Purity—the Purge
Deuteronomy 22:22
“If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.”
Try to fathom the uproar that would ensue in our society if congressional leaders and legislators, prosecutors and district attorneys, judges and jurors, suddenly reinstated laws like Deuteronomy 22:22 into public policy? I bet it would start riots everywhere. In the metropolises and the back woods. In the bluest districts of California and in the reddest districts of Texas. Everyone, from the wealthy to the poor, from the ivy leaguers to the high-school dropouts, would gather in unified protest over this attack against their freedom of expression. Just imagine it, friend. What if our church leaders and state leaders alike condemned extra-marital sexual relations as a crime worthy of the death penalty? What if marriage between a man and a woman under God was that sacred a covenant?
The question I’m leading to through this hypothetical is ultimately this: would our country be better off with so severe a penalty? Might it eradicate the pornography industry altogether, or at least send it writhing into the shadowy underbelly of society where it belongs? How many marriages might it save from ruin? How many children might be allowed to grow up without the trauma of their parents’ ugly divorce? How many young people, full of hormonal energy and prone to addictive behavior, might it protect from ultimate collapse down the road? It’s true that only God can change the hearts of individuals, but never forget that He also established policies for the wellbeing of the society as well. Modern, progressive sociologists continue to demand that unbounded sexual freedom is essential to life, liberty, and happiness, but the opposite is true. Sexual liberation is death to all three.
Of course, it’s a marvelous truth that Christ has forgiven all our iniquities! We rejoice that the church is full of redeemed and reformed adulterers and fornicators and pornographers! I’m so grateful that God lavishes us with mercy every day! Nevertheless, James still writes to us as liberated believers in the commonwealth of Christ’s blood, “purify your hearts you double-minded; repent, and mourn, and weep,” which means that God is just as serious about our purity today as He was back then.