From Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Garner:

“Red Riding Hood walked on along the main path. But, because his status outside society had freed him from slavish adherence to linear, Western-style thought, the wolf knew a quicker route to Grandma’s house. He burst into the house and ate Grandma, an entirely valid course of action for a carnivore such as himself. Then, unhampered by rigid, traditionalist notions of what was masculine or feminine, he put on Grandma’s nightclothes and crawled into bed. Red Riding Hood entered the cottage and said, ‘Grandma, I have brought you some fat-free, sodium-free snacks to salute you in your role of a wise and nurturing matriarch.’

From the bed, the wolf said softly, ‘Come closer, child, so that I might see you.’

Red Riding Hood said, ‘Oh, I forgot you are as optically challenged as a bat. Grandma, what big eyes you have!’

‘They have seen much, and forgiven much, my dear.’

‘Grandma, what a big nose you have – only relatively, of course, and certainly attractive in its own way.’

‘It has smelled much, and forgiven much, my dear.’

‘Grandma, what big teeth you have!’

The wolf said, ‘I am happy with who I am and what I am,’ and leaped out of bed. He grabbed Red Riding Hood in his claws, intent on devouring her. Red Riding Hood screamed, not out of alarm at the wolf’s apparent tendency toward cross-dressing, but because of his willful invasion of her personal space. Her screams were heard by a passing woodchopper-person (or log-fuel technician, as he preferred to be called). When he burst into the cottage, he saw melee there and tried to intervene. But as he raised his ax, Red Riding Hood and the wolf both stopped.

‘And just what do you think you’re doing?’ asked Red Riding Hood. The woodchopper-person blinked and tried to answer, but no words came to him. ‘Bursting in here like a Neanderthal, trusting your weapon to do your thinking for you!’ she exclaimed. ‘Sexist! Speciesist! How dare you assume that womyn and wolves can't solve their own problems without a man's help!’ When she heard Red Riding Hood's impassioned speech, Grandma jumped out of the Wolf's mouth, took the woodchopper-person's ax, and cut his head off.

After this ordeal, Red Riding Hood, Grandma, and the Wolf felt a certain commonality of purpose. They decided to set up an alternative household based on mutual respect and cooperation, and they lived together in the woods happily ever after.”

Why is that story so ridiculous? It is because the worldview that produced the classical bedtime stories and that which has given us political correctness are so far apart that we instinctively recognize that political correctness has no place in a story like that.

When NT authors command us to live in purity, they don’t just give us a list of do’s and don’t’s. They show us the story we are living in and how ridiculous it would be for us to live in impurity in this context.

Romans 13:11-14

Seeking to unify a church of Jewish and Gentile believers to rally around his mission, Paul expounds the gospel of justification by faith (1-4), the results of justification by faith (5-8), and how this coheres with God’s plan for Israel (9-11). Then in 12-16 he turns to practical issues.

Chapters 12-13: a series of commands to live righteously in this age. These verses summarize by placing these two chapters in the context of where we are in history.

How do we maintain moral purity in this age?

I. Know What Time It Is (vv. 11-12a).

- 11: “you know the time”; what time is it?

- Time to wake up; in the ancient world, no electric lights, dawn was the time to rise.

- Present age (sin, death, Satan) has been invaded by the age to come; thus we are in the last days (i.e., the last days of this present age).

- We are at the time when the sky has lightened just before dawn.

- Our salvation is pictured as a future, imminent experience. The way to prepare for it is by being awake, a metaphor for spiritual alertness.

- How does this idea help us in the battle against sin? It gives us a story within which to understand our actions.

- Chesterton on “progressives”: they are not getting closer to an ideal; they are always changing the ideal. Example: sexuality has been divorced from procreation, then from marriage, then from any kind of emotional bond, now even from our own bodies. Whatever happens next, they will call it “progress,” even though now it is considered deviant.

- So-called “progressives” tell us we are on the wrong side of history; but Scripture teaches that the works of darkness they champion belong to an age that is passing away.

- That means the works of darkness are not part of our identity as those who belong to the age to come.

II. Get Dressed (vv. 12b-14).

- “So then”—connecting words are important! Because of what is already true, this is what we are called to do.

- Notice three commands:

(1) Let us take off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light (v. 12b).

- Have you ever worn pajamas into the afternoon? Do you feel like you need to change by then?

- Paul’s image is one of changing clothes: dispensing with clothes that belongs to the darkness of night and putting on our battle gear.

- But why “armor of light”? The day is coming, but the process of getting there will be a fight.

- We are in the position of Israel on the east side of the Jordan, ready to invade the Promised Land. We must prepare to do battle under the dim light of the dawn.

- Let this image of battle remove any false notions that maintaining moral purity in this age is easy. It is not. It is a fight, and we must go into it with expectations of difficulty.

- Sam Allberry: “Ever since I have been open about my own experiences of homosexuality, a number of Christians have said something like this: ‘the gospel must be harder for you than it is for me,’ as though I have more to give up than they do. But the fact is that the gospel demands everything of all of us. If someone thinks the gospel has somehow slotted into their life quite easily, without causing any major adjustments to their lifestyle or aspirations, it is likely that they have not really started following Jesus at all.”

(2) Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy (v. 13).

- In a very real sense, the day has already begun. We belong to it, so our lives must match that reality.

- We must leave behind the works of darkness, which Paul lists in three pairs:

1. Sins of indulgence: revelry and drunkenness—throwing off restraint and losing self-control.

- The spring break scene; don’t naively assume that a Christian college makes you immune from temptation.

- What is the virtue that would be the opposite of this way of life? Temperance, self-control.

2. Sins of sexuality: sexual immorality and sensuality

- The paradox of our culture: sex is simultaneously cheapened and blown out of proportion.

- Cheapening of sex: no longer an act of self-giving in a committed relationship, but a commodity that we exchange: hook-ups, pornography. Sex is “no big deal.”

- Blowing sex out of proportion: sexuality is now identity. Sex is everything.

- What is the virtue that would be opposite this way of life? Chastity.

- Chesterton: “Chastity does not mean abstention from sexual wrong; it means something flaming, like Joan of Arc.” It is not the suppression of desire; it is the joyful, abundant fulfillment of desire in Christ.

3. Sins of ambition: strife and jealousy

- Why are we jealous of God’s blessings on others? What motivates us to see ourselves as rivals to them? Personal insecurity.

- The drowning man is so desperate that he can only pull others down with him; we can only make ourselves feel better by one-upping others.

- N.T. Wright: “We should not forget that ‘quarreling and jealousy’ are put on exactly the same level as immorality; there are many churches where the first four sins are unheard of but the last two run riot.”

- Only the gospel can free us from this, for the gospel gives us security.

- What is the virtue that would be opposite this way of life? Love.

- Why are we tempted by these things: self-indulgence, sexual sin, personal abmition? Because we have some unmet need. We are seeking to fill a void in ourselves.

(3) But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provisions for the flesh, to gratify its desires (v. 14).

- The void inside us leaves us with desires, cravings that focus on the disordering of God’s creation. The antidote: put on Christ (parallel to putting on the armor of light).

- What does it mean to put on Christ? In one sense, that is what conversion is: definitive transfer of our identity from Adam to Christ; baptism gives us a new identity.

- But Paul is speaking here of an ongoing putting on of Christ, a conscious appropriation of our identity in him. This is part of the spiritual battle we are fighting, and it must be intentional.

- As we put on Christ, we are to make no provision for the “flesh” (= fallen nature). How do we do this?

1. The goal: a heart that has no attraction to sin because it is full of joy in Christ.

- We must cultivate an internal repulsion at sin.

- Not just the sins that trip us up, but all sin. (Owen’s insight)

2. The means: common sense protection from tempting situations, combined with an intentional cultivation of a heart for Christ.

- If you are an alcoholic, don’t go to bars!

- If you struggle with pornography, don’t use the internet in an unaccountable way!

- If you are in a situation that presents sexual temptation, get out of it! (Joseph with Potiphar’s wife).

- Much of our pastoral guidance is basic common sense.

- Putting boundaries around yourself (even costly ones—Matt. 5:29-30) gives your heart the space it needs to grow in love for Christ.

Some have said that Paul’s ethic is “Become what you are!” That is true, but it could also be described as “Become what you will be!”

Moral Purity