One of the perversions of the reformed faith is the lazy Christian. The person who is so sure of their election that they will not work at the faith, will not put themselves under any sort of discipline, and expect everything will be handed to them on a plate. They see Christianity as some sort of menu, where the icky and hard bits can be left to one side.
The forget that life is made up of a series of icky and hard. They want everything on their plate, and they are too much like the airforce…
The reason we should work is because of Christ and Christ’s work in our lives. Our actions should reflect our theology — so we are people who do the word, not just those who read it or write about it.
And this involves helping those broken, puking, needful creatures called humans.
15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers — all things have been created through him and for him. 17He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
21And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him — 23provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.
Now, this is going to mean that you are standing against the message of this world. Since our society approves of serial (but not parallel) promiscuity, we must teach the sanctity of marriage. Which means no Long Term Relationships — unless celibate, and I, for one, are far too realistic about myself to think that is possible.
As Free Northener points out (the first paragraph is, obviously, rhetorical).
Some might wonder, why I, a Christian, am advocating one night stands and am opposed to long-term relationships. Isn’t a loving relationship what Christians should support?
The answer is I am not advocating either. In fact, I hereby warn all my readers, on the penalty of eternal judgment, to avoid any sexual relationship outside marriage and any romantic relationship outside of marriage and the pursuit thereof, and to repent of their immorality and give their hearts to Jesus.
But confusion on this might come from the fact that long-term relationships are often seen as being “morally superior” in some way to random hook-ups. This is wrong. Christians should be opposed to any romantic relationship other than marriage. Romantic love is not the basis of sex or marriage in the Christian view, marriage is the basis of both sex and romantic love. Anything else is sin. If you are a Christian advocating long-term romantic relationships, your view of Christian sexual morality is fundamentally flawed.
I repeat, there is absolutely NO moral difference between friends with benefits, a living-together relationship, a one-night stand, prostitution, and a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. There is not the tiniest bit of moral difference between Roissy’s pump’n’dump strategy, dissention’s advocacy of escorts, and Susan Walsh’s advocacy of “meaningful” relationships.
Marriage is the only relationship in which sexuality can morally be expressed. The marriage and the pursuit thereof is the only one in which romantic expressions are not sinful.
You see, we have to imitate Christ. And he had standards. Shame on us if we do not.
Cartoon is from Army Ranger.com.
