Back to the Law of God – Our Lawless Age (12)

Back to the Law of God

Our Lawless Age (12)

Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2:11, 12

Our culture is suffused with invitations and enticements to treat yourself to pleasure. But in our lawless age, our understanding of pleasure–a legitimate desire when ordered by God’s standards–is easily debased and corrupted.

Advertisers sell products with sex and fun. Easy credit makes it possible for us to purchase without real money whatever tickles our fancy. Pop culture chums the aquarium of society with the allure of sexual pleasure and unbridled fun.

The resulting breakdown of marriages, abuse of women and children, plague of STDs, out-of-control personal debt, and blight of sex offenders in the communities of the nation are just the price we grudgingly pay to have our cake and eat it, too.

Yet as these cancers increase in our society, no one seems willing to suggest that the problem may be in our outlook, our belief that personal pleasure is the right of every American, and nothing, save the “well-being” of others, and that very loosely defined, must be allowed to keep us from our passionate pursuit.

Even Christians fall into this trap, as we see in the high divorce rate within the Church, the abusive practices of priests and ministers, the reluctance of churches to discipline those guilty of sexual sins, and the seemingly endless stream of Christian leaders falling to the lusts of the flesh.

Not to mention the neglect of the Law of God.

The Law of God understands the human propensity to seek pleasure above all else. Thus it guards against the very sensual ills that plague our postmodern society, and it teaches that the practice of these can neither honor God nor benefit a nation. That our unsaved contemporaries will hear nothing of such Biblical rigidity testifies to the fervor with which we, as a people, are determined to be quit of God and His Law.

We as followers of Jesus Christ cannot expect to bring hope or renewal to our sad and depraved nation if we will have none of God’s Law, either. Jesus kept the Law, and prescribed it–not for salvation, but for life in His Kingdom (Matt. 5:17-19). Paul taught that the Law is the way to holiness, righteousness, and goodness (Rom. 7:12).

Our lawless age may thumb its nose at this glorious Law of love; we in the Christian community must not.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.