In the latest issue of Critique (a ransom fellowship publication), there was a letter to the editor that was really interesting to me. It responded to a lecture that told a story about “a church providing help to a pregnant couple who lived near the church who happened to be lesbians. Estranged from their families, they had no one to give them a baby shower, to provide meals, or to be with them during the births of their child. The church decided to offer them these practical expressions of care and love.” The letter written in regard to this asked questions like ‘what does it look like for the church to open our arms in situations like this without appearing to be embracing their sin?’ and ‘how do we be faithful without driving current members away who might be offended by the church’s choice?’
I thought this was really interesting in many respects; one, how great it is that a church would do this in the first place, and two, how much the Christian culture rejects being faithful over reputation. It is such a good picture of the church—this is what we are called to do, to reach out to our city, to those around us, and show them love in a practical and real way.
Denis Haack (who will be speaking at the L’abri conference!) had a great response. Whenever we offer help to anyone we are offering help to sinners; it makes no difference what the sin(s) are. He said that “there is only one category of person: all have sinned.” And if helping a fallen person means that we are endorsing or embracing their sin, then we could help no one. But why isn’t this understood by many? Why do we have such legalistic view of the world and our lives within it? Jesus himself ate with people who many believers, like the Pharisees, found undesirable. He was criticized for it and looked down upon.
Haack states, “The church needs to be faithful to teach the people of God what it means to truly follow Christ. Just as he was never aloof from fallen people in a broken, messy world, so we too must live in a way that incarnates grace.” Paul also spells out to us how Christ instructs his followers not to judge:
“I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people, not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave the world… What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside.” -- 1 Corinthians 5:9-13
If we refuse to associate with sinners, we are disobeying this clear instruction of Scripture. Haack closes his response with this: Christ’s sharpest criticism and most scathing rhetoric was leveled against those who imagined they would be contaminated by associating with fallen people.
“After all, what could be wrong with having a good reputation, with not offending fellow believers, with not hanging out with bad people? According to the example of Christ and the teaching of Scripture, everything.”
1 comment:
Col baby. This is a great blog post. So many people get caught up in the legalistic view and forget that people are just people. We are called to love all people as Christ loved us. That's so hard, but I'm happy that this was on your heart and that you wrote about it. :) I liked the Haack quote, "There is only one category of people: all that sinned." I think this is a fundamental truth that we forget. We start to play favorites in our hearts and set standards for people to gain our love when their humanity is all that warrants our love, because we are called to live a life of ruled by love. Okay, sorry I am rambling. I just wanted to leave a little note to let you know that I am reading, and that I agreed with what you had to say. I love you, Col.
Hubby
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