It's a Mad, Mad World

Introduction

“It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Word” was a 1963 comedy film, starring Spencer Tracy and an all-star cast. The movie begins when a convict escapes from the police and crashes his car into a tree. Several motorists stop to help him, but his injuries are fatal; and with his dying breath, he speaks about $350,000 in stolen money (equal to about $3 million today), buried under a tree marked with a W in a state park. Those several motorists embark upon a mad dash to find the stolen money for themselves. It’s a comedy, but I have an idea the writers of the screen play had a satire in mind, a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the already materialistic world we were already in, in the 1960s.

What I have observed lately, and I’m sure you have as well, is that this is truly a mad, mad world we’re living in today. We live in a world where some of our legislatures believe that you have can pass a law without an ounce of knowledge what’s in it. We live in a world where prosecutors refuse to prosecute and criminals are released on our streets without bail. We live in a world where men can identify as women and visa versa. And this week I read an article about people who are now identifying as handicapped, even going so far has demanding amputations. We live in a mad world, where what God identifies as sinful actions are not only commonplace but normalized in our society, where “common sense” is uncommon. We live in a mad, mad world, and it’s no comedy.

So did the first century church in Rome

SETTING THE CONTEXT

To truly understand what we’re reading in this passage, we need to understand the culture Paul’s original readers were living in. As I share the cultural context, I think you’ll clearly see a couple of things:

First of all, the church was living in a decadent society that created a very harsh environment for Christianity and the church. That will help you understand why Paul wrote this letter and the reason for the urgency in Paul’s voice. Second, I think you’ll see a scary similarity between their society and ours that should wake us up to the clear and present danger that Christians and the church today are facing.

Before I share this information with you, I want to apologize for the mental pictures that may cross your mind. But I want you to be fully aware of Paul’s context, and fully aware of the cliff that our own society is moving toward. One of the final straws that broke Rome’s back was the the sexual perversion in the society. You may have noticed that in Paul’s words in verses 24-27. So, before I start with the context, I’d like to lead us in prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to protect our hearts and minds, so that we can handle the information I will share in a godly way: a broken heart for our world, and a commitment to keep our hearts, minds and bodies pure from the world’s contamination.

PRAYER

Roman Sexuality Was About Dominance

Romans did not think in terms of sexual orientation. Rather, sexuality was tied to ideas of masculinity, male domination, and the adoption of the Greek pursuit of beauty. “In the Roman mind, the strong took what they wanted to take. It was socially acceptable for a strong Roman male to have intercourse with men or women alike, provided he was the aggressor. A real man dominated in the bedroom as he did on the battlefield. He would have sex with his slaves whether they were male or female; he would visit prostitutes; he would have homosexual encounters even while married; he would engage in pedophilia; even rape was generally acceptable as long as he only raped people of a lower status. “He was strong, muscular, and hard in both body and spirit. Society looked down on him only when he appeared weak or soft.” So Romans did not think of people as being oriented toward homosexuality or heterosexuality. Rather, they understood that a respectable man would express his dominance by having sex—consensual or forced—with men, women, and even children.

Roman Sexuality Accepted Pedophilia

The pursuit of beauty and the obsession with the masculine ideal led to the widespread practice of pedophilia—a sexual relationship between an adult man and an adolescent boy. This had been a common feature of the Greek world and was adapted by the Romans who saw it as a natural expression of male privilege and domination. A Roman man would direct his sexual attention toward a slave boy or, at times, even a freeborn child, and would continue to do so until the boy reached puberty. These relationships were seen as an acceptable and even idealized form of love, the kind of love that expressed itself in poem, story, and song. In the Roman world “a man’s wife was often seen as beneath him and less than him, but a sexual relationship with another male, boy or man, represented a higher form of intellectual love and engagement. It was a man joining with that which was his equal and who could therefore share experiences and ideas with him in a way he could not with a woman.” Pederasty—pedophilia—was understood to be good and acceptable.

Sexual Promiscuity and Societal Stability

This pagan Roman culture believed and taught that sexual promiscuity provided stability in their society. Rome was a culture of extreme promiscuity and inequality. Those who had power—male citizens—were able to express their sexuality by taking who and what they wanted. Their culture’s brand of sexual morality was exemplified in the Caesars who, one after the other, “were living icons of immorality and cruelty,” using sex as a means of domination and self-gratification. Yet this system, evil as it looks to our eyes, was accepted and even celebrated by Rome. It was foundational to Roman culture. To be a good Roman citizen a man needed to participate in it. To be loyal to Rome, one had to be loyal to the morality of Rome. Therefore, to the Romans, the biblical view “was seen as disruptive to the social fabric and demeaning of the Roman ideal of masculinity.” What we consider odious and exploitive, they considered necessary and good.

Christianity’s Condemnation

Christianity condemned the Roman system in its every part. According to the Roman ethic, a man displayed his masculinity in battlefield and bedroom dominance. In the Christian ethic, a man displayed his masculinity in chastity, in self-sacrifice, in deference to others, in joyfully refraining from all sexual activity except with his wife. The Roman understanding of virtue and love depended upon pederasty—the systematic rape of young boys. But the Christian sexual ethic limited intercourse to a married man and his wife. It protected children and gave them dignity. A Roman woman was accustomed to being treated as a second-class human being but “in Christendom, a woman found a culture of genuine love that saw her as equally important as any man in the eyes of God. She was sexually equal with the man in the marriage union and had equal recourse under the law of God to demand marital fidelity.”

Do you see it? Christianity did not simply represent an alternate system of morality but one that condemned the existing system—the system that was foundational to Roman identity and stability. Christians were outsiders. Christians were traitors. Christians were dangerous. Their brand of morality threatened to destabilize all of society. No wonder, then, that they were scorned and even persecuted.

This is the culture the church lived in; the church that received this letter from Paul. And we've already learned of the controversy within the church, regarding the law, between Jewish and Gentile believers. It seems that Paul was painting a picture of the total depravity of humankind, incapable of redeeming themselves, in need of the powerful gospel of Jesus Christ, and he used colors and paint strokes that were very familiar to the believers. Especially the descriptions of depraved behavior in verses 26-31 were very familiar to the believers. More than likely, many of them were saved out of such degradation.

Our Culture TODAY

We can’t help but see connections between first century Rome and our twenty-first century world. “Our early Christian ancestors did not confess biblical chastity in a safe culture that naturally agreed with them. The sexual morality they taught and practiced stood out as unnatural to the Roman world… Christian sexual ethics that limited intercourse to the marriage of a man and a woman were not merely different from Roman ethics; they were utterly against Roman ideals of virtue and love.” This is exactly why Christians faced so much hostility. Their morality threatened society’s stability by loving and protecting the marginalized and disenfranchised while condemning (or even converting) those who took advantage of them.

Isn’t this the very thing happening again today? Our society is throwing off the last vestiges of the Christian sexual ethic and as it does so, we are once again outsiders and traitors who threaten to destabilize the whole system. As we insist that sex is to be limited to the marriage of one man to one woman we threaten the stability of a society hell-bent on permitting and celebrating nearly everything except sex within marriage. As we insist that people flourish only within God-given sexual boundaries, we threaten the ideals of virtue and love that demand no greater commitment than consent. As we live our moral lives according to a higher ethic, we silently condemn those who reject the whisper of God within their consciences.

The first Christians were men and women of great courage. Confessing and practicing Christian morality today requires bravery, the willingness to obey God rather than men, even in the face of persecution. May God continue to instill that spirit within us.

Here’s what the text of Paul’s letter is teaching us today.

God’s reveals his wrath against a sinful world (18-20). What is God’s wrath? The wrath of God is almost totally different from human anger. God never loses his temper, never flies into a rage, is never malicious, spiteful or vindictive. The alternative to ‘wrath’ is not ‘love’ but ‘neutrality’. And God is not neutral. On the contrary, his wrath is his holy hostility toward evil, his refusal to condone sin or come to terms with it, but his righteous and just judgment upon it. And why does God reveal his wrath? He reveals his wrath out of love, desiring for sinful people to repent and believe. God’s wrath is the reason why humankind needs the power of the gospel we talked about last week. God’s wrath is a divine truth spoken into darkness, with a hope of rescuing those in darkness, out of the darkness and into his marvelous light.

it is a truth that must be suppressed (known but discarded)

it is a truth personally revealed (God has shown it)

it is a truth made clear in creation (creation makes God’s invisible attributes perceivable)

it is a truth that holds all people accountable (they are without excuse)

God’s wrath is His holy hostility against those who reject him (21-25).

sinful people dishonor God and are ungrateful toward God

Sinful people live in darkness, so that they live foolish and senseless lives John 3:19 “This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.”

Sinful people are idolators. Thinking they are so smart, they are actually fools, who mock God (22-23).

sinful people are in bondage

captive to the desires of the flesh

captive to a lie (a tragic exchange)

captive to idols they create

God’s wrath is justified by the total depravity of the unredeemed (26-32).

sin always becomes more deplorable, brings shame to human dignity, and perverts all of God’s good gifts (26-27)

sin poisons the hearts and minds of people, so that the fruit they bear is poisonous (28-31)

sin numbs a sinful person’s conscience, so that they practice and applaud depravity, in spite of the death sentence they deserve (32)

Our Context

The society in which the American church is living today is growing more and more similar to the decadent and perverted Roman society.

The holy and obedient lives of believers will be more and more offensive to the society in which we live.

Regardless, we must determine to be faithful to God, live a holy life, and courageously proclaim the gospel message to our mad, mad world.

God is Calling

He is calling us to be a light in the darkness. (Or as the 4th century North African monk described the church: a city on a hill. Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.”)

He is calling us to be more attentive and intentional in our walk with Jesus. 1 John 1:5-7 “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him. If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

He is calling us to prayer. 2 Chronicles 7:14 “if my people, who bear my name, humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.”

He is calling us to love the broken people in this broken world. John 3:16 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

He is calling us to share the gospel. Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Remember, last week, we discovered from verse 16, that if we love God, we will love people; and if we love people, we will share the gospel. We are not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God that can save the lost and this nation.

What is your response?

is there sin to confess and repent?

Are you committed to God’s Word and the church?

Is there a judgmental attitude in your heart?

Are you consistently sharing the gospel?