Articles
That Card
Today is Mother’s Day, and I wish a happy one to all our moms.
Last week I went to buy a Mother’s Day card for Sandy. The “wife” section contained the usual variety: some funny ones, some of those I-know-I-don’t-say-it-often-enough ones, some whose wording was so generic that you wonder who would ever choose them, a few religious ones, and so on. I selected the one that best expressed my feelings, and I was about to leave satisfied when my eye caught that card. It was located in the slot just above the religious ones. It’s title was “Wife to Wife.”
It was a sobering moment. That card, just by its presence (I didn’t read it), expresses our society’s approval of the worst kind of conduct. In many ways, sin is sin; one is no worse than another. On the other hand, when the Apostle Paul described a world that turned its back on God, which in turn prompted God to remove restraint and let it go its way, homosexuality epitomized the world’s godlessness. “Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them” (Romans 1:24). “For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the man abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error” (vv. 26-27). Jude called it “gross immorality” (Jude 7). And make no mistake, despite societal approval and the bold assertions of church leaders who defend it, homosexuals “will not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
That card expresses something else: what a challenge godly mothers now face. Moms and dads who bring up their children “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” are going to have to teach them better than what they will learn at school or by listening to the news or by watching television or by reading what legislators and courts decide. That will take constant reinforcement. It will take courage because we are labeled as narrow, bigoted, even hateful, just for opposing what God’s word plainly says is sin. It may even call for taking a stand against a family member.
That card also reminds us of our opportunity to enlighten those walking in darkness and invite them into Jesus’ light. People can change. After denouncing homosexuality, drunkenness, and other sins, Paul reminded the Corinthians, “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).
