How is the claim "lust is evil" shown to be true in Christianity without appealing to Divine Command Theory?
score:6
For purposes of this question let's use as a working definition of evil/sinful "that which is contrary to the nature of God".
- Lust seeks to sacrifice the interests of others for personal benefit. Love is willing to make personal sacrifices for the benefit of others.
- Lust treats people as a means to an end. Love treats people as worthy ends
- Lust is self-centered. Love is selfless.
Love & lust are opposites. Love is the nature of God (e.g. see 1 John 4:8), therefore lust is the opposite of the nature of God. Based on the working definition above, lust is evil/sinful.
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Big picture
1 John 3:2-3
2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
If a loving God has devised such a plan for our well-being, lust is something that actively fights against that plan, and the hope that it brings.
Upvote:0
There is no reason to abandon divine commandment theory, as it doesn't contradict with the basic moral knowledge, the conscience that man possess. We know these acts are evil because his law is written in our conscience. Many of the forbidden acts or sins maybe not so clearly known to us, for which we need the divine revelation or religion to study God's law better. Refer to detailed material on bethinking org and reasonablefaith org sites.
Ethics in Law Enforcement by Steve McCartney and Rick Parent states:
Barry (1985, as cited in Pollock, 2007) describes that understanding God’s will is done in three ways:
Through individual conscience
By religious authorities
Through holy scripture
Upvote:6
Buried in your question is a contradiction: the word "justified". Justification in Christianity is a legal concept! To discuss a legal concept without reference to the law is not possible.
The Ten Commandments may be divided into fourteen imperative statements. For example, the sabbath commandment has three imperatives: (1) to keep the sabbath holy, (2) to work six days and (3) to rest on the seventh day. If you divide them so, a symmetry appears. The first seven imperatives are about love for God. The second seven imperatives are about love for neighbor. Each "upper" imperative matches a corresponding "lower" imperative. Thus the command to have no other gods before Yahweh (the divine creator) matches the command to honor your father and mother (your material creators). Murder matches the command to not create idols and adultery matches the command to not worship idols.
By this construction, lust is seen for what it is: a form of idol worship. Lustful thoughts can consume a person, cause them to commit adultery, rape, murder, break apart families, and commit a host of other crimes.
The commandments are there to tell us to do what is good for us and others and to not do what is harmful. Removing the commandments does not remove the goodness that comes from actions that are consistent with them. For wisdom, you worship the source of wisdom. For healing, you worship the source of healing. For eternal life, you worship the source of eternal life. Worship is how we open ourselves to channels of grace from Heaven. Thus lust closes off that channel and instead opens a channel that pours lies, barrenness and death into our souls. That is not a law, but it is described by the Law. Plants do not need an agricultural law to know that without water, they die.
The Ten Commandments are as much a gardening manual as they are a legal document.
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