Your Feelings Do Not Define Morality
An appeal for some good old-fashioned discipline.
Self-control is not always the most exhilarating thing to do. Man simply does not like to control his passions. In the book of Judges, the theme of that Biblical book seems to be found in this phrase: “[E]very man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6; 21:25). No self-control. Likewise, in today’s culture, the same can be said. New “rights” are constantly being discovered. Liberty (freedom with responsibility) is swapped out for libertinism (freedom without restraint).
As man does what is right in his own eyes, he also believes what is right in his eyes. The Pew Research Center has some interesting statistics on the social acceptance of homosexuality. In the United States, 72% reported viewing homosexuality as socially acceptable. The majority of Western European countries accept this lifestyle with numbers over 85% (Sweden is as high as 94%).
Ah, progress.
Now LGBTQ matters are hot-button issues. If one expresses disapproval of this sexual attitude, he is called a bigot. Kate Cohen at The Washington Post last year attacked “church bigotry.” One of her enemies: Pensacola Christian College, which canceled a scheduled performance of the King’s Singers after learning one of their members was gay (there was a second one too). PCC asserted correctly that the homosexuality that was being practiced by the performer in question is “a lifestyle that contradicts Scripture.” “[L]et’s not be fooled by the ‘religious belief’ talk,” Cohen declared in response. “It’s just old-fashioned bigotry.” (Cohen also briefly called out certain preachers who called for the execution of gays. That was fine for her to do, but the rest of her article was ridiculous.) Whenever someone refers to disagreeing with the morals of homosexuality as bigotry, they are falsely equating it with immutable characteristics such as race (as Cohen did). After all, love is love.
We are told that if someone feels like he or she is in love with someone else, then it must be fine. But here’s the thing: your feelings are not the final arbiter of what’s right or wrong. God is the final arbiter of morality. According to God’s law, as revealed in the Bible, any sexual relation is confined between one man and one woman in marriage. Therefore, any sort of sexual relation outside of that institution (including homosexuality) is a sin. There is nothing bigoted about that. I am not saying that homosexual relationships ought to be punished by law (then all sexual immorality would have to be illegal too under this logic), but I am saying that if we are to take a Biblical worldview, we ought not condone it. Which now brings me back to the self-control thing.
As I have just laid out, according to God’s law, engaging in homosexual acts is a sin. Notice that I did not say having homosexual impulses is a sin. James 1:14-15 says, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (ESV). Temptation is the enticement to sin, not the sin itself. God always provides a way to escape temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13). So, being tempted with homosexual desires does not mean that the person experiencing the temptation is in sin. He is only sinning if he takes that temptation and gives in, either through lust or through the act itself. In order for someone to fight back against temptation of any kind, he’s going to need self-control — and lots of it.
The Apostle Paul has a good passage about self-control, which I shall quote at length:
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
(1 Corinthians 9:24-27; ESV).
An athlete needs a lot of self-control. We’ve just come out of the Super Bowl. Do you think those guys probably exercised some self-restraint in order to focus on training for the big game? Consider the NBA legend Kobe Bryant. Kobe was known for always being the first to show up for practice at the gym (no matter how early). One time he ended up breaking his wrist, and yet he still was the first to show up for practice! If these athletes can put themselves through all this in order to have temporal success, then what should stop any man from saying no to sin as he reaches for the things of God?
The problem with the modern moral value system is that self-control is barely applied to our feelings. We live very much in a very I’ll-do-whatever-the-heck-I-feel-like society. Because we have detached morality from God’s law, we tend to attach it to feelings. This is what leads us to say, “Homosexuality is perfectly fine and you’re a bigot if you say otherwise.”
Do not make feelings your god. It will lead you to destruction.