1 Thes. 4:1-8 (ESV)
[1] Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. [2] For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. [3] For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; [4] that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, [5] not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; [6] that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. [7] For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. [8] Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
This was in my reading for this morning, and I was struck by the directness with which the passage speaks to the situations we see today in the church. It is with sadness that I read this on the one hand, and on the other hand see blatant celebration of immorality within the church. I'm not speaking at this time of the drive to equate marriage with the unions of two men, two women, three of a kind, or a full house. Rather, I'm speaking of things like the acquittal of the lesbian pastor in Washington state in the face of the Scriptures, and of the standards of the Methodist church. I'm speaking of celebrations of homosexuality as "normal" and "healthy" in blatant disregard of Paul's words above. How do people read these words as ANYTHING but a charge to avoid such practices?
I can only see two alternatives. 1) "sexual immorality" is construed by them differently than is plain. Somehow a modernist notion of some sort is thrust upon the words, and they mean something entirely different (what, I don't know -perhaps they are taken to mean "serial monogamy"). 2) The words are seen as a historical statement, having nothing to do with "today's world". This is frightfully common, of course, and in my view the likely interpretation of many supporters of homosexuality and other immoral practices.
What shall we do? Our course is uncertain, though at the very least we must, I think, continue to stand on the Scriptures as the inerrant Word of God. We must be humbly seeking God's face in the face of this awful situation, and praying that the truth reign. Is the situation ANYTHING but hopeless in human terms? As such, we must take our refuge in Him and pray for the deliverance of His bride from wickedness.