Monday, September 19, 2011

Love, Truth, and Apostasy

I am sick and tired of overly sensitive, eccentric (that means off-centered), "touchy-feely,” mealy mouthed, politically correct Christians who attempt to lay some kind of guilt trip on any of us who would be forthright and straight up with the Truth of the Gospel.


Nearly every epistle in the New Testament warns us that there are many false teachers with false doctrines in our churches. Of course we should be sensitive; Jude tells us that for some, we must have compassion. But their error cannot be tolerated. Apostasy is dangerous; it is deceptive and it must be exposed and corrected.   If an apostate will not be corrected, he must be expelled and fellowship must cease.

Furthermore, God’s Word commands that we must "contend (fight) earnestly for the Faith." Regardless how unloving it might seem to those who desire love and peace above all and at any cost, real biblical contending against error is not unloving at all.   In fact, telling the truth is fully consistent with real godly love; God is Love and God is Truth. Real love cannot overlook or ignore the truth because the eternal destiny of men’s souls is at stake and the fact that some people have failed to act in a loving way does not abrogate our responsibility to insist on the Truth.


It is true that we are commanded to “speak the truth in love.” But that does not mean "hint at the truth in fluff."  Love is the vehicle in which God expects us to deliver the truth; but we must deliver the truth. God delivered His Truth in the vehicle of Love. That vehicle was the cross. It was His perfect Love that compelled Him to slaughter and crush and inflict His perfect and righteous anger on His only Son, there for our sins.   

And regardless how some people would think that to be an unkind, insensitive, cruel, and unthinkable act of the “loving god” that they have created in their own imaginations, the truth remains- if they reject God’s Love, they will suffer eternal torment for their sins.




6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amen! This is the key issue facing the church today.

Rational νεόφυτος said...

That "contradict - there can be only one" bumper sticker is interesting. There are far too many "coexist" stickers around my neighborhood.

hymns that preach said...

Yeah, those COEXIST stickers make me puke. Especially when I spot them in my church parking lot.

The Blainemonster said...

Bingo.

Ellery said...

Yup

Dan Cartwright said...

“speak the truth in love. . .does not mean "hint at the truth in fluff."

I keep hearing the phrase "Truth is the new hate speech" these days and I think it an accurate assessment of the current 'evangelical' environment in which we live. I've seen it in practice most often when calling any particular sin 'sin' is personally judging those who practice it.