God Has Judged Homosexual Relations To Be Immoral

Now Romans 1 is going to make some clear statements about the perversion of homosexuality.  However, it doesn’t begin there.  In verse 18 Paul points out that God’s wrath is made clear against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.  So homosexuality is not the only thing that God judges to be sin.  Notice that those who pursue ungodliness (both homosexual and heterosexual) unrighteously suppress the truth.  Obviously if you want to pursue your own passions against God’s Word then you will not like the Truth of God.  Thus there is a clear attempt to restrain and hold truth down.  This happens to both the special revelation we are given in the Bible and in the general revelation that we are given through nature.  This is what Paul points to next.

In verses 19-20 Paul points to the general knowledge we can obtain from nature.  It is obvious, unless you have an ulterior motive, that there is a great intelligence behind the design and system of the universe.  It is also obvious that this intellect is extremely powerful.  Lastly this intellect is divine, that is, beyond creation.  He is God.  God has left his signature all over His creation so that men who do not recognize His existence, power, and divinity, are without excuse.
Now verses 22-23 show that the rejection and suppression of Truth has a negative effect upon the heart and mind of any person.  First of all their thoughts become empty or futile.  This isn’t intended to mean that they can’t accomplish anything and are stupid.  The idea of futile is being used of where their thinking will lead in the end.  So their thinking may build towers greater than Nimrod, but their rebellion and rejection of God will come to nothing in the end.  Thus their thinking is futile.  Also, their hearts will be darkened.  This is a picture of no internal light.  Without truth we are left to operate on lies, phantoms, myths, unrealities, in short, insanity.

This leads to verses 24-25.  When a person or society reaches this point of a darkened heart led by futile thinking as a result of suppressing Truth, God hands them over to the vile passions that are pent up in their flesh and heart.   Notice that they exchange truth for a lie.  Instead of embracing the God who created them, they embrace a lie.  “God’s judgments are wrong and not fair.  Thus he is either evil, or he doesn’t really exist.”  Whichever direction you go you are embracing a lie.  Many religious people have embraced a lie instead of embracing the Truth of God.  Also, many atheists and secular humanists have embraced a lie as well.  It all boils down to rejection of God and embrace of “not god.”

Next they worship the created things instead of the Creator.  Man has been designed with the need and desire to worship.  Thus those who rebel religiously create God in their own image or after things of the material world.  Those who rebel secularly generally worship themselves or at best an image of what they can become without God/Truth. Ultimately, all of this is the same path that Satan took millennia ago.  Whether they are a Satanist or not, those who exalt their own will above that of God’s, walk in his footsteps.  “I will do what I will!!!!”

The word that is used twice “God gave them over” is the picture of a transfer of a person.  They are handed over to vile passions in the way that a prisoner would be handed over in extradition.  A boundary has been crossed.  By stepping away, God hands them over to a tyrant that cannot be satisfied, their own vile passions.  Thus starting in verse 26 we find that the rise of homosexuality in a society is increased to the degree that God has handed it over.  It is a red-flag sin.  It speaks to a level of depravity that ought to shock us into turning back to God.  It is the ultimate rejection of God because it rejects the obvious design and intent of nature.  It screams, “I will not be defined by anything, not even the reality of the material world.  I will be what I want to be!!!”

Let me point out that in verse 32, Paul points to not just the existence of these evil, self-driven things in society, but also the approval of them as a problem.  Here in Washington State we have moved past the point of the existence of homosexuality.  We have even moved past the point of an overall social acceptance of it.  Now we have reached a point where society at large is being challenged to approve of it.  This will not end until the Church embraces homosexuality, our society repents and turns back, or God judges us.  This is where we are.

Just Who Is Being Unfair?

This leads us to Romans 2.  Here Paul talks about people who judge others breaking those same laws.  This is what is happening in those who actually dare to judge God himself.  Those who accuse God and his people of being unfair are unfair themselves.  They use political ploys to have laws struck down and others passed.  And then they use strong-arm techniques both politically and socially to silence the opposition and enforce acceptance.  Three years ago, in our own state, we had the passing of civil union legislation that was billed as “everything except marriage.”  How many people voted for that law because they wanted to be fair and yet now find themselves trying to defend making a line at calling it “marriage.”  Who is forcing whom?  The current same-sex marriage law was encouraged by a Governor who knew they wouldn’t be up for re-election.  The law itself pretends to protect clergy and churches, however, adds several legal avenues of later prosecution.  You cannot continue to offer marriage as a service to the public without putting yourself in jeopardy.  Also, the definition of discrimination is added to same-sex couples.  Thus they leave the door open for pursuing legal action down the road upon the basis that it is wrong for clergy and churches to discriminate.

At issue here is a warped sense of fairness.  Typically what is meant in this argument is fairness of outcome rather than fairness of judgment.  Thus the social enforcers try to make all have the same outcome.  Everyone can marry any way they want to whomever they want and everyone should accept it as Fair (at least as an outcome).  However, you will notice that many of the judgments that lead up to enforcing such fairness of outcome will be anything but fair or just.  A case in point, is socialism.  In order to achieve a desired goal of fair income/wealth for all they support redistribution schemes that trash fairness at all possible points.  So you will find those who work hard and are rewarded with income and wealth will be penalized and some who refuse to work will benefit from the penalty of the previous.  I know this an oversimplification.  But to say it doesn’t happen is an injustice itself.  In the name of fairness we will FORCE society to accept a perverse sexuality as normal and acceptable.

Final Thoughts

Paul says in 11-12 of chapter 2 that God does not play favorites.  In other words in the true sense of the term he is fair and just.  He is righteous and good in his judgments.  He holds us accountable for what we have known.  Thus some trapped in homosexuality may have a better chance of being saved then some hypocritical Christians opposing it.

Christian brothers and sisters, we can stand for Truth without losing sight of people’s need for the Gospel.  Homosexuals need to understand that it is not just that sin that is under judgment.  It is all sin.  And God’s judgment is coming.  We ALL need to admit our sins and flee to Jesus Christ for salvation.

Lastly, we need to operate out of love for the lost and not fear of what we might lose.  If this law passes, I do not have to fear.  The faith that has been passed down to us by godly people and the relationship we have with the Father has passed the test of many wicked and depraved generations.  Maranatha!

Same Sex Marriage: Fairness audio