Is it left or right? Or up or down?

I’m so tired of hearing the message on Sunday mornings about how we as the church need to be focused on the gospel, not left or right. I mean, yes! Absolutely, the gospel is of upmost importance. And actually, I agree that it’s not about left or right. But that’s not the point and let’s not pretend that it is.

Cowardice to proclaiming what is right and wrong based on God’s Word is plaguing our churches on the regular. It is cleverly disguised as compassion and tolerance, with a nice heaping spoonful of berating us all to focus on the gospel, exclusively. Stop being so mean, people!

Preach the gospel

It’s fine that men want to be in women’s spaces, and that children’s bodies are being mutilated. Let’s not talk about that. Preach the gospel.

Hurting women have had abortions, why bring up painful memories? So what if they’re riddled with guilt, shame, and regret. Preach the gospel.

Illegal immigrants just want to have a better life, so we should invite them in ALWAYS. It’s fine that in the process, we happen to lose hundreds of thousands of immigrant children while we also welcome complete strangers into our neighborhoods. What’s most important is that, you guessed it! Preach the gospel.

More compassionate than Jesus

Our churches believe that somehow, they are more compassionate than Jesus. What’s my evidence you ask? Why do I say that? Because based on the Word of God and the character of Christ, Jesus would most definitely never have ignored the perversion of the twisting of gender (Genesis 5:2). He would have recognized and protected the most marginalized, the unborn (Jeremiah 1:5, Psalm 139: 13-18). And He already told us to obey the laws of the land we’re in, as long as they don’t conflict with the truth and laws of God (Romans 13:1).

The LORD even went so far as to put gender in our DNA. No switching. Ever.

Jesus loves life, and recognizes babies in the womb as fellow image bearers. Not parasites. And he certainly wouldn’t have been OK with obfuscating what a baby in the womb is by using words like “fetus” to make us think that’s actually not a baby. Even the word fetus in Latin means “a young one, still in the womb.” So yeah. A life. Deserving of protection.

And again, the LORD called us to obey the rules set forth by sovereign countries and governments. If we break those rules, we should be called to account for it, not rewarded.

It’s about up and down

All of the issues outlined above are not about left or right. Rather, they’re about up or down, or stated in a different way, God’s way or man’s way. Right or wrong. Now right and wrong are not up for debate. They’re not determined by popular vote or demand. They’re determined by the Word of God. It’s not up to me, or you, or even your pastor.

Thousands of martyrs who have gone before us lived and died for exactly that – right versus wrong. John the Baptist was killed for calling out a secular, adulterous Jew (Mark 6:17). Was that not right? Should he have just ignored the sin and stuck to the gospel? I think the majority of our pastors would have sided with the secular, adulterous Jew and turned their back on that annoying, crazy preacher who eats bugs.

Or what about William Wilberforce? Should he have welcomed those slave owners, ignoring those mistreated, abused slaves for the sake of not rocking the boat? Just stick to the gospel, yes?

Or what about Jim Elliot? Should he have just left those Natives alone to kill one another, so as not to offend them? Just preach the gospel, right?

God’s truth and righteousness

What in the world are we doing here? Father God, help us to focus on YOUR truth and righteousness. LORD help us to preach the entirety of Your Word and not be so myopic and self-righteous as to think we somehow now know better.

The Word of God offends. To be a follower of Christ entails a true dying to self. We are not here to please man. As Russel Brand has recently said (I’m paraphrasing), we are to serve an audience of One. In his own broken way, he is more faithful to the call of being a disciple of Christ than way too many pastors on Sunday morning.

I pray that as the body of Christ, in any and every capacity, we are faithful to His Word. All of it. I pray for the LORD to lift up courageous men to lead on Sunday mornings. That godly wives, mothers, and sisters steward their homes in such a way, that others will recognize the anointing of the LORD and glorify God. Even if it may rub people the wrong way. And of course, I pray that we have the wisdom, courage, and strength to discipline our children to love and obey the LORD, even when it’s hard and some people despise them (and us) for it.

Jesus, open our eyes and hearts to Your Word and Your Truth. Father God, help us.