DOING
THE UNNATURAL

Topics: Behavior; Conduct; Depravity; Desires; Ethics; Habits; Human Nature; Lust; Morality; Pleasure; Sexual Immorality; Sinful Nature

References: Romans 1:26–27; 12:1; 1 Corinthians 6:9–20; Galatians 5:17–23; Colossians 3:5; Titus 2:11–12

Many people justify a variety of behaviors by calling them “natural.” Here’s what M. Scott Peck says about that: “Calling it natural does not mean it is essential or beneficial or unchangeable behavior. It is also natural to defecate in our pants and never brush our teeth. Yet we teach ourselves to do the unnatural until the unnatural itself becomes second nature. Indeed, all self-discipline might be defined as teaching ourselves to do the unnatural.”

—M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled (Touchstone, 1998)