Recently I wrote an article in response to the controversy created by Pastor Alistair Begg’s remarks and advice regarding a Christian’s attendance at a same-sex or transgender ceremony. This reignited the talk over being judgmental toward others.
Being judgemental for Christians and for our society has turn out to be the unpardonable sin and has placed a number of pressure on people who find themselves attempting to live by what God’s Word teaches.
Disagreeing has quickly turn out to be “hate” speech and has been classified as “Pharisaical” because all of us have sin in our lives. It is true all of us have sin in our lives. We all have things we’re working on. But my understanding of the same-sex community and transgender community is that these ceremonies and relationships aren’t temporary, they’re lifelong selections to have interaction in relationships which might be counter to God’s Word.
To stand against the fashionable day’s progressive view of relationships is to create a possible angst that unleashes judgement on us from a society that has decided to redefine things in a way that’s contrary to God’s Word.
Pastor Begg agrees that these relational selections are sin but believes that to avoid attending formal ceremonies will send the message of being “judgmental”.
I realize there is just not a verse within the Bible that claims, “Thou shalt not attend a same-sex ceremony.” So, we’re left to discern what is sensible in this example.
Pastor Begg’s argument is that “If we do not go, ‘they’ will perceive us as judgmental”, but when we do go, how will Jesus perceive us?
Yes, if we must error, we should always error on the side of grace and love over being judgemental. But love, as 1 Corinthians tells us, doesn’t rejoice with unrighteousness. So, deviating from God’s perspective is just not demonstrating love. If you said to your beloved ‘are you okay if I come and stand with my face turned away out of your altar’ they usually said ‘yes’, then I’d say ‘go’.
If you’ll be able to go and stand for truth while showing love, at all times do that. But giving into our family members and being silent publicly isn’t advocated within the Bible. Matter of fact, Matthew 18;15-19 gives us the roadmap for learn how to engage our family members who profess Christ but are in sin. We go privately, we go together with a small group, then we go publicly and publicly stand against their sin for their very own sake. This is what we’re to do for those we love and are in relationship with.
Trust me, I realize personally how painful and prolonged this pain might be. It is excruciating to walk through life standing against your family members for the sake of the Gospel. But rarely are the correct thing and the straightforward thing the identical thing in God’s economy.
Jesus’ actions were never to achieve the approval of humanity. He made it clear that He got here to do the Father’s will. Pharisees, nevertheless, did what they did to look righteous but were simply self-righteous in their very own eyes, not God’s.
Being judgemental and being perceived as judgemental by those that want acceptance for his or her sin are two various things. If God and His Word imagine you might be ‘judgemental’ you’d higher listen. But whether it is people who find themselves wanting to justify their sin, or silence your witness, or minimize the convictions of God’s Word lived out in your life through your relationship with them, I’d encourage you to say the identical thing Peter said in Acts 5:29: “It is healthier to obey God slightly than man.”
Jesus Himself needed to cope with this issue and the burden of either obeying God or making his family blissful along with his actions. At certain points, his own biological family was not blissful with Him for the way He was living His life. He handled the identical things now we have to cope with.
His family got here to rebuke him in Matthew 13:48 and here’s what He said: “‘Who is my mother, and who’re my brothers?’ Pointing to his disciples he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the desire of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.'”
Wedding ceremonies and funerals are family centric and a number of the most delicate moments of a family unit. They show what’s there or what’s not there and expose the reality and love we share or don’t share with each other within the name of Jesus.
Pastor Begg’s argument is: go, take a present and your family members will feel loved by you and never judged. And this love will provide you with the very best probability to talk into their life so God can change them down the road. But take heed to what Paul said a couple of couple who was doing things sexually and in essence attempting to redefine the wedding bed themselves in 1 Corinthians 5:1:
“It is definitely reported that there’s sexual immorality amongst you, and of a sort that even pagans don’t tolerate: A person is sleeping with is father’s wife. And you might be proud! Shouldn’t you slightly have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the person who has been doing this?”
Sounds judgmental to me.
Why would God have the Apostle Paul give such advice? He tells us why. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5:3,
“I actually have already passed judgement within the name of the Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. So when you find yourself assembled and I’m with you in spirit, and the ability of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, in order that his spirit could also be saved on the day of the Lord.”
What does this mean? It means sometimes you will need to hand over the physical relationship of a loved one to be able to give them over to their destruction in order that God can cope with them and save them in the long run.
Trust me, that is excruciating to do and even harder to live. But that is God’s will and God’s plan for individuals who redefine His Truth while claiming His name. Our love cannot contradict God’s Word. Our trust in His sanctifying work in one other’s life must exceed our try and control the connection through ‘perceived’ non-judgmental actions.
God requires us to show our family members over to Him and get out of the best way.
This is just not easy, but may God offer you and I the grace to hold this silent burden of affection for our family members, for his or her salvation, even when everyone else around us perceives us as ‘judgemental’. May God give us the boldness that that is what God’s love requires of us for them.
As I said earlier, the straightforward thing and the correct thing are rarely the identical thing in God’s economy.
