This morning I have been feeding coffee to son number one. He found that an assignment he thought was due next Thursday is due today: He was reading history texts (at year 12 you are expected to find the original sources not merely regurgitate the textbook) until well after midnight fueled by adrenalin and caffeine.
Some people turn the following text into a list. That misses the intention Paul had. The way we interact with each other — and please note that he is not talking about sex but more noxious ways of damaging each other, such as lying, cheating, gossiping and stealing — flow from the theology of the cross.
17Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. 18They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. 19They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20That is not the way you learned Christ! 21For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. 22You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, 23and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
25So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. 26Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and do not make room for the devil. 28Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. 29Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. 31Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, 32and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.
As Elspeth noted, we can lose our principles and logic in the course of argument and use the assumptions of the enemy.
The enemy is materialistic (there is no God, and there is no afterlife: what you see is what you get) and therefore driven by economic explanations for behaviour. Most economists function using Marxist analysis, and almost every sociologist uses the analysis of class (feminism is a subset of this) and power. This permeates politics: the sociologist influences the left and the economist the right.
The enemy is hedonistic. Pleasure is seen as the ultimate good,
The enemy is against the law. This antinomian position is couched in terms such as freedom, rights. The result is different: the shaming of virtue and the enslaving of many in vices — from the current pick up scene to gambling to the use of substances (mainly alcohol).
The language of the Kingdom of God is more about love, caring, submission accepting correction and gentleness. It is less about pleasure, possessions and being offended by any criticism.
If we argue using the tools of the enemy, which is what American conservaties tend to do, we tend to lose. If we lay bare the assumptions behind their work, and do not allow ourselves to be blinded by numbers, truth will out.
But the tactics we use matter.