Who cares? What's the big deal?

As we debate the way our society will be ordered we tend to draw most of our arguments from respect for individual rights and enhancement of personal happiness. Though we do not often say it so clearly, we are guided by the old cliché – if it feels good, do it.  Joe (not his real name) excused his affair with his assistant by saying to me, “Who cares? What’s the big deal? ”  I find too much of that line of thinking today. As much as I admire being tolerant and despise self-righteous intrusion into the lives of others, I cannot trivialize the choices I make or those made by others.  How we live as individuals does matter far beyond ourselves!  Joe’s choice blew up his family.  There are real consequences that include emotional distress for his ex-wife and his children as well as economic issues that are ongoing. His once vibrant spiritual life is but a shadow of what it once was. Only God knows, literally, what the long-term effects of his sin will be in the next decade.

As an example of consequence let’s look at attitudes about sexual behavior. Constraints on pre-marital sex are almost completely rejected by Americans today. That ‘liberation’ has come with real consequence. The New York Times (not exactly a stalwart of Biblical thought) reports that in 2009, 53% of the children born in the United States to women under age 30, were born outside of marriage. That same article continues – “Bearing children outside of wedlock is a trend that’s most strongly affecting young adults who are already at an economic disadvantage, and that means that its impact is deeply tangled within a host of other problems, from the decline in blue-collar jobs to the difficulty of finding affordable child care.” (http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/for-younger-mothers-out-of-wedlock-births-are-the-new-normal/)  In addition, these children, especially boys, grow up with a predictable risk of failing in school and getting involved with criminal activity as teens. Girls from that situation have a much greater likelihood of becoming pregnant as teens.  So, what we might smile at as ‘just a little sex,’ mushrooms into a major issue with real costs in terms of social stability, national prosperity, and individual hope!

When we read the Scripture’s revelation of God’s order for our lives, we are wise if we remember that He gives us these commands for our good.  Moses handed down the law of God.  It included respect for life, property, and the Lord.  It called for personal responsibility and restraint of impulses towards greed and promiscuity.  It demanded a wholehearted love of God. Why?
"Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between prosperity and disaster, between life and death. I have commanded you today to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, laws, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and become a great nation, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy. But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods, then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.

“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, that you and your descendants might live!" (Deuteronomy 30:15-19, NLT)

Through Christ, we are forgiven our failures to live as our Father demands, and by the Holy Spirit we are empowered to make choices that honor Him.   What we should never forget, though we often do, it that ultimately our choices will be evaluated by the Judge who sees all and accepts no excuses.  We will  “all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad." (2 Corinthians 5:10, NIV) For the Christian this judgment is described as a fire that tests the way we build our lives on the Rock-solid foundation. "Now anyone who builds on that foundation may use gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But there is going to come a time of testing at the judgment day to see what kind of work each builder has done. Everyone’s work will be put through the fire to see whether or not it keeps its value." (1 Corinthians 3:12-13, NLT)

Yes, what we do today does matter. Our choices have consequences for time and eternity.  May this sobering truth move us to pray for wisdom to make the best decisions that honor the One who loves us. 

Here is the word from the Word. "Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them,” says the LORD. This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls." (Jeremiah 6:15-16, NIV)