Judgment and hypocrisy are words that many throw at the church. Whether they are fair or not depends on the circumstance the accuser is talking about. Is the accusation of judgment and hypocrisy sometimes an excuse for the accuser to not get serious about Jesus? Possibly. It is easy to deflect your own reservations about following Christ based upon excuses. If I don't want to drop a sinful lifestyle it may be easier to point my finger at the church than figure out if the God of the Bible is really who He says He is. However, I don't think anyone would argue that Christians are always innocent of hypocritical judgment. There is definitely judgment that should not occur. The question is: why do we continue? Of course we are human, but what mindsets could we adopt to avoid judgmental attitudes?
First, I think we must recognize that there is a place for judgment in the church. Paul talked a good bit about turning false teachers and others who would not repent "over to Satan". Doing so seemed to be the last straw, as if there was nothing else that could be done to bring the person to repentance inside the church. This is an incredibly tough line to walk. Where is the line between graciously encouraging and turning over to Satan? That is a question I don't have a clear answer to. However, I do feel that I have been convicted recently of a new way of looking at Jesus' command to get the plank out of our own eye before we try to get the splinter out of our neighbor's eye (Matt. 7:3; Luke 6:42). In other words, He commanded to take care of the sin in your own life before you try to point out the sin in another's.
Here is the issue, we have all struggled with some sort of sin and temptation. If we are not struggling now, we have in the past, and probably will in the near future. However, we do not all struggle with the same things. And, as a result of human nature, it is easier for us to empathize with those who struggle with something we have struggled with. This is a good thing, those that have battled those sins can counsel those that are just beginning to go to battle against them. But there is also a downside to us empathizing with those that struggle with the same things as us. It is easy for us to take a mindset of, "I can understand struggling with this, but that! That is a horrible sin." I am not arguing that we take a softer view on God's disdain of sin, but I do think we could benefit from recognizing that a thief may struggle with robbing as much as we struggle with gossiping. How much more graciously would we deal with homosexuality if we recognized that homosexuals may struggle equally with homosexual desire as heterosexuals do with staying pure in their heterosexual relationships? The answer of course is not to accept all sin, but the answer is to realize we all struggle with something and that we need to stop criminalizing what we do not struggle with. The saying that we should "hate the sin and love the sinner" is true. Let's get serious about our own sin and stop throwing condemnation at what we do not struggle with. I have heard evangelism compared to beggars simply telling each other where there is bread. Let's not forget that we are all beggars. Our poverty manifests itself differently and some of us have known where the bread is for a while, but we must remember that we are still beggars and no one is going to follow us to the bakery if we forget what it is like to be really impoverished.
Thank you for your words! As a Christian man and a homosexual, it is extremely hard to discuss matters of sin with fellow Christians and accountability partners
ReplyDeleteThanks for your response. I attempted to message you through blogger (I am not sure if that is possible). I'd like to hear a little more about your struggle if you don't mind.
ReplyDeleteWell, I came to know the Lord at a young age and consider myself to be a strong Christian man, striving to serve the will of the Lord in my life. As I grew up, I had many conflicting feelings in my religious beliefs and the physical pull I had towards men. After struggling for years, I finally opened up to family/accountability partners to find I was now being outcastes and ask to step down from my leadership positions in the church. The situation led me to act upon the temptations. To this day, I'm still trying to come to terms with my two lives, but I still feel like I'm constantly being ridiculed for my lifestyle. I view dating in the same light I would as a heterosexual male. I long to find that one special person to spend my life with and love. I seek out a long-term relationship that can fulfill my emotional needs and challenge me to stay spiritually active in working through the Lord's hands. I hope this doesn't sound too crazy. I would love to hear your stance on a young man's internal struggle with spirituality and sexuality.
DeleteThanks
Well, I am certainly no expert but I will give you what I view to be the truth.
DeleteI once heard a sermon from a pastor that spends the majority of his time working with men that struggle with homosexuality. He presented it in the way I am about to explain and it really rang true with me. He discussed how we all are predisposed to certain temptations. As I wrote in this blog, there are certain temptations that do not carry as much stigma as others. However, it seems to me that we all struggle with something. Jesus even went through times of tempting (in the desert, and it seems like He was very tempted to avoid the cross). So, we all are tempted, but the Bible makes it clear that we have the choice to overcome. As early as when God is speaking to Cain He tells him that he must rule over sin (Gen. 4). Other passages tell us that if we resist the devil he will flee from us (James 4). I have personally felt this is my life. The longer I resist my temptations the weaker they get. It doesn't always feel like they are going to get weaker but they eventually do. Of course, I think I have made some of my temptations worse. I spent years caving to my temptations rather than fighting them and therefore gave Satan a foothold (Eph. 4).
The way the pastor I heard preach on it described it was that we have these natural tendencies (weak points) and then our environment can make these points even weaker. In my case, my main struggle has been lust. My struggle with lust is definitely going to be worse if I am surrounded by half dressed women all the time. The way he described the typical precursor for the men he worked with was that they may have felt rejection from a father, brothers, male peers, etc. growing up and attributed the strengthening of their temptations to some of these circumstances.
I'm not sure how much this will resonate with you. Nevertheless, thank you for being so candid.