The following article is my response to an article written by pastor and blogger Carey Nieuwhof titled "Some Advice On Same-Sex Marriage". You can find it here. Obviously it would make sense to read Carey's article first before reading my response below. Full disclosure: I know Carey personally and we have discussed our different view points on other issues in the past. While we do not see eye to eye on several matters, we have tried to handle our differences in a Christ like manner. Please ensure that any comments on his site or this one follow suit. :)
SDG
Paul Carter
Hey Carey,
Paul Carter here. First of all, let me say how much I enjoyed reading your article; it was timely, prudent and obviously well considered. There are several things I would want to affirm. I agree wholeheartedly that the church does better when it is clearly different than the world. We are supposed to be the salt of the earth – salt that has lost its saltiness is good for nothing and churches that merely parrot the popular sentiments of the culture generally find themselves wondering where all the people went. Jesus didn’t get crucified for going with the flow. To your first point I say a heartfelt AMEN.
However, I was a little concerned with your second point. Let me be clear, I agree that we shouldn’t be surprised when unsaved folks act in an unsaved manner. Not to be crass, but, if its true that apart from Christ we are sinners who sin, then why would we expect sinners to do other than sin? In fact Paul says that sinners only sin, must sin and always sin, in the sense that even their righteous deeds are done from a posture of unbelief and are not done out of a desire to glorify God and are then, in the final analysis, sinful at the root.
10 “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10–12 ESV)
For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. (Romans 14:23 ESV)
I am with you in so far as you have reminded us not to expect righteous fruit from sinful root. And of course I am also with you in remembering that even as a saved person I am often found sinning. I am not yet what I have been saved to become. I am, as Luther famously said, simultaneously “saint and sinner”.
I would also agree with you that it seems an odd thing for Christians to think that legislation can make sinners into saints. Conversion by the sword – even with respect to values and behaviours – has always been a very bad idea.
However, you said a couple of things that concern me. You asked the question:
“Why would you hold the world to the same standard you hold the church?”
My answer to that would be twofold. First of all we “hold the world to the same standard as the church” because there is only one standard. God is the measure of all things. People are condemned for sinful behavior whether they knew it was sinful or not. Jesus said:
47 And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. 48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more. (Luke 12:47–48 ESV)
People are accountable to God irrespective of their knowledge of or delight in God’s standards for life and conduct. Therefore Christians have a responsibility to make people aware of God’s holiness, to make people aware of our collective guilt and failure and finally to make people aware of God’s gracious provision through the life and death of Jesus Christ.
Secondly, I would suggest that we “hold the world to the same standard as the church” because the ways of God are right and lead to life. Christians have a responsibility to advocate for the things that lead to human flourishing. Psalm 19 says:
8 the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9 the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. 11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. (Psalms 19:8–11 ESV)
God’s ways lead to life, blessing, reward and human flourishing. It is an act of unkindness for the church to remain silent in the face of moral and sexual confusion. We know the way of life. As in the story of the lepers in 2 Kings 7:3, we have a responsibility to share the good news of what we have discovered with those who remain in need. When those men were convicted about their silence they responded by saying:
“We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come; let us go and tell the king’s household.” (2 Kings 7:9 ESV)
When you know where the blessing of God is found, you have a responsibility to speak.
The second area of concern I had with your otherwise excellent article comes out of the same section of your argument. You said:
“First, non-Christians usually act more consistently with their value system than you do. It’s difficult for a non-Christian to be a hypocrite because they tend to live out what they believe.”
While criticizing fellow Christians is often an easy way to curry favour and develop a bond with secular readers, in this case, I feel your criticism is misplaced. I’ve never met anybody who acted in accordance with their own value system – Christian or otherwise. No one does the good they know they should do. Francis Schaeffer famously made the following illustration when reflecting upon the universality of human hypocrisy:
“Imagine that each baby is born into the world with an invisible tape recorder hung around his neck. Imagine further that these are very special recorders that record only when moral judgments are made. Aesthetic judgments such as "This is beautiful" are not recorded. But whenever a person makes such a statement as "She's such a gossip," or "He's so lazy," the recorder turns on, records the statement and turns off. Many times each day the recorder operates, as the person makes moral judgments about those around him, recording dozens of judgments each week, hundreds every year and thousands in a lifetime.
Then the scene shifts, and we suddenly see all the people of the world standing before God at the end of time. "God, it's not fair for You to judge me," say some. "I didn't know about Christ. "No one taught me the Ten Commandments, and I never read the Sermon on the Mount."
Then God speaks. "Very well. Since you claim not to know My laws, I will set aside My perfect standard of righteousness. Instead I will judge you on this." And as He pushes the button on the recorder, the person listens with growing horror as his own voice pours forth a stream of condemnation toward those around him..."She shouldn't be doing this." "He was wrong in that"-thousands upon thousands of moral judgments.
When the tape ends, God says, "This will be the basis of My judgment: how well have you kept the moral standards you proved that you understood by constantly applying them to those around you. Here you accused someone of lying, yet have you ever stretched the truth? You were angry at that fellow for being selfish, yet have you ever put your own interests above someone else's needs?" And every person will be silent. For no one has consistently lived up to the standard he demands of others.”[1]
It has become too easy to simply dismiss the Christian witness simply by asserting: “Christians are hypocrites! They don’t act consistently therefore they shouldn’t be listened to”. The charge is irrelevant. No Christian that I have ever met, nor any Christian who has ever read the Bible, would assert that he or she perfectly lives out the commandments of God. That expectation is completely foreign to Biblical Christianity. The Apostle John said:
If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:10 ESV)
I’ve never met a Christian who needed to be convinced of that truth. The charge of hypocrisy is unnecessary and irrelevant. Should Christians take better heed to their own preaching? Of course! No one would argue that, but no one is arguing that Christians should be listened to because of their spotless record of obedience. Our obedience is not the basis of our claims. Christ’s authority is the basis of our claims. Something is true or not true on the basis of whether God says so or not, not on the basis of how perfectly the principle has been realized within the Christian community.
The truth is that Christians and non-Christians alike are guilty of hypocrisy on a grand scale. Neither can claim to be perfectly living out their beliefs, values and moral standards. The point is moot. It is a distraction and it misses the point entirely. The only issue that matters is this: Has God said? If he has said, then we must say and we must believe and delight and strive for. When we fall short we must confess and repent and ask for greater grace.
On a more personal note, it saddens me to hear another pastor say what you said in your third point:
“Be honest, pretty much every unmarried person in your church is having sex (yes, even the Christians). I know you want to believe that’s not true (trust me, I want to believe that’s not true), but why don’t you ask around? You’ll discover that only a few really surrender their sexuality.”
If you really believe that, I would think you would receive that as either a challenge to the truth of the Gospel or a challenge to the effectiveness of your ministry. I want to agree with you that Christians sin; I want to agree that none of us are perfect in our fidelity and our purity; but I am sad that you seem not to believe in the promise of the Gospel. The Apostle Paul said:
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:17–18 ESV)
When we are saved we are set free from the penalty of sin and from the dominion of sin. The one is immediate and the other is progressive. We are free and becoming free by one degree of glory to the next. A real Christian is free from the penalty that he or she deserves for their failures as a sexual person. And – THANKS BE TO GOD!!! – they are becoming more faithful, more pure, more loving and more generous as sexual people. If you don’t believe that, what reason do you give people for embracing the Gospel?
I don’t claim to know everything about the people who go to your church or the people who go to mine, but I do know that many recent surveys have indicated that committed Christians do in fact demonstrate a great deal more of traditional Christian moral behavior than they are often given credit for. We’ve all heard the statistics about how “Christian teenagers have sex at approximately the national average” or “Christians get divorced as often as the general public” but those surveys often do not make any effort to separate out those who ARE Christians from those who simply identify as such on surveys. The simple step of asking people if they attend church more than once a month immediately clarifies the data. Shaunti Feldahn recently wrote a book to debunk the myths of Christian moral and marital underperformance. According to her research the statistics provided by the secular media are often based on imperfect data and inadequate filtering. For example, she states that the actual divorce rate among Evangelical Christians is less than half that of the general population.
"Pastors need to know this. People need to be able to look around the average congregation and say, 'You know what, most of these people will have strong and happy marriages for a lifetime. Doing what God says matters. This is a big deal to know."[2]
Jim Denison cites similar findings:
“Going to church is more important than claiming we do: actual worship attendance drops the divorce rate 25 to 50 percent compared to those who don't attend.”[3]
The statistics provided by the media about human sexuality are notoriously unreliable. Tim Harford, writing fro FT magazine (hardly a site friendly to Christians!) said recently:
“Some of the most famous sex researchers are also limited by a lack of representative sampling. Alfred Kinsey found that 37 per cent of men had a homosexual experience resulting in orgasm; Shere Hite reported that 95 per cent of women experienced “emotional and psychological harassment” from their male partners. The underlying research here was politically groundbreaking but we cannot have too much confidence that these numbers are correct.”[4]
Relying on notoriously unreliable statistics to undermine confidence in the Gospel strikes me as a very unhelpful thing to do. The Bible says that Christians grow, slowly, progressively but surely into the same image as Jesus Christ. If that’s not true then why in the world are we here?
Let me end by on a positive note. I agree wholeheartedly with your comment that:
“if you don’t deal with straight sex outside of marriage, don’t start being inconsistent and speak out against gay sex.”
Amen.
I think its time we started saying more, not less. Let’s say it in love, but for the love of God and the love of all people, let’s say it. Let’s leave behind our recent love of ambiguity and dissimulation. The world is very clear about what they believe – let’s meet that with a clarity of our own. Let’s talk about fornication, let’s talk about adultery, let’s talk about pornography, let’s talk about masturbation, let’s talk about gender and let’s talk about homosexuality. Let’s talk about what the Bible says about being male and female together. Let’s ground that conversation in what God says is true and beautiful and helpful and life giving. Let’s love people where we find them and let’s bring them to the same grace we found in the person and work of Jesus Christ. If that is your goal then know that you have an ally in me.
Appreciating the conversation,
Rev. Paul Carter
First Baptist Church, Orillia
[1] cccpastors.blogspot.ca/2009/03/schaeffers-tape-recorder-thought.html
[2] www.christianheadlines.com/blog/researcher-says-divorce-rate-among-christians-lower-than-previously-thought.html.See also http://www.shaunti.com/book/good-news-marriage/
[3] www.christianheadlines.com/columnists/denison-forum/are-born-again-christians-more-likely-to-commit-adultery.html