The Origins of Immorality

Scripture tells us that people are generally born sinful. We, as humans, are born with the capability to commit acts both wonderful and atrocious. Immorality, we are told, comes from a life away from the Word of God, and the teachings of Christ. From a human perspective, the problem with immorality comes from the fact that there are many cases in which the distinction between right and wrong is subjective, depending on who is passing judgment. It was Robert Heinlein who once wrote that one is "never a villain in his own eyes." On the other hand, there are also some cases in which a clear and apparent lack of regard for not only common decency, but for the codes of conduct which were set by not only Jesus Christ, but also the Apostles, who first witnessed divisions and hypocrisies within the church begin to form.

Many Christians, both in today's times and the era in which the New Testament was written, desire morality. We consider ourselves to be walking in the light, and generally think of ourselves as good people in our oneness with Christ. However, morality is not a trait that is automatically acquired when one becomes a Christian. In fact, it would be more true to say that although most Christians try wholeheartedly to live a life of truth, the two traits are not inherently related at all. There are many people who are openly non-Christian who live extremely moral lives, and many people who consider themselves to be devout whose own behavior, whether public or private, is known to be less than perfect.

In the age of the New Testament, part of the Apostle Paul's missionary journeys was to travel to the vast city of Corinth, which could have been considered a major metropolitan area at the time. It had a church that had been previously established by the Apostles, but which was unable to reconcile the Corinthians from their current state, which was fraught with immorality, lewdness, and a general disregard for common decency. Materialism and sins of the flesh were not only considered generally acceptable, but were commonplace among the city's inhabitants. In fact, some of the ancient and more traditional marriage rites of the time even required it. Needless to say, the Apostle Paul faced a daunting task in trying to bring this city's citizens into the light of Christ, and trying to open their eyes to how they should go about trying to change their own unholy ways.

While today, a demographic such as this is often genuine in its worship of the Lord, and perhaps even generous in its offerings to the church, they may still be guilty of many other, more subtle breeds of immorality. So-called "lesser" sins such envy of a neighbor's properties are often featured in mainstream advertisements for things such as cars or trucks. Even syndicated television evangelists, thought by many to be some of the most "faithful" people in the country, fall victim to their own sinful tendencies. For example, the well-known Jimmy Swaggert was found out to be an adulterer a few years ago, and asked forgiveness for his transgressions on national television.

To live a devoted life of what some would call "ruthless morality," one does seem to require willpower, steadfast concentration, and a clear focus on the set of moral codes by which one wants to live. The problem comes whenever some believers seem to possess only enough desire to give off the appearance of being a good Christian. A common theme of many Sunday morning sermons is to warn against "hollow" worship. In other words, pastors often speak against surrounding oneself with an outer shell of piety for the sake of appearance while failing to live up to what is supposed to be one's own code of morality the other six days of the week.

As the centuries have passed, this generally loose attitude toward physical lewdness has survived, and even more liberal with the onset of the postmodern age. Behavior which was considered to be unacceptable as recently as 50 years ago is now a common occurrence. For example, there was a time in relatively recent history that it was considered improper for a woman to wear a dress which exposed any part of her leg higher than her ankles. Nowadays, things like topless beaches are very popular vacation spots, especially for the college-aged crowd.

Christian morality will never obtain perfection. Two thousand years of history without a significant change in our tendencies as human beings has clearly shown this. People will always come up with some other scapegoat to hold responsible for what amounts to their own actions. People will do what they want to do, and will find a way to justify it however they can. In an imperfect and immoral world, there will always be sin to some extent. The only thing that we, as believers, can do is to strive to strip away the excuses, stop pointing fingers at other sources of strife, and make a sincere effort to do the very best that we can do.