Thursday, May 2, 2013

Celebrating the Wrong Things

There has been a lot of news out there lately for the same-sex community.  From the Supreme Court essentially saying they weren't going to make a ruling on the status, to the recent news of the NBA player who has declared his homosexuality, there has been a lot of news out there.  And as you watch the various programs, to a large degree, there is much support in our nation on this issue.  Even many church bodies and people have shown their support to such issues.

One of the reasons that I have heard for Christian support of same sex issues is because God is a God of love.  If two people love each other, then God is all for it, because God loves love.  And while it's a biblical truth that God is love, there are some distortions that take place when only God's love gets the focus.

God is also a God who believes in right and wrong.  Shoot, God Himself is the one who made right and wrong.  And God has spoken in His Word quite often about many of the things that are wrong.  In fact, if you read through the whole Bible, you won't find a single instance where God says it's a good thing when people are going contrary to what He says.  Yes, He calls same sex unions a sin, just like He calls adulterous unions a sin, or lying a sin, or using God's name as a curse word a sin.  And God takes that seriously.

The problem we have is that we don't always want to agree with what God says.  In our day and age, we can't even assume that most people in our nation actually know what God says.  They may say that God is a God of love, but they probably don't know many other characteristics of God.  And because they do not know God, or know what God says, they simply are unable to celebrate the right things, or to celebrate what God says is good.  To do that, you need to know what God says is right and wrong, and what is worth celebrating.  And today, far too few people (yes, even people who regularly attend Christian churches) know the things that God says are right and wrong.

Ignorance often leads to celebrating the wrong thing.  I believe that there are many in our nation who support certain popular stances, not out of malicious intent toward God and Christians, but simply because they are ignorant of what God really says.  And we Christians don't really do ourselves any favors when we knee-jerk react toward them.  A well-thought out response is almost always going to be better received than an off-the-cuff reaction.  But far too many Christians have had a microphone or camera put in front of them, and then they reacted without giving a lot of thought to how they were saying what they were saying.

Yes, our society celebrates the wrong things quite often.  As Christians, it serves us far better not to simply react, but to give some thought to the responses we have toward these celebrations.  True, most of the time, even a well-thought-out response will not be received well.  But that should never be our excuse for sloppy thinking or for not even thinking before we speak.

1 comment:

  1. As usual you find and concentrate on the real issue of understanding GOD. Well written.

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