Bitter Fruits Of "Permissiveness"

Many have welcomed moral permissiveness as an overdue liberation from the restraints of earlier generations, a great breakthrough to sexual freedom and social pleasure which had all too long been denied by the "old fashioned morality". The wide availability of contraceptives and abortion has given impetus to the new "freedom", for this greatly reduces the likelihood of children being born as a result of "free love". So people feel they can ignore former moral standards and indulge with little fear of embarrassing consequences.

In addition to this explosion of "free love" outside wedlock between men and women, we have an ever bolder flaunting of homosexual relations. These are defended as being normal to certain people, and in some countries the legal right has been given for consenting adults to practise homosexuality. "Gays", as homosexuals are often called, clamour for further recognition and privileges, and protest against being treated as an abnormal sector of society.

To believers who respect God's word these trends are abhorrent and alarming. Departure from God-given standards in regard to marriage and sexual relations is so consistently seen in Scripture as a mark of spiritual declension, and has so often brought severe divine judgement. Genesis 6:12 confirms that before the Flood "God saw the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth". Some centuries later Sodom and Gomorrah had sunk to similar depths of corruption, and vicious homosexual evil is reflected in Genesis 19:5-10. The law of God given through Moses left no doubt about God's condemnation of such sin, yet it later took root even among His own people (Judges 19:22-24).

In the Roman world of Paul's day similar forms of moral corruption were rife, as his Epistle to the Romans makes very clear (see Rom. 1:24-28). Two phrases from this passage invite our special attention: "that their bodies should be dishonoured among themselves" (v. 24), and "receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was due" (v. 27).

Sexual permissiveness so often leads to physical disease. Despite the vast advances of modern medical science it is still fearfully true that many who defy God's standards "receive in themselves that recompense of their error which was due". We think for the moment of the physical "recompense", though aware that the deeper psychological and spiritual effects may be even more serious~

Among the sad physical results of illicit sexual intercourse are such venereal diseases as gonorrhea and syphilis. To understand even a little about the possible results of these infections is in itself a powerful warning. Even more sinister has been the emergence in recent years of a new venereal disease, "genital herpes". Twenty million Americans are reported now to be suffering from this scourge. Its symptoms may seem to clear for a while, but the disease still lurks in the system, the symptoms reappearing intermittently: a source of haunting fear and uncertainty! So far there has been no proved cure, although British research has recently claimed a possible break through towards effective treatment or prevention.

Only about two years ago yet another serious problem developed. The largest concentration of cases has been in New York City, but it has been spreading to other parts of USA and more slowly to some other countries. The initials AIDS (standing for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) are used to identify the condition. The disease affects the body's immune system, leaving the patient defenceless against a wide variety of infections, including certain rare forms of cancer. Over 75% of cases so far analysed have been active homosexual men, and 16% have been intravenous drug users. The development of AIDS has spread panic among "Gay" groups in USA and has made many people afraid of any contact with them, although officially the authorities have played down the risk of general infection.

So still today, with all our sophisticated developments in the late twentieth century, Bible standards and warnings abide. They are disregarded at peril. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life" (Gal. 6:7,8). How many have thoughtlessly followed the permissive trends of our time, only to reap the bitter fruits of corruption, according to this great spiritual law of sowing and reaping. They now reap the bitter fruit of ruined physical health. Unless repentance and divine forgiveness are found in Christ how much more bitter the spiritual and eternal consequences may be! How true that "godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life which now is, and of that which is to come"! (1 Tim. 4:8).

unknown | Nov 1983
Focus