There was some interesting reading on the overtly Christian front this week. Reading that demonstrates just how little we understand of God, and HIs desires for us.

Let’s start with a piece in Christianity Today that wonders, “What If the Christian Sexual Ethic Becomes a Feature, Not a Bug?” I set this article aside because the title makes a presumption that decent Christians should never make – that our ethic, in any area, is either a “feature” or a “bug.” Christianity is not subject to our judgement, we are subject to its judgement. But that said, I found the opening two paragraphs most enlightening:

Christianity’s 2,000-year-old sexual ethic is not normal in the contemporary West and hasn’t been for some time.

The notion that sex should be confined to the bounds of a lifelong covenant of marriage between one man and one woman is not simply out of step with a culture reshaped by the sexual revolution and the LGBTQ movement. Many now consider our ethic to be something far worse than outmoded. It’s hateful, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center; “dangerous,” per the Human Rights Campaign; and a source of “great harm,” says prominent ethicist David Gushee.

How can an ethic be “hateful,” “dangerous,” or “a source of great harm.” An ethic is a tool, a means of improving self and maintaining order. Hate, danger and harm are caused by people, not ethics. The Christian ethic generally considers love as the greatest good – so saying something about a specific part of the Christian ethic is “hateful” makes little sense. Christians can be and have been hateful and they have, sadly in God’s name, done great harm – but I don’t think that calls the Christian ethic into question, rather I think it calls the sincerity of the Christian faith of those involved into question. Violating one part of the Christian ethic while promoting another simply says some people are bad at doing Christian ethics.

The Christian Post carried an interesting piece on the nature of love:

They say love is like entering the lottery, and “you’re probably not gonna win.” Some statistics claim most marriages end in divorce, or that they consist of unhappy people. The pop culture magazines and the edgy social media posts champion this belief that love is whatever you want it to be. “Love is a battlefield,” cry the ladies singing Pat Benatar, and the men have given up on chivalry altogether. Sorry Sinatra.

Unfortunately, beyond romance, we find ourselves struggling with this virtue in all sorts of environments and circumstances. All it takes is a wave of frustration, anxiety, or any other blinding emotion for us to suppress any practice of this crazy little thing called love. But quite frankly, while the world may deal with it flippantly, Christians have little excuse to do the same.

Indeed, our two greatest commandments are centered in the love of the Lord and the love of our neighbor. And yet, I can’t help but wonder if the Church is just as prone to viewing love from a faulty perspective as the rest of the world is. Consequently, a faulty understanding will lead us to avoiding it, shoving it aside, or “failing” at it. But the reality is that love, if placed upon the wrong foundation, is simply not love. As such, the Church especially ought to be proactive in placing love upon what is truthful and glorifying to God. How do we do this? Well, you’ll find many a book written to conquer this very question. However, it would suffice to focus on one key distinction: Love is a choice, not a feeling.

If we exhibit hatefulness in pursuit of the Christian sexual ethic then we have made a bad choice. We have chosen to hate those living outside the ethic, rather than to love them, but the ethic is not the problem – we are.

The heart of Christianity is love – God’s love for us – a love that wishes to shape us, fully, into God’s created image. Perhaps rather than worrying so much about someone else’s misbehavior, we should worry more about our own. I cannot help but believe that if we truly reflect God’s love, the Christian ethic will not even be a question.

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