The Three Things

The three things you are never supposed to talk about with friends or guests in your home (sex, politics, and religion) have taken center stage as a group for the last several days. The Facebook page promoting tourism in North Carolina quickly became a battle ground for rudeness and lack of civility as people of differing opinions took verbal jabs at one another, each one claiming the moral high ground following the state’s passage of a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

The page was full of people boasting about cancelling vacation plans or orders for furniture, one of the state’s primary industries. This was countered by people on the other side of the issue promising to move to the state at the earliest possible convenience. Each side had its own Bible verses, though the vast majority of folks seemed to have little use for, or interest in, the Scriptures at all. Therein, I believe, lies the problem.

We have, all of us collectively, just about destroyed marriage. We want it to mean what we want it to mean. We want to validate those relationships which agree with our particular point of view or lifestyle. We dismiss absolute standards of almost every kind, and replace them with something more in line with Paul’s writing to Timothy where he warns of those “who have a form of godliness, but deny its power” (2 Timothy 3:5).

The power of God involves recognizing the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ. Once we have marginalized Jesus Christ, once we have made him one of the possible options for salvation rather than our only hope, we allow anything and everything to displace the authority of the Spirit in our lives. We can defend any point of view, for all of them are equal. We can excuse and departure from The Way because, after all, there are other ways that are just as valid.

It is not a moral code that is hanging over humanity’s head. It is the love and mercy of Jesus Christ extended to humanity. Once we claim reliance on Christ for our salvation, it washes over us fresh and new every day, a never ending torrent of forgiveness, which alone can wash away our sins and restore us to health and peace with our Creator. Only then can we be free. We do not become clean by throwing off standards, we become clean by bowing to the one that can make us so.

Pastor Craig