For Pleasure Born? – Our Lawless Age (11)

For Pleasure Born?

Our Lawless Age (11)

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

Of the three components of the Lie which has captured the imagination of our postmodern generation–sensualism, materialism, and big government–surely the most powerful is the first.

Freud’s “discovery” that the majority of human ills are rooted in a constrained libido has set generations of our contemporaries free from traditional and Christian morality to pursue pleasure with abandon, wherever they may find it, and, in particular, sexual pleasure in all its forms. As Paul noted, those who reject the Truth of God in order to take pleasure in things contrary to His Word are deluded and living a lie.

But this facet of the Lie has become widespread and is flaunted and encouraged on every hand, so that it is easy to believe that, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are simply out of step with the times. When we insist on the value and legitimacy of marriage as traditionally practiced; when we deny that homosexuality is a valid “alternative lifestyle”; when we counsel or preach against pornography, casual sex, and adultery, we are reviled and scorned as hopelessly out of touch and, by implication, altogether irrelevant to the needs of our modern society. Why can’t we just allow people to do what, as consenting adults, they want to do? Who do we think we are to label some pleasurable practices or arrangements as sin, especially when they bring such happiness to those who engage in them?

When the Law of God is rejected, the restraints it imposes are thrown aside. And the Law of God counsels us to restrain our fleshly appetites according to the holy and righteous and good standards of God. On every hand we see how our society flouts the seventh commandment and indulges its every lust. The Scriptures agree that we are for pleasure born, but the desire for pleasure in the presence of God is easily corrupted and debased in an age of lawlessness and unbelief.

Sign up to receive Crosfigell, our thrice-weekly email devotional, featuring T. M. Moore’s insights to Scripture and the Celtic Christian tradition.

–

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.