(Matthew 24:9)
“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.”
(2 Timothy 3:12)
“In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
(John 15:18-22)
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”
We are promised in the Word of God that we will be persecuted if we follow Christ and live wholeheartedly for Him and the Great Commission. Persecution can look differently but in America today, it looks like hatred.
As you probably know, now in the United States of America homosexuality has been nationally legalized and provisions of the deplorable ‘Affordable Care Act’ (Obamacare) have been tried and upheld through unconstitutional and irresponsible decisions by leaders in American government. Christians and conservatives are irate because of the lawless actions of government that is institutionalizing immorality and sin in our society, while LGB supporters and even some Christians are celebrating. The cursed media is constantly defferring attention away from the important issues at hand by focusing all attention on how hateful anyone who disagrees with homosexual marriage is.
The worst part is that christians are falling prey and supporting this institutionalization sin.
Christianity in America has become a religion of cheap grace and love that covers a multitude of sins and asks nothing in return. People have become so desperate to love and to be loved that all the worth in the true grace and love in what Jesus Christ did for us has been lost. Many Christians have defined love as complete acceptance of people on every level of society. In personal relationships and interactions, in business, and in government and law, sin is being accepted and allowed under this false idea of grace. ( Which I will address in my next blog ) Because the world tells Christians that what they are saying is hurtful or even hateful, Christians have surrendered because of the almighty idea they has been created of the necessity to love people, to accept them.
I believe Christians have a biblical duty as individuals to personally not judge people but instead love people because God loves us and Jesus died for them as well as me. I do not believe this responsibility Christians have as individuals can, or is meant to mirror how we involve ourselves in government and politics. What I mean is that in our personal lives we love people individually, but you cannot govern a nation with the same acceptance and love as you can in relational interactions. Government is a level where we have a responsibility, far beyond any individual, to fight against immorality and sin becoming acceptable and endorsed.
Not just for the sake of the country, but because of the effects on society sin has when it becomes acceptable and encouraged among non-Christians and Christians alike. Not necessarily through endorsement by Christians, but even by means of passively sitting by and twiddling our thumbs, under the mask of ‘I must love the sinner’, all the while ignoring the reality of what is happening.
Things will get worse. Persecution will become more real. As law is disregarded and our rights are taken away, Christians will be affected and you are foolish if you think what is happening in America is not going to affect you as a Christian. It already is. If we care about this world and have any desire to lead people to Christ, we must continue to stand strong against sin.
We are to hate sin. Not dislike, not loathe. We are to hate sin. Loving people is on a personal level; in terms of interactions with people. The way laws are created and upheld in government cannot be thought of in terms of individuals. A nation cannot be governed by catering to individuals because what individuals so often desire is selfish, it has no regard for anyone else or what may be best. As Christians we believe that people are sinful and therefore, we believe people are blinded by sin to what is wrong because the desire of their flesh for (it) is stronger than what may be right or wrong. But this is concerning personal lives and personal choices.
Is it loving to allow the institutionalization of immorality that endorses sinful living? Letting people live under the impression that it is acceptable? Giving the impression that Christianity endorses sin? No, absolutely not.
We are called to be holy as God is holy.
I guarantee that when, through unjust and illegal actions, homosexuality was nationally legalized, Jesus was not clapping his hands in celebration. Jesus was crying. Tears flowing down his face as the people of the world were walking into the same immorality and sinfulness that he once obliterated cities and flooded the entire world to eradicate.
Consider the cities in the Bible that were completely and utterly destroyed and among the many sins that were undoubtedly being indulged in, what sin was specifically pointed out, implying it as the breaking point of sin and corruption?
(Jude 1:7)
“In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.”
(Ezekiel 16:49-50)
“Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.”
The Hebrew word toebah, translated detestable in NIV, used in verse 50 is the same as in Leviticus 18:22.
“Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.”
The word detestable is defined as ‘something deserving extreme dislike’. The synonyms of the word include: abhorrent, hateful, loathsome, despicable, abominable, execrable, repellent, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, disgusting, distasteful, horrible, horrid, and awful. All together concluding absolutely no form of acceptance of such an act.
It is quite clear that the sin that was pointed out was sexual immorality; homosexuality. It is a sin like any other, yet that does not mean the eroding effects on morality in society every sin incurs, whether through general acceptance or due to the institutionalization of it, are the same. I think we see a specific emphasis pointed out here due to the singling out of sexual immorality among the multitude of sins that were undoubtedly prevalent.
//Here I will pause to make clear that I am focusing my argument on the Bible and the truths from it that we are to hide in our hearts and live out. There is plenty of evidence proving homosexualities exponentially negative effects on the morality of a society and more specifically the family structure. There is the proof that law and precedent in the highest form, the constitution, was disregarded and in essence made relative and worthless. There is reason to believe that what is happening in the States with homosexuality is not the end, but simply the means to a greater end: the erosion of law, morality, and slowly but surely the rights labeled inerrant in the Constitution.
But remember, every time a ruling in court goes against the constitution, every government official that acts in disregard to the constitution and is not held accountable but instead is celebrated, affects our constitution and it becomes more and more irrelevant and powerless. The Constitution of the United States is the basis for all law in the United States. If the constitution is irrelevant then law will have no concrete base and become relative and uncontrollable. If there is no law, there will be tyranny and anarchy.
Legally, the precedent that has been laid due to rulings in the past concerning abortion, and present homosexual marriage, destroys all moral boundaries. Everything is being looked at through a lense of relativity and the next steps will most surely be bigamy, polygamy, beastiality, and any other form of perversion that can be conjured up.
But I understand that the stated issues are not valued or understood by many, let alone Christians, for if they were the problems we are facing might look very different. Alas, I will get down from my soap box and continue with the more important argument of the Word of God that should not need help from any other sources.\\
While not necessarily under the institution of the Church, we as Christians are obligated to stand firm against such institutional endorsements of sin and immorality. We are obligated, by love for people, to expose the corruption in the system that allowed this immorality to thrive.
Telling people who think the desires of their flesh are right, and who furthermore, have approval from their government that they are wrong, will most assuredly cause hard feelings. In trying to hold people and governments accountable for leading us into immorality, we will be hated.
WE SHOULD EXPECT TO BE HATED!
How clearly are we told, in words as well as in story of the love people have for their sin and the hatred that the world has for anyone telling them otherwise. Christ and his disciples stood up in Rome and pointed to the corruption and immorality people were living in and that the government was institutionalizing and the world hated them for it. They did not just dislike them or see them as annoying but they hated them. They were ruthlessly persecuted and in the end most were killed. They murdered them to stop them and did it in horrendous ways to make political statements.
These men’s lives are testament enough that Christians are not to sit passively by while sin is running rampant. Let alone when you live in a country that has a system in place to allow you the opportunity and responsibility to keep government accountable and let truth rule.
Yet, through persecution we are to respond to individuals only with love. True love. Let us not hate people. Let us hate sin and corruption. We cannot be malicious or hateful in the things we say or the way we act. We are to love people unconditionally.
Let us still love people. Let us love better than any other in our relationships because we are fighting for people’s souls. We should encourage and admonish and most importantly share the gospel of Jesus Christ through word and action. Let us wage war against sin and the devil. Do not be fooled into thinking being tolerant of sin in any form is loving people. Because it isn’t.
Do not forget that our call by Christ is not to bring about a happy life of love and security on this earth but rather to save people’s souls from eternal separation from God in Hell.
As for me, I’ll be damned if I am going to sit by, claiming Christ under a guise of cheap pseudo grace and love while people are encouraged to walk into their own damnation. That is hate not love.