by Harry Osborne
Over the past few issues, we have been looking at the problem of violence in our society and how to correct it. We have noticed that the issue must be addressed by restoring proper love and discipline into families. Today, we add the fact that violence cannot be overcome in our nation without a return to a proper moral standard. Immorality and violence are inseparably linked.
One need not look very far to see the obvious conflict between modern practices and the standard revealed by God regarding morality. Our society is on the verge of self-destruction from the results of rampant immorality! Such widespread immorality leaves many in our society adrift without a guiding compass for directing their lives. An absence of principle causes many people to make decisions which are amoral or absent any recognition of values. This results in actions from emotion and lust rather than considered reason.
The previously mentioned commission further found that there was a link between violent crime against women and the viewing of pornography. The profits of the industry were shown to be linked with other criminal activities. In short, pornography is a scourge on our society! It fosters violence as it "de-humanizes" a sex object and instills an animalistic pattern of thought into the viewer. This vile plague is clearly condemned in the Bible.
Jesus declares the viewing of such is sinful. In Matthew 5:27-28, He says, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." He goes on to say that those who do such stand in jeopardy of eternal punishment in hell.
Jesus also condemns those who produce such enticements for others to sin. In Luke 17:1-2, He says, "It is impossible but that occasions of stumbling should come; but woe unto him, through whom they come! It were better for him if a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, rather than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble." As Christians and parents, let us make sure we make no provision for the flesh by allowing such filth into our homes (Romans 13:14). Remember that the privacy of our homes will be made public before God in judgment (Ecclesiastes 12:14).
Jesus said this on the subject: "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate" (Matthew 19:4-6).
God did not intend marriage as a temporary union, but a permanent one. Jesus gives only one reason to lawfully divorce a spouse and marry another. "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery" (Matthew 19:9). We must restore that standard to our lives, our teaching and our fellowship. We do not help the problem in our society when we tolerate preachers justifying such ungodliness or those living in adulterous marriages. On the contrary, we make it worse!
When violence to relationships within the home is tolerated, it is not surprising that violence will be acted out in the community. Study after study has shown the same positive correlation between perpetrators of violence and broken homes. Child abuse is fair more common in step-parents than in parents. The child who grows up as the target of violence is more likely to be violent later.
The Bible is clear in condemning such behavior. Peter says that we must "cease from sin" and live by "the will of God." He adds, "For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the sins of the Gentiles - when we walked in licentiousness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries" (1 Peter 4:1-3). We would all be blessed with a safer world if that standard was the norm today.
When I was growing up, I heard a great number of sermons in which the use of alcohol was condemned. Now, I hear some brethren including a number of preachers who justify the "moderate" use intoxicants as a beverage. One brother in this area even suggested recently that we have made too much fuss about a little use of marijuana! Can anyone honestly affirm that a mug of beer, a glass of wine, a shot of whiskey, a joint of marijuana or a line of cocaine brings them closer to God and encourages a more peaceable society? No, such things do not aid peace, but they are repeatedly associated with violence and other evils. Christians must be a consistent example for good by condemning that which the Bible condemns (Proverbs 23:29-35).
When brethren raise doubts and questions which tend towards the tolerance of "just one drink," do we not recognize the effect? The progressive nature of sin is a fact (2 Timothy 3:13). One does not avoid fornication by putting himself in compromising situations, but by fleeing the possibility for it (Proverbs 6:27-29; 1 Corinthians 6:18). One does not guard against evil speech by seeing how close he can get to it, but by putting it "far from" him (Proverbs 4:24). The same goes for every other sin (Ephesians 5:3-12). Those who justify "just one" step into evil stand condemned as stumblingblocks (Luke 17:1-2). That includes those condoning "just one drink" of intoxicants!