The Taliban has a habit of beating women who break their strict dress code. I guess I don't understand why anyone would be drawn to an organization that believes in enforcing holy behavior through the use of unholy means. Doesn't that in itself sound oxymoronic?
For the Christian, I believe we need to learn a lesson. Our desire for society to agree with our ethical standards is a good thing. But we cannot give in to fanticism and legalism in order to enforce those desires.
Rather than try to enforce morality through force from without, it is God's plan to first change the heart--making it holy--and then that new nature will exhibit itself in changed behavior.
Virtue cannot be forced from without, it must bubble up from within. In Romans 8, Paul sets the pattern.
"Through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the Law was powerless to do in that it was weakened through the sinful nature [the flesh], God did by sending his own Son...in order that the righteous requirements of the Law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature [the flesh] but according to the Spirit" (Rom. 8: 2-4).
Rather than righteousness coming from the Law (which could never make us holy), it comes from the Spirit (a transformation in our inner being). Now, the new nature, empowered by the Spirit, begins to get expressed so that my behavior changes. The righteous requirements of the Law are met in us when we walk in the Spirit.
Someone used to tell a story of an unruly boy. He refused to stay seated. The adult in charge used all kinds of threats of spanking and no dessert until he finally sat down. But still he let his feelings be known: "I may be sitting on the outside, but I'm standing on the inside!"
Do you want to be "good?" Let go of trying to be good in your flesh. Instead, let God invade your heart and take over--filling you with His Spirit. Then, begin to walk according to the new nature that's been born within you.
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