At the American Thinker today D. C. Larson has a post entitled Christianity's unchanging standards which points out that...surprise...God still hates sinful behavior. When Jesus tells the scribes and pharisees in Luke that he came to call sinners, the question is: call them to what? Call them to repent, to change their minds and their ways. But you can not very well get them to change their ways by telling them they are doing things all wrong. On the other hand, you cannot condone sinful behavior.
A brief philippic by writer Chris Kratzer is presently making social media rounds. "Evangelical Christian: What the hell did you expect me to do?" is premised on a foolish and blasphemous fancy.
I'm not an evangelical, but a lifelong traditional Catholic. Still, the obvious flaw in Kratzer's message compelled me to comment.
Reduced to vital essence, it asserts that believers in a loving Christ are hypocrites if they don't also embrace sinful behaviors.
That notion enjoys favor from those who would remake God to reflect current secular peculiarities. (Of course, we are called to change the world, not indulge its negatives.) Loving people who sin, while despising actions that violate His Will, is very much in accord with Jesus's example.
John 8 recounts that while Christ refused to condemn a woman accused of adultery, He counseled her to "sin no more."
Mr. Kratzer apparently misses this point. One must repent and ask for forgiveness. The out and proud queer, for example, clearly have no intention, at least for now, of repenting (but as long as they are alive, there is hope!) Therefore, while we should treat these people with compassion, we cannot forgive them, and God enjoins us to hate what he hates.
I would also note that Jesus had the power to declare all the people of Israel forgiven for all their sins, but he did not do so. He had the power to heal everyone in Israel of all their diseases and infirmities. But he did not do so. One has to look not only at what he did and said, but what he did not do or say.
Jesus advocated turning away from deviant actions, not embracing them as one's legitimate 'identity.' Christ's admonition is the polar opposite of the 'anything goes' philosophy espoused by Kratzer and his weak-willed adherents.
There are unchanging Holy standards. Man lacks authority to alter them. They should not be thought vulnerable to popular preference for convenience and comfort. Perverting Christ's message so that deviancy is allowed to thrive without being rightly criticized is contemptible.
...snip...
Placing human logic above God's Word is of course folly. But more importantly, it is dangerous. Romans 12:2 can guide us: "And be not conformed to this world; but be reformed in the newness of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God."
A later verse speaks of "Hating that which is evil, cleaving to that which is good."
There are many on the internet preaching things that are not the gospel. Often, what they preach is subtly different from what the Bible teaches. Many speak of loving the sinner but hating the sin. This is nowhere in the Bible, and death was often meted out for many sins in ancient Israel. Jesus' example is more compassionate, but we must always understand that God's moral laws are unchanging, as He is unchanging. We must seek to conform ourselves to Him, not the other way around, and seek forgiveness for our weaknesses. Martin Luther said that the life of a true Christian is one of constant repentance. Amen.
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