Nothing Wrong with Pets
6 min read
15 They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness. 16 But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—an animal without speech—who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
— 2 Peter 2:15-16
If only I had a donkey to warn me and rebuke me with a human voice to restrain me from my own madness. Instead I have my conscience guided by the Holy Spirit through faith. Isn’t my Holy Spirit-guided conscience enough to keep me on the straight and narrow path? Now, if only I had a donkey to tell me to leave my conscience turned on 24/7.
As I read the the Living Life text for today, I find that there’s not much to be encouraged about. Even so, surely I am not like “these people” that Peter is talking about. And yet what is the threshold or boundary of the straight and narrow path? The slightest slip of my heart or my mind or my eyes betrays me.
I’m reminded of the righteousness of Job who claimed, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman” (Job 31:1). I’m sure he did, and I wonder how often he betrayed his own covenant.
How would Job do if he lived today? We live in a society where a person would have to walk around with his or her eyes closed in order to avoid seeing anything that might incite a lustful reaction. Or maybe even worse, we live in a society that has become so accustomed to selling flesh that we’re losing our sense of what is appropriate and what is not.
More and more today, “anything goes.” And so the masses of “normal” folks are not even close to being horrified by the most outlandish perversity. People are always trying to test the limits. And people as a whole don’t ask the question of where “anything goes” will take us.
But the problem in this world is not sexual immorality, per se, or even our hedonistic tendencies in general. The problem is that more and more, people seem to love their pets more than people.
How did I get here from there?
I mean, there is nothing wrong with loving our pets. What’s not to love? We care for our pets, pretty much unconditionally. And our pets love us for caring for them, pretty much unconditionally. Of course, maybe “unconditionally” is too strong a word. If we didn’t love our pets, they would leave if they could. And if our pets didn’t so easily respond to our loving them, we would send them to the shelter.
My point is that immorality of all kinds will always exist because of sin—at least until Jesus returns. But Jesus came in the first place so that, because of the security we have in His love and the Holy Spirit we receive, His followers might mitigate the sin of this world through “unconditional” demonstrations of love and respect in the name of Jesus (not toward our pets, but toward fellow human beings).
If such a spiritual revolution had been sustained by the people of God, I wonder if the sexual “revolution” ever would have happened.
Father, This world is a crazy mess. And I confess that any “covenant” with my eyes is quite useless. But You have given me a new covenant with my heart. Let me receive Your covenant of life in Jesus Christ every day, and guard my eyes, my mind, and my heart with Your blood. In Jesus’s name. Amen.