Complaint:

Christians are always trying to force their morality on everybody else.

Response:

That’s funny because Christians are feeling the very same pressure from current society.  We feel that our beliefs and values are mocked in popular entertainment and mischaracterized in our culture as being unfair and deny the rights of others.  So who’s really doing the pushing today and who’s just trying to hold on?

Be that as it may, let’s address a key issue behind the complaint: who gets to decide what is right and wrong?  Then another question lurks within: how do we find in between moral (God’s Law) and legal (man’s laws) what is just and fair for everyone?  The democratic process of discussion, debate and then majority rule as a vote is taken is our culture’s attempt at the latter.  Christians have as much right as citizens to our point of view as those who have a different view on morality have.  Discrimination can be claimed only when all voices haven’t been given adequate voice or when circumstances, such as race, are present that are beyond one’s choice.

But back to the more fundamental issue of who gets to decide right and wrong for understanding this answers why Christians care so much about what is going on around us.  We believe God alone is in the position of determining right and wrong, righteousness and sin.  He gave the immutable Law through Moses on Mt. Sinai.  We call these the Ten Commandments.  All humanity is bound to this Law regardless of their faith or lack thereof (Hebrews 10:16).  God’s authority to give and enforce His Law is rooted in the fact that He is the Creator of all.  He made it; He gets to say how it works.  But we don’t want to leave our witness to our neighbor here lest we give them an eschewed view of God as a cold and distant judge waiting to strike down with lightening and pestilence those who dare break His Law.  We know that God’s love and mercy are behind His Law.

In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus summarized the Ten Commandments; indeed, the whole Old Testament that led up to His coming, with the word “love”.  Let’s pause to read it now.  The Law of God was not given to make our lives difficult and restrict our rights and freedom. To the contrary.  The Law was given on account of sin; that is, because self love threatened to ruin God’s creation.  Selfishly insisting on one’s own way and presumed rights threatens the good of everyone else around.  Our choices need to take into mind the good of others.  This is the point of the Law.  It was given, since sin took true love away, to show us what love looked like. Love doesn’t murder, it doesn’t gossip or steal.  Love respects authority.  Love also honors God who loves us.  Love keeps society from tearing itself apart at the seams but a love defined by Law to guard against selfish abuses.  The issue of whether or not man can keep God’s Law is not the issue for this discussion.  That will follow in a subsequent discussion as an introduction to the Gospel.

Therefore when Christians speak about morality and honoring God’s Law, we do so to keep the love of others rather than the love of self as the predominate grease within the wheels of a functioning society.  It is not about getting our way or about discriminating against others but about honoring love as defined by God who is love and created us all in love.  While the “freedom” that is desired apart from having law (and God) seems liberating, it is a straight jacket in truth.  It confines one to the narrow choice of what is good only for me instead of the multitude of ways love is released when we ask, “What is good for my neighbor”.  Removing the Law of God from life leaves only the meandering path of making up your own rules as you go through life having no real purpose or destiny to which you are going.  This leaves one walking around in a tight little circle not realizing that the scenery isn’t changing because you are only looking at yourself in a mirror.

We also speak of morality because it speaks of an authority outside of ourselves.  We aren’t arguing for our own way but God’s way which is good for everyone.  God’s way is love.  Again we say, God is love.  Our motives in defending biblical morality must be for the good of neighbor or else we are walking that same selfish circle seeking power over others or a rush that we are right and others wrong.  There must come a time when people see what lies behind their values, beliefs, choices and definitions of freedom, human rights and personhood.  It cannot be self.  Then the world is up for grabs to whoever has the greatest power.  It must look beyond what is good just for me.  There we find God and the meaning of love.

The present views of morality in America don’t look far enough.  They don’t see God and true love.  They stop short at preferring individual to community rights, dividing personal from public morality and elevating personal choice as the highest good.  But what happens when “John’s” personal choice runs into “Jane’s”?  Decisions then have to be made, priorities set and laws created that serve the public good.  We are now one step closer to seeing God and understanding real love. 

Neighborhoods and communities, states and nations all require a common moral ground to not just rigidly legislate how we get along but how we will be mutually blessed.  Standards don’t make Christians stiff, discriminating, exclusive or narrow minded.  They are for the good of our neighbor.  They are God’s and not just our own selfish choices thus we honor them for the good of everyone.  It is because of love that we speak of what’s right and wrong.  We know that doing wrong doesn’t just hurt the person doing it but, eventually, everyone else too.  Only through living by a common, divinely given moral truth will society insure that selfishness won’t rule and the rights of all are truly honored for the public good.

For Our Discussion:

1.        Why must Christians speak on public issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage?

2.       How should we look at tax plans and economic strategies?

3.       How should the love of neighbor apply in foreign policy?