A house divided against itself cannot stand. But we keep trying. Because we are all houses divided against ourselves. We are born bearing the image of God. But we are likewise, in our natural state, at enmity with God. When in His grace we are brought to new life, we still struggle against our old man. No one, unbeliever or believer, is a non-combatant with themselves. Old man vs. new man for the believer. Image of God vs. fallen nature for the unbeliever.
Which leads not only to frustration, fatigue and failure but to folly. Often that folly takes on the face of hypocrisy. We all want to pursue our own ends, untethered by moral codes or legal restraints. And we all insist anyone in the way of our ends must be tethered by moral and legal restraints. We want to steal and be protected from thieves.
Consider the weird moral fundamentalism, the virulent phariseeism of the transgendered. They insist they are morally free to play dress up, and no one has the right to judge them. Next, they insist that I am not morally free to not participate in their dress up game and not only do they have a right to judge me, but they have the right to judge anyone who doesn’t judge me. Sauce for neither the goose nor the gander, but sauce for ganders pretending to be geese and geese pretending to be ganders.
Or consider the moral grandstanding of the pearl clutching climate queens. We need not even touch on them flying off in private jets to their meetings. There they talk about confining us to their 15 minute cities. There’s also the whole notion that they get to fudge their stats and hide from their Chicken Little predictions. All this from the moral high ground.
There is no honor among thieves. There is this same irony among thieves. Why would I expect, if I am a thief, another thief not to steal from me? It’s like the adulterer that hopes longingly for a future when he or she can be married to, you know, an adulterer. Moral insanity is doing the same thing but assigning different moral conclusions.
Before, however, we look down our noses at these examples of moral insanity, we’d be wise to remember that every sin is moral insanity, and every one of us sins. We, though born again, indwelt by the Spirit, declared righteous and beloved of the Father, make the same kinds of failures. We rant and rage against people for losing their tempers. We gossip about the gossip we heard from the church gossip. We deny the Lord who redeemed us.
We ought always rejoice in the progress He is making with us. We, His bride, are daily being washed by Him. But let’s not fool ourselves. We’re not almost there. Gaining moral sanity is not just around the corner for us. Which is why the most morally sane thing we, or anyone could do is this- beat our breasts as we cry out, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.”