Every Thought, Word, & Deed (Part 2)

That which is contrary God’s commands is sin - but where does the Bible teach that any thought, word, or deed is a sin regardless of the motives of the moral agent or agents involved?  Nowhere. 

For example, if the mere act of looking at another person is a sin in Matthew 5:28 - regardless of the motive - is a sin, then lustful intent is inconsequential.  Matthew 5:28 (ESV): But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

The act isn’t a sin apart from the motive.  The text specifically cites lustful intent as the requirement for the act to be immoral in general, & the identity of the target supplies the referent by which the act is considered adulterous.  

Thesis 

God judges the morality of our thoughts, words, & deeds on the basis of our motives, specifically the quality of our love for Him & others — not external factors like the identity of our clientele + the meaning of the wedding cake.  

Let’s look @ what the Bible - not Ecclesiastical Tradition or Human Moral Philosophy - teaches about this issue.

How does the Bible teach God judges us?  The answer is bound up with both God’s testimony about how moral will operates & how He judges us.  

(1) How does our moral will operate?

James 1:14 - 15 teaches that we form & follow desires which lead us into sin, condemnation, & death.  There is no thought, word, or deed that proceeds without an antecedent cause that involves us making moral decisions / choices in which we follow our desires which lure & entice us.   

(2) How does God judge our thoughts, words, & deeds?  Does He judge the morality of our actions regardless of our motives?  No, He examines us in light of our motives. 

1 Samuel 16:7 (ESV):  But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

Jeremiah 17:9–10 (ESV): The heart is deceitful above all things, 

and desperately sick; 

who can understand it? 

 10  “I the Lord search the heart 

and test the mind, 

  to give every man according to his ways, 

according to the fruit of his deeds.” 

Matthew 5:27–28 (ESV): You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 

(3) How does sin operate? 

Synthesis 

(A) How does the Bible summarize & describe the 2 Tables of the  Law: (A) Love God over & above everyone & everything else supremely & consistently. (B) Love your neighbor *after* God & *before* yourself.   (Matthew 22: 36 - 40) 

(B) How can we fulfill the Law perfectly?  By loving God & others consistently & correctly.  Perfect love fulfills the Law because love is the fulfilling of the Law. (Romans 13:8 - 10)

(C) How can we avoid fear associated with guilt in the Judgment?  By perfectly loving God & neighbor.  (1 John 4:18) There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 

Knowing that the  Law is summarized as perfectly loving God first & then other people; that perfect love fulfills the Law; & that perfect love drives out fear associated with guilt, let’s look at how the pagans reasoned according to Romans 1, keeping mind that Romans 1:18 - 32 is a cautionary tale about how all sinners reason & the consequences of reasoning like the pagans Paul described.

Even though God’s stated purpose for the created order is to testify to **His** existence & attributes (God’s image)  —not our own — & **God’s** authority  — to define the true state of affairs & define what is both righteous & wise as a matter of both faith & practice, people as a result of the Fall, suppressed God’s image & authority & substituted their own image & authority as evidenced in/by idols that looked like themselves & animals.  

All sin is rooted in that same process.  A sinner puts themselves before God & others, thereby loving themselves the way they ought to love God.  Every thought, word, & deed proceeds on this desire to usurp God & His preeminent primary position & the  preminent secondary position of others.  

Loving isn’t the problem.  The problem is that sinners — instead of putting God alone first, then others before themselves — use their ability to love in a morally unnatural manner, instead of using their love in a morally natural manner (Romans 1:18 - 32).

Adultery isn’t a sin on the epistemic basis of the object at which the sinner is gazing.  Adultery is immoral because the gazing person loved themselves in a morally unnatural manner.  Instead, they loved themselves first, then everyone around them (God included) second.   

Sin is missing the mark. How so?  If perfect love fulfills the Law & conquers fear associated with the guilt of sin, then imperfect love fails to fulfill the Law resulting in sin, guilt, & judicial condemnation.   The moral mark isn’t defined via the object of love, it’s defined via the supremacy of love for God & others before yourself.  

Given a representative totality of what God has said about how all of this works,  we can know that God doesn’t judge the sinner an adulterer based on the fact that the object of his love is another man’s wife.  Rather, he is guilty because he lusted, & biblical lust puts the sinner’s existence & attributes before both God & the object of his lust.  

Romans 1:20 teaches that the purpose of the created order is to serve as a testimony to God’s existence, attributes (God’s image), & authority as the ONLY non-arbitrary epistemic warrant for all faith & practice.  1:21  -25 tells us that when people substitute the human and/or animal image & authority for God’s image & authority, they wind up crafting idols that look & behave like them.    

The pagans in Romans 1 represent all sinners, ergo the pagans’ reasoning process is also every sinner’s reasoning process.    No sinner’s thoughts, words, or deeds fail to operate this way (absent an act of God’s temporary restraint or His removal of our moral inability to love Him & others in God’s prescribed manner). 

God inerrantly & infallibly defines right & wrong, & according to God, He judges morality on the basis of our motives — not the identity of an object of our affection.  That’s true of adultery in Matthew 5 as well as baking cakes for LGBTQ people, and every choice we make. If you think I am wrong, then open your Bible & demonstrate otherwise.  

(A) Deploying one’s own Religious Liberty on the basis that baking the cake is a sin based on the identity of one’s clients & the meaning of their cake &/or (B) judging the baker’s love for God on the bare act of baking the cake is a classic example of (A)  supplanting God’s image & authority with one’s own so that you yourself are both the subject & the preeminent object of your love - not God then neighbor & (B) injustice, insofar as it’s sufficient that his clients were two males & it’s their wedding cake.  

Sin is a failure to love, & it’s a gay wedding cake, ergo on the basis of external circumstances, the baker failed the love test.   That’s how bigotry & spiritual & civil abuse operate.   

By all means prove me wrong. 

May God bless us all, each & every one, & “Go & sin no more.”