Let me start this post by warning you–I’m sure this will be much longer than a typical blog post. I would like to flesh out a series of thoughts I’ve had recently. I would appreciate anyone’s feedback to what you read.<\/p>\n
These thoughts have originated because of two separate events in my life recently. One deals with a friend who has an eating disorder. Another deals with some people I know who live within the homosexual lifestyle.<\/p>\n
For awhile, I’ve been considering the the idea that we all have some issue of depravity within us. For some, it’s very noticeable and apparent, such as an eating disorder or addictive tendencies, and so those people often go through intervention for their issues. For others, the depravity is much more secretive, and oftentimes even more destructive. For example, if someone has a serious problem with gossiping, that destructive behavior can destroy an entire church and cause many people to never know Christ. Whereas the homosexual may only destroy their own life and the lives of his\/her partners. My passive\/agressive behavior or my bitterness may destroy everyone I come in contact with…so I must come to recognize the depravity in me and must assume that everyone else has severe depravity in some area(s) too. We must realize that our depravity, even if it is not so noticeable, is probably even more deadly than the ones we typically label as depravity (i.e. homosexuality, drug use, sex outside of marriage, murder, etc.).<\/p>\n
I would like to probe this a little further as well and compare the depravitous behavior in both homosexuality and your typical eating disorder. I would like for you to see if these similarities are true for your own depravities as well:<\/p>\n
Both the homosexual and the anorexic must not give in to their depravity. For the homosexual, to do so is to exist in a relationship that is not God-honoring and contrary to God’s will and intent. It is to participate with another person in a way that was only intended for the sacred relationship of marriage. This unnatural union can also lead to other perversions of God’s natural sexual law if more permission is given it. The same is true for the anorexic. If she gives in to her tendency, she will be harming the body God gave her–in a much severe way than cigarettes or alcohol. In fact, her life–God’s temple– can easily slip away from her if she continues giving way to this depravity. In addition, she must lie to herself and to those around her to keep the behavior continuing. Much deception surrounds such a person.<\/p>\n
In both cases, someone who has chosen to give up fighting their depravity and give in to their urges loses the credibility necessary as a leader of God’s church. If I knew that my church leader was perfectly ok with her eating disorder, and felt it was not against God’s intent, and as a result would help others who are struggling in this area to give in as well…she must not be in leadership until this attitude is corrected. If my church leader was perfectly ok with his homosexual lifestyle, felt it was not against God’s intent, and as a result would help others who are struggling in this area to give in as well…he must not be in leadership until this attitude is corrected.<\/p>\n
If, however, the anorexic recognizes that her behavior is not God-honoring and leads to sin (deceit and destroying of the body), I have no problem with her remaining in leadership if she is willing to keep her depravity under submission to God’s moral law. She will undoubtedly need help and intervention to make this a reality (God’s intervention and of those around her), and will probably struggle in this fight for the rest of her life, outside a miracle. But through Christ, she has the power in that struggle to keep her depravity submitted to God. The same is true of the homosexual. If he recognizes that his behavior is not God-honoring and leads to sin (sex outside the bounds of marriage), I have no problem with him remaining in leadership if he is willing to keep his depravity under submission to God’s moral law. He will undoubtedly need help and intervention to make this a reality (God’s intervention and of those around him), and will probably struggle in this fight for the rest of his life, outside a miracle. But through Christ, he has the power in that struggle to keep his depravity submitted to God.<\/p>\n
How about your depravity? Let’s look at a typical guy’s struggle with sexual misconduct of all forms (pornography, lusting after women, having sex outside of marriage) and what we oftentimes label as a typical woman’s struggle (although I think we all struggle with this)–gossip. If you give into either of these depravitous behaviors, you ought not to be in leadership. If, however, you recognize that your depravity is not God-honoring and leads to all sorts of sin (sexual affairs, even murder in the life of King David, slander, lying, the destruction of God’s church, etc.), I have no problem with you remaining in leadership if you are willing to keep your depravity under the submission to God’s moral law. You will undoubtedly need help and intervention to make this a reality (God’s intervention and of those around you), and you will probably struggle in this fight for the rest of your life, outside a miracle. But through Christ, you have the power in that struggle to keep your depravity submitted to God.<\/p>\n
All of this talk of depravity is usually far from my tongue, as I’m not a Calvinist and rather swing to the complete other side of free will (so far to the other side that some might label me a heretic!). But I see the reality of depravity in my life and in the lives of people around me: pornography, gluttony, gossip, homosexuality, anorexia, anxiety, addictions, etc. I guess I don’t believe in the Calvinist’s total depravity though–I believe our depravity doesn’t put us in a place unable to reach for or desire God. Instead, I believe our depravity causes us to cry out and seek God for help. Either that, or we choose to give in to our depravity and ignore God’s call for our lives.<\/p>\n
The homosexual and the anorexic are not this way simply by choice. And I’m guessing your depravity isn’t there simply by choice. You may have been born with it or with its tendencies. Some of us deal with depravity that is much more difficult to live with than others. You wish it were no longer a struggle for you. You want desperately for it to be removed from your life–just like Paul asked God for 3 times. Yes, God has given the human race over to a depraved mind as a result of our sinfulness as a race, but there is hope through Jesus Christ. He is our only hope, and with the power of Christ and the strength of our brothers and sisters, when we are weak then we are strong. Don’t give up. Don’t give in. Resist temptation. Submit to God. Confess and repent of your sin. Accept forgiveness. Work out your faith with fear and trembling. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Fight the good fight. Run the race. Don’t neglect being in fellowship with other believers. Pray for one another. Encourage each other. Put on the armor of God. Search the Scriptures. Pray in the Holy Spirit. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you too shall be saved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Let me start this post by warning you–I’m sure this will be much longer than a typical blog post. I would like to flesh out a series of thoughts I’ve had recently. I would appreciate anyone’s feedback to what you read. These thoughts have originated because of two separate events in my life recently. One […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-god","category-our-culture","category-the-church-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57,"href":"https:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}