On my way to lead worship at a small church in Canonsburg I saw a tweet from @BreakingNews that caught my eye. After reading the article I began to wonder why what was once a black and white issue has become nothing but shades of gray in many peoples eyes. I understand that times are changing in our country as liberal ideals are becoming more and more mainstream every day, but does that mean that the church should follow suit?
I understand that we, as the church, need to love people and accept them as they are. Recognizing that we have been pulled out of a life of sin to experience the love of Christ, we are called to display that same love to the lost. I don’t think we can ever achieve perfection short of going home to Him in eternity, but I know that Jesus wasn’t just making a suggestion when He said “Go now and leave your life of sin,” to the woman who was about to be stoned by her accusers.
Loving and accepting people where they are does not mean we should put them in places of leadership in the church as they continue to live in sin. It’s one thing to be working through a struggle with sin, but their is a bigger issue when people openly live in sin while trying to say they are not. They try to vindicate their actions, saying that ‘the references in the Bible refer to a different culture where it was wrong to be involve with such things.’ ‘In today’s society, it is acceptable to be in a same sex relationship, so it should be allowable in the church as well’ or ‘those are just Old Testament laws that don’t apply anymore.’ I have a real problem when people try to change God’s Word to fit their own agenda. Jesus said Himself that He did not come to abolish the laws, but to fulfill them (Matthew 5:17-20). If you read further on in that passage, He goes on to say that it is just as bad to think about breaking the commandments as it is to actually do it.
If leaders in the church are called to a higher standard (1 Timothy 3) and teachers are warned of stricter judgment (James 3:1), then why is there even a question of whether or not to allow people who are trying to blur the lines of sin to be ordained in roles of leadership? The votes in the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) continue to be close on issues of ordaining gays and allowing gay marriage. Many speculators have said that a split in that denomination is inevitable. As the 173 U.S. presbyteries vote on the amendment to allow gay clergy, I pray that more of them would stand on The Truth found in God’s Word rather than on political correctness and trying to keep up with public trends.