Your Brother Daniel
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Hypocrisy,
Judgment, and Homosexuality
One Christian blogger
noted that the church is confronted with these two recurrent charges:
· “1) The church should stop harping on the sin of
homosexuality, treating it as worse than all others.
· 2) Because of rampant divorce in the church, the
church has lost its moral authority to speak to the issue of gay marriage, and
to continue to do so is the height of hypocrisy.”
The blogger responded:
· First, is the church “harping” on the sin of
homosexuality? Maybe some churches are. I’m not aware of them, but it’s
possible… when the subject comes up in such churches or synods—say at a
national convention or something—those who speak the most are often preaching
for the acceptance of homosexuality not the sin of it. Thus, if the
church is indeed “harping” on the issue, it’s harping out of both sides of its
mouth.
· Even so, is the church driving and framing our
national conversation about homosexuality? I don’t believe it is… At best the
church is attempting to be responsive. But make no mistake, the driving and
framing forces of our societal obsession with homosexuality are the
institutions of media… government… and education. The church isn’t controlling
the conversation.
This blogger’s
observations match my own. The Bible-believing church, for the most part, has
been reduced to silence on the critical issue of sexuality, while our teens are
left to glean the “wisdom” of the media, schools, and universities. In the
absence of a prophetic word from the church, there is nothing to counteract
what they are being fed elsewhere.
In regards to his
faithfulness to biblical teaching, the Apostle Paul declared his innocence:
· I declare to you today that I am innocent of the
blood of any of you. For I have not
hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. (Acts 20:26-27)
Had he not taught the
“whole will of God,” he would not
have been able to declare himself innocent. I don’t think that many churches
today would be able to declare their innocence. Studiously, so as not to give
offense and to lose attendees, churches are avoiding certain unpopular
teachings. Has it now become better to please man than to please God!
Instead, God warned
Ezekiel that he should not place God’s warnings in a padlocked drawer:
· “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the
people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person,
you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their
ways, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you
accountable for their blood. But if you
do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they
will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved.” (Ezek. 33:7-9)
And what about the
second charge? Is it hypocritical to judge if we too commit sins? Indeed, we
have no right to call others to repent of their sins if we are unwilling to
repent of ours. That’s hypocrisy! Well, what if we do the hard work of
self-examination and confess and repent of all our known sins? Jesus addressed
this issue:
· “Do not judge, or you too will be judged… Why do
you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to
the plank in your own eye? How can you
say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time
there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of
your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your
brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:1-5; Gal. 6:1-3; James 5:19-20)
The blind cannot perform
surgery. However, if we first embrace the light by confronting our own sins, we
then can shed light for others.
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