This world is evil. Sneakily, scarily evil. And had a few things not been revealed to me in recent weeks, I may have continued to keep my big toe in it. Thankfully, God brought me to Romans 1, where I read about God's wrath against mankind. Verse 18: "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them."
I'm not talking to atheists or non-Christians here. I believe with my entire being that we can't win anyone to Christ by judging or calling out their sin. We can only win them to Jesus with love. What I'm talking about here is men who "suppress the truth." Because we Christians, we the church, suppress the truth everyday. I suppress the truth everyday. Christians have joined the world! Paul warned us to be in the world, not of the world, but in our great fear of offending someone, we've glazed over some serious issues. We tell ourselves God's biggest commandment is love and somehow we think that translates as remaining silent. Well, of course our greatest commandment is to love, but Paul is very clear that Christians should call out other Christians living in sin. That's not judgment. That's Biblical. And that, my friends, is love. If I'm walking in darkness, you better be VERY sure I want to be called out of my pit. Love is calling me out of my pit, even when I'm so far in it that I've twisted the Bible to say what I want it to say.
Verse 21: "For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened." We Christians are now part of an epidemic, and I dare to say that many Christians aren't living by the Bible. A very clear, black and white book has become gray. Sin is being condoned and glossed over in churches. Rick Warren said, "Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that is you disagree with someone's lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don't have to compromise convictions to be compassionate." Did you hear that? "You don't have to compromise convictions to be compassionate." Love is the greatest commandment, but last time I checked, love isn't allowing a brother down a path of destruction. Love isn't condoning habitual sin for fear of not being politically correct.
In Matthew 10:34, Jesus says, "Do not suppose that I came to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword." I'm no Biblical scholar, but I can tell you that a sword divides. I'm not saying we should draw lines in the sand. I'm saying we should love. Oh my goodness, we should love the mess out of each other, but we have to be different. We're not different. I'm not different. Christ was different, yet He exuded love beyond measure.
I'm heart broken this morning, as I think of the world in which I'll be raising my son. I'm ill as I think about all the missed opportunities, where I could have been different. Where I cowered for fear that I may be called judgmental. This has got to stop. We have got to speak up in our churches, in our homes, and in our communities. This isn't happening, and until it does, more and more Christians will fall ill in this epidemic.
