The latest buzz in the media and in my facebook feed seems to be about transgender people: what they've gone through and how society responds to them. And the ultimate, definitive Christian response to it all.
Has the world gone crazy?
Yes.
Has it always been crazy?
Yes.
Which is why this whole issue makes me mostly want to kind of shrug and then yawn.
What else is new?
I guess you'll have to wait until transgender surgery starts being preached from pulpits before I get all hot under the collar about this topic.
Because what really concerns me is not that insanity is touted in the world as commendable.
Rather it's that insanity in the Church is touted by the Church as passable.
Abortion. Sexual abuse. Idolatry. Worship of everything from televangelists to Big Pharma to destructive military campaigns that take innocent life. Lying, backbiting, and gossip.
Things that are either tolerated if not outright promoted by the Church.
And if what I've said is suddenly offensive, the question is "why?"
Why is it that we seem so awfully quick to pass negative judgement on what the world does, yet seemingly so slow to pass negative judgement when the same kind of destructive behavior goes on in the Church?
Don't we have it backwards?
This is exactly the opposite of what Paul said:
"I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world." (1 Corinthians 5:9-10)
In other words, chill out, people. We live in the world. We're going to associate with immoral people, and that's okay. We can still treat them with basic human respect, as they are human beings made in God's image.
However-
"But now, I write to you not to associate together if any man called brother is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. "
Wow, Paul. Harsh.
"Not to eat with such a one?" Are you kidding, Paul? That's judgmental!
Exactly. It is.
"For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within?"
Wait, Paul. Wait! Didn't you hear Jesus' words about not judging?
"Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned." (Luke 6.:37)
This oft-quoted passage is in Luke 6. However, the context is conveniently ignored. It is when Jesus is talking about loving our enemies and responding with righteousness to evil people. It's pretty ironic that we don't offer this sort of "no judging, no condemning" grace to ungodly people, but only bring it up when someone in the Church gets caught in immorality.
And just a few verses later, Jesus talks about the speck in your brother's eye:
"How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye." (Luke 6:42)
Notice that Jesus never says, "Don't ever concern yourself about the speck in your brother's eye." He's not saying, don't ever judge that what your brother is doing is wrong. He's saying, don't be a hypocrite. Make sure your eye is clear before you correct your brother. By the standard that you judge, you will also be judged.
This is reinforced in what Paul says:
"You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? For 'THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU,' just as it is written." (Romans 2:21-24)
Wow, Paul. Tone down the harsh words. You're being judgmental again. All this harsh stuff about how God's character is blasphemed when we preach His word in vain.
But in Corinthians 5, responding to the gross immorality that was being allowed in the Church at Corinth, Paul continues in the same vein, with more judging:
"It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present."
At the end of chapter five he says this:
"Do you not judge those who are within? But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES."
Conclusion:
We need to stop worrying about what the world does.
The world is always going to be the world, and it's not our job to judge it.
That's God's job.
The Church however - it is imperative that we judge within it. That we concern ourselves with what goes on amidst our brethren. It is crucial. Too many people have been devoured, hurt and rent to pieces already. Too many of God's people have been deceived and led astray by the deceitfulness of sin. It's time for that to stop.
It's time for us to start judging and discerning properly, within the realms of authority we are called to. And if anyone lacks wisdom which is needed to discern properly, he can ask God and God will give it to him. (James 1:5.) When will we get this?
What goes on inside the Church is NOT just "God's business." It is ours. It is OUR Body, because we are members of it. When one member suffers, all suffer. When one member is bent on harming or hurting the others, all suffer. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
Jesus said, it is not the things that are outside the body that defile the body, but the things which come from within, and manifest outwardly.
The same holds true for the Church Body as well.
We seem bent on fighting the "evil" forces in the world, but all too willing to turn a blind eye to evil in our midst.
The world can't destroy the Church. The world, as influential as it is, doesn't have that kind of power. The Church is doing a good enough job of that on its own.
