For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.  James 2:10

Imagine that you are asked to sweep the porch, but you take one straw out of the broom you have been given and insist on sweeping with that.  It would certainly take you a lot longer.  No one could complain that you are not sweeping -- you are.  No one could complain that you are not using a broom -- you are, albeit a very small one...

This is what happens when a culture decides to remove one virtue from the bible to use to bring about good in the world.  No one can complain that you are not attempting to do good -- you are.  And no one can complain that you are not quoting from the bible -- you are, albeit only part of what it says.

It is no good trying to pull society in the direction of a particular virtue unless you are willing to call them to ALL virtue.  It is right and good to call the rich to care for the poor (the bible condemns the rich using their wealth to withhold justice from the poor), but not without also calling the poor to work for their employers as though they were serving Jesus Himself (Eph 6:7), or denying food to those who don’t work (2 Thess. 3:10).  And this doesn’t begin to touch on the call to sexual purity, soberness, and honor of parents...

Today, we hear each of the political parties claiming moral high ground for their positions:  “stop greed!” or “grant liberty!”  But it is no good removing these straws from the broom of what CS Lewis calls “the Tao” and attempting to sweep with them.  The only thing worse would be to remove two from the broom and pit them against each other.  Then even the sweeping stops, and the devil just laughs as we use our straw to beat each other.  "How can you be against us?  We are for liberty!"  or "Anyone who opposes us is in favor of greed!"  More than that, don’t we assume that only the rich can be greedy?  And don’t we really think that liberty only means the right to be left alone to do as you please?  Even the definitions of these virtues need to be drawn from the broom.  The broom offers far more benefit than great numbers -- each individual virtue is limited by and defined by the others in the broom, and only in the broom can they do the work they are able to do.  The broom teaches that greed is universal, and can be just as strong in the poor as in the rich.  Having money doesn’t make you greedy, being greedy just makes you focus on acquiring money.  Liberty is only meaningful if it is used to do the right thing, not anything.  So, not only do we need liberty, we need a definition of the right toward which we might exercise our liberty.

The reality is that anything short of the full person of Jesus is going to be short of true goodness.