We read at the introduction to the parable of the Good Samaritan of the ‘teacher of the Law’ questioning Jesus. After having acknowledged that he had at least a head-knowledge of the Law we read, “But he wanted to justify himself…” Luke 10:29. This is the attitude of those who know the Law but want to wiggle their way around it, posing the same question as Satan, “Did God really say…?” Did God really say, “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.”? Once again in the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus brings us back to the very core of the situation, it is an issue [attitude] of the heart.
Once we’ve justified something to ourselves our hearts are hardened further and our attitudes become more entrenched. The next logical step is physical rebellion and outright resistance to God’s laws. Society has reached the point where, in many jurisdictions, it is even against the [man’s] law to provide counselling to those who wish to abandon the gay lifestyle and seek reparative and/or conversion therapy. In my research I have not been able to find legal bans on any other kind of therapy for an identifiable state of being or ailment.
German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, “For faith is only real when there is obedience, never without it, and faith only becomes faith in the act of obedience.”
Thoughts on Leviticus 18:22, Part 4: Judging others? Or simply pointing them in the right direction?
© David Harrison 2015
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