{"id":976,"date":"2009-10-23T21:13:34","date_gmt":"2009-10-24T01:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"\/news_blogs\/john\/?p=976"},"modified":"2024-02-22T13:30:48","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T18:30:48","slug":"the-private-life-of-a-christian-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/john\/2009\/10\/23\/the-private-life-of-a-christian-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"The Private Life of a Christian Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I chatted recently with a pastor* who is doing graduate research on how people hear absolute truth<\/strong> in preaching. His example was “Do not steal.” That is an absolute truth and you would think people would get it. But here’s how the conversation goes when he asks young people in his church “What do you call it when you take something that belongs to someone else without permission and don’t pay for it?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That’s stealing,” they say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Why is that wrong?” he asks, digging deeper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Because the Bible says in the Ten Commandments that you shouldn’t steal.” Sounds like a good enough answer, but here’s the kicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So what do you call it when you download MP3 files for free that others have posted without permission?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Oh,” they say, “everybody does that.” They heard the absolute truth<\/strong>, but they chose to apply it to only part of their life. They isolated the area of their life that includes downloading MP3 files for free by constructing a wall around it and saying that that area is different, so different rules apply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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