| “To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.” |
| —Titus 1:15-16 |
No one likes to hear someone speak harshly against him or her. Over time, one of the biggest criticisms leveled against we followers of Jesus is that:
“Those folks are just too judgmental.”
In fact, that’s the way our culture encourages people to view “Christ’s-ones”—as judgmental, bigoted, and hateful.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Christians are not inherently judgmental. If we choose to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, we generally extend God’s mercy, grace, and love to all we meet. Why? Because that’s what Jesus would do.
But, what our critics fail to understand when they look at us as Christians is that the message of the Gospel balances two critically important elements.
- On the one hand, we are all sinners. We inherited the sin of Adam and compounded our sinfulness by our own actions.
- On the other hand, God has so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for our sins.
Those two elements are both fundamentally necessary to an understanding of the Gospel.
Yes, when He was here on earth, Jesus extended great love to people who desperately needed it. But, He also spoke out against unrepentant sinful behavior. And, He did not hesitate to point out the dangerous path on which those who chose to sin persisted to live their lives. So, part of the great love of our Savior for sinners is His willingness to speak out against sin.
Obviously, it seems far better if—in following this “love, but don’t fail to call sin, sin” posture of Jesus—we always speak with a gentle firmness, using words bathed in God-breathed love. And, frankly, that’s hard to do consistently. We walk a tightrope in this regard and always must seek to maintain a balance between mercy, grace, and love on the one side, and honesty about sin on the other side.
The Apostle Paul sent Titus to Crete so that Titus could “amend what is defective” in the struggling church on that island. To do so, Paul had to give Titus some clear marching orders, and also make certain Titus knew what to expect, once he arrived at his destination. This prompted Paul to use words that many in our culture today would label as “harsh.” Notice what Paul wrote to Titus, as recorded in Titus 1:15-16:
To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
Wow! Startling! But, was Paul wrong to call out the members of the church on Crete for their sinful behavior? No! In fact, Paul’s devotion to the Gospel, and his desire to display Christ-like love, required him to do so.
Of course, in directly addressing the sinners of whom he speaks, Paul would likely use more gentle words laced with kindness and love. But, when sin persisted, Paul would, no doubt, take the same kind of strong stand as the one he took in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5:
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.
So, what can we do about the charges laid against us by the culture in which we live? I’m not at all certain we can do anything. Speaking to God, His Father, Jesus clearly told us in John 17:14:
I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
We cannot do anything that will appease the hatred of the world toward us. But, we can fairly and accurately represent Jesus by making certain we rely on the guidance from the Holy Spirit to assure that we always balance mercy, grace, and love in contrast with an honest declaration against the sinful behavior that permeates our present culture.
Let’s begin this new day by determining to stop pretending sin no longer exists among those around us. No, I’m not urging us to get up on a soapbox in the marketplace and speak harsh words. That would only make us into the clowns that the world would far too easily despise.
But, when faced with the opportunity to gently and tenderly speak words of love in a situation where sin is rampant, let’s choose to state the truth of God’s written Word without fear. In so doing, we become instruments that the Holy Spirit can use to force sinful behavior to come out from the darkness and into the light.
