This was in our news the other day. "An Arizona grandfather was arrested Monday after he allegedly left his granddaughter in the desert alone with a loaded gun." Now, of course, it's the nature of the news business to present a startling story, a "grab you" kind of line. And that does. So what really happened? Well, Grandpa took his 5-year-old granddaughter for a drive. Four hours later, she was reported missing. They did a search and found her with a loaded .45-caliber handgun with the hammer cocked. The grandfather had left her in the desert to "shoot bad guys" while he went for a burger and a few drinks. The grandfather was charged with two counts of child abuse and one count of child endangerment.
I don't think we're confused about these charges. You don't hand a child a loaded, cocked, deadly weapon and leave them in the desert while you go off for a beer. That's child abuse. That's child endangerment. It is a few other despicable things, too, I'd imagine, but one thing it is not; it's not love.
So why is it when Scripture says, "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor 6:9-10) or even, simply, "The wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23), and we say, "Watch out! Those things you're doing are dangerous!!!", we get accused of not being loving? Why is it that those who say, "Oh, no, you go right ahead and handle those loaded weapons like sexual immorality or idolatry or adultery and we'll go over here for a burger" are not accused of abuse and endangerment, but we who warn against it are? In what sense is that love and offering a solution to it not?
"Love." You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means. Any more than that grandfather did.
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Somebody asked me, "Do they actually say that?" Do they actually say, "Oh, no, you go right ahead and handle those loaded weapons like sexual immorality or idolatry or adultery and we'll go over here for a burger"? No, of course not. That's just stylized writing. You know, tying in the news item illustration with the point. No, they actually say things like, "God didn't say what those texts say He said. That's just someone's idea of a mean thing to say. We know much better now." You know, things like that. Like the older kid that eggs on the younger kid. "Sure, the sign says 'High Voltage', but it doesn't mean it. You go ahead and grab it." Or, like the serpent in the garden ...
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