Barclay: what are the dangers?

Saturday, February 3, 2018
    Feast of Anskar, Archbishop of Hamburg, Missionary to Denmark and Sweden, 865
Meditation:
    “Haven’t you read,” [Jesus] replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
    —Matthew 19:4-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    While it is right to stress the dangers of the permissive society, the argument from danger is not in itself a good argument, because it seems to imply that, if the danger could be removed, if there was no risk of a child and no peril of infection, then the objection would be removed, too. It tends to imply that the objection is to the attendant dangers and not to the thing itself. But, if sexual intercourse before and outside marriage is against the teaching of Jesus, then the thing is not only dangerous, it is wrong in itself.
    ... William Barclay (1907-1978), Ethics in a Permissive Society, New York: Harper & Row, 1971, Fontana, 1971, p. 208-209 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 19:4-6; Acts 15:29; Rom. 1:24; 1 Cor. 6:18; Eph. 5:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, instruct Your people concerning Your laws. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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