Evangelical Ethics Professor Rebuts Christianity Today Editorial

What struck me about Wayne Grudem's response to Mark Galli's Christianity Today editorial was he employed the kind of flawed logic one often hears teenagers use. "Well, everyone else does it." It is a common logical fallacy known as a "hasty generalization."

It is also the kind of flawed logic that some politicians and their supporters use. For example, it is argued that it is acceptable to engage in practices that are unethical, illegal, or otherwise shady because it is alleged that all politicians engage in such practices or the officeholder or candidate's political opponents engage in these practices.

What these individuals are arguing is that someone else doing something wrong justifies acting in a similar way. Unmarried couples, for example, will argue that it is acceptable to cohabit because other unmarried couples are cohabiting.

If one pursues this kind of thinking to its logical conclusion, then it is acceptable to engage in all kinds of practices which are contrary to God's revealed will. Adam could argue that he did nothing wrong in eating the fruit that God had forbidden him to eat. "After all, Eve ate it too. King David could argue that there was nothing wrong with forcing his attentions on Bathsheba, committing adultery with her, and then murdering her husband Uriah. Other kings and rulers were doing what he did.

I believe that Galatians 5:3-25 is applicable to this discussion:

"You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God [emphasis added].

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit."

When we seek to justify the acts of the flesh in ourselves or others we are not doing what the apostle Pail urges us to do.