Hidden Agendas
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I don’t think I’ve heard anyone preach more powerfully against sexual looseness. He kept it up year after year – until it was discovered that he visited prostitutes. I don’t believe his preaching was blatant hypocrisy. I suspect he was preaching at himself, trying to bolster his flagging resolve to fight temptation.
This raises two issues: whether we should have Bible teachers at all (we’ll address that shortly) and the distorting effect that personal experience has on one’s interpretation and exposition of Scripture.
Personal experience cannot change God’s truth, but it can hinder one from discovering the truth or from accurately conveying that truth to other people. Not even a genius can think straight about an activity that enslaves or entices him. Even people who are now free from a previous addiction often have clouded thinking. Ex-smokers, for instance, are legendary for the emotive way they react to people smoking in their presence.
Ideally, no one should be teaching about the morality of an action for whom it is an emotive subject. People yearning for a clear conscience while wanting to continue indulging themselves, or to keep questionable behaviour as an emergency backup should their lives suddenly go haywire, will be strongly pressured to interpret the Bible in a way that justifies their secret longings.
On the other hand, people wanting to argue the sinfulness of a behaviour, to bolster their fight against a habit, or fearing a return to the habit, will be pressured to come out strongly in the other direction, overstating their case and making loud noises like the evangelist just mentioned.
No one peering through the haze of guilt feelings, defeatism and fleshly cravings can hope to see clearly. If you have a vested interest in, for example, “discovering” that God approves of a particular behaviour, try to approach the issue as if it means little to you personally. If you find yourself strongly drawn to something, try to approach your search for God’s will about it as if with a simple prayer you would never again feel the slightest inkling to have what you currently crave and that everything positive would remain untouched. In short, seek to be as neutral as you possibly can and fervently pray that our gracious Lord override the frightening possibilities of any lingering bias.
When seeking God on such issues, it is good to pray along these lines:
I come to you, the all-knowing Lord of the universe, seeking truth. I ask that in your mercy you lift from me legalism, fear of pleasure, worldliness, selfishness, undesirable cravings, a know-it-all attitude, and anything else that could fog my mind from detecting and delighting in your truth. Give me your heart so that I might be worthy to be given your mind on this important subject.
You are no killjoy, precious Lord. In the extravagance of your love and creative genius you have crafted for your children a stunning array of exquisite delights. Before sin’s pollution, when everything sparkled with your perfection and purity, pleasure was an integral part of the creation that you pronounced to be very good. But I know it is not good to be a slave to pleasure, nor to be defiled.
May I delight you and thank you by enjoying all the thrilling things you have lovingly planned for me. And may I avoid every treacherous imitation of eternal fulfilment; every enemy of lasting joy.
I can escape disaster and find truth only by you breaking my infatuation with sin. So cause me to be so in love with you that my highest joy is to see you honoured. I want to be so swept off my feet by the dazzling beauty of your holiness that I recoil in horror from the smog of the world; so captivated by the perfection of your ways that I would rather suffer a martyr’s death than experience the exquisite pleasures of sin.
I am surrounded by deadly traps – both satanically inspired license and equally satanic legalism. Only you can show me where the dangers lie. I cannot trust my own intellect nor even my conscience. As your Word says, “The heart is deceitful” (Jeremiah 17:9) . Open my eyes to the way you view my self-worth, my sexuality, and every other aspect of my being, so that I may be one with you on this vital issue. May your light burst through the fog of my upbringing, cravings, prejudices, fears, past experiences, faulty logic, lack of faith and whatever else could keep me from knowing and living your glorious truth.
When used as you intended, all of your gifts are perfect. May I not dishonour you by spurning your gifts, nor by misusing your priceless gifts. In your mercy, show me the difference between holy pleasure and Satan’s bait.
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