We’re at a point when alleged Bible teachers willfully ignore teaching the Bible. If, in endeavoring to explain what Scripture teaches, you apologize for what it teaches “over there” you have failed to teach it at all. It is the simplest of hermeneutical principles to understand that the Bible is to be taken as a whole, that the context of the whole matters, and that every bit of it is inspired, and thus we are to submit to it.
I recently came across this quote from a book called “Jesus Outside the Lines” by Scott Sauls, pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church:
Not our job.#JesusOutsideTheLines pic.twitter.com/iAOY7vnP4z
— Scott Sauls (@scottsauls) March 7, 2017
It is not, it never has been, and it never will be a Christian’s job to judge non-Christians.
Scott Sauls
This sentiment Pastor Sauls expresses, is one of the prevailing mindsets that has beset the church. We have become terrified of actually declaring and applying God’s Word to our culture in such a way that expects our culture to conform to the standards of the Word of God. It is astonishing how, from under a preening brow, both secularists and so-called inclusive Christians pass down the judgment that: Christians are known for being too “judgey”. The hypocrisy of this sentiment is quite repugnant. It assumes that the besetting sin of Christians is being too judgmental, when in fact, for decades now, we have been so entirely indiscriminate from everything to our entertainment, to our liturgies, to how & who raises our children, to whom we ordain as preachers. We have capitulated to the secularist worldview time and time again, and then obsequiously defer when they make another demand of us, “Hey, don’t tell men they can’t use the women’s bathroom if they self-identify as a woman!”
[epq-quote align=”align-right”]We are locked in a fight over which standard will govern our society: the standard of Scripture, or the standard of humanistic moralism.[/epq-quote]To chide Christians for being so mean, harsh, and judgmental, is rank with judgmentalism of another stripe. Rather than reprove Christians on the basis of disobedience to Scripture, we are scolded for not being the well-behaved castrati that secularism wants us to be. Secularism has an agenda, and in this battle, it is much easier for them to win if their opponent is scolded and informed that it is unkind to aim the bayonets at one’s enemy. We are locked in a fight over which standard will govern our society: the standard of Scripture, or the standard of humanistic moralism. It is a crying shame, as my Granny might say, that Christian pastors scold Christians for disobeying how the Secularist “bible” teaches Christians to behave (i.e. stay out of our business until you fade into obscurity).
Do we forget the Apostle’s words: “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters (1Co 6:2)?” To say, as Pastor Sauls does, that it has never been the Church’s job to “judge” non-Christians is in opposition to what the Apostle teaches here. If we believe the Gospel at all, we must also acknowledge that following Christ, as His disciple, means that we must learn to obey everything He commanded (Mt. 28:19-20). The Kingdom of God has come, and this means that Christ’s crucifixion, resurrection and ascension demands obedience by this world to His reign of this world.[epq-quote align=”align-right”]They are in the position of being required to submit to Christ’s kingship, He is not the one who needs to kiss the toe-rings of their gods and goddesses.[/epq-quote]
Do some Christians sin in the direction of being jerks? Yes. Does that mean we apologize for the fact that Christians are called by Christ to go into all the earth and teach the nations to rejoice in God, and to obey Him?! No. Bible teachers must teach the Bible, in its full scopus. This means that we cannot shy away from what the Bible teaches, even when godless societies are offended by what it says. After all, they are in the position of being required to submit to Christ’s kingship, He is not the one who needs to kiss the toe-rings of their gods and goddesses.
