Bumper sticker ethics
by Rev. Jack Hulsey
It is a measure of the age we live in that most people prefer to live "instinctively" rather than by a set of rules. This is the result of an accumulation of philosophies dating from the 1960s, starting with “if it feels good, do it;" "go with the flow;" "do what comes naturally;" “go with your gut," and a host of similar sayings that have created a kind of bumper sticker ethics that are widely accepted. We have come to equate spontaneity with honesty and “being real,” while adhering to a set of rules which label us as plastic and artificial.
People have an amazing amount of confidence in their own intuition, especially when it comes to living the Christian life. We have reached a point where we place a higher value on how we feel rather than what God's word says. I can't begin to tell you how many people have said to me – with complete confidence and assurance – that this or that thing “surely couldn't be wrong, because a loving God would never feel that way.”
The only problem with this is that these folks are usually referring to something which the Bible really says is wrong – and they know it. And a good sit-down with their Bible, a long period of study, would help them understand how God really does feel about the subject. But that would invalidate their feelings, so they don't even make the effort. "Don't confuse me with the facts," as the saying goes. “My mind is made up.”
The worst side effect of this is that such a person can never be much of a witness to God's work in their lives. How are we to give God's gospel to a lost world when we ourselves don't have confidence in it?
When Christ gave the great commission, he prefaced it with: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." (Matthew 28:18). Most of us take this for granted, of course, but I am not sure how much actual thought we give to it. Christ has the authority to speak to us and to command us to act and believe in certain ways. As the old joke goes, they are not called “The Ten Suggestions.” Jesus came, in great part, to change how we think about things, to "trust Him with all our heart and not lean on our own understanding." (Proverbs 3:5). Trusting him means living according to His will and His word.
Christ didn't come to take away our freedoms, but to expand them. But freedom only comes from knowing – and living – what is true: that truth is always found in His word, rarely in what our intuition tells us. "If it feels good, do it" can easily be the wide smooth road leading to destruction.
(From the Pastor's Study, by Rev. Jack Hulsey - Praise & Worship of Woodlake Baptist Church, April 19, 2015)
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