- Mar 17, 2015
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How does Christianity handle those who find pleasure in receiving physical pain or emotional abuse, in light of this commandment?
Ah, I remember we had this conversation once a few months ago, and it's a different topic than this thread, but very briefly, we are only held accountable for what we understand (Romans 5:13, 4:15), and then according to our conscience (feeling of something being ok, or feeling like maybe it's wrong in and of itself), as explained in Romans ch 2, v6-16 (don't rely on the difficult and unclear ASV translation of this site for complex passages). Now, of course a person could not only lack any specific knowledge one way or the other about whatever topic of right and wrong, but additionally may not even have contact with feelings of right and wrong in some things, that is lack a conscience on it to help guide them. Then they are acting innocently by those same verses, in that case. (In contrast if they feel it is wrong intuitively, then that's a real guide, the conscience.) It would be highly speculative for me to try to even guess at how some pair of people might feel as a pair in such a situation, and I don't try to judge even just actions I don't understand (John 7:24, Matthew 7:1-5). Put another way, it would be wrong for me because it would break the golden rule for me. That's one of the perfections of the (full) golden rule (in the perfect form Christ gave) -- it fits precisely and perfectly to conscience. Put simply, if we realize that in the other person's shoes we'd not want that treatment, then it's wrong for us to do.
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