Biblical Ethics, Part 7 - Welcoming People who Reject Christian Ethics
2nd June 2023
I suspect many evangelical churches, and their pastors, would be very uncomfortable if an openly homosexual couple or an openly transgender person walked into their church on a Sunday morning. What would we say? How would we act? How do we protect the emotional well-being of both our visitors and our regular attenders?
The first thing to say is that everybody who attends a church worship meeting, and who comes to participate and not to disrupt, is welcome. The second thing to say is we will not compromise Biblical truth. We need to find a way to be faithful to both these principles. Let us start, as we always should, with our Lord. Jesus was and is a friend of sinners (Matthew 11v19). He told us that:
Luke 19v10
"the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."
The apostle Paul told us:
1 Timothy 1v15
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners — of whom I am the worst.
So we, who are the disciples of Jesus Christ, must also be the friends of sinners, we must seek the lost that they might be saved. So long as they come to seek God, and not to disrupt, we must welcome them positively and warmly, not merely tolerate them. But Jesus would always speak the truth, including the truth that God requires everybody to conform to Biblical ethics, and will judge those who do not.
Anybody who rejects God's ethical teaching is a sinner. And sinners are welcome in church. It is vitally important for us to remember that we all sin. So who are we to refuse friendship to anybody who is genuinely seeking God?
1 John 1v8
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in
us.
If we don't welcome sinners, how can we help them?
James 5v20
... remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save
him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.
A good pastor will find time to speak to anybody whose life choices are contrary to scripture, and explain all of this, asking them to be sensitive to the other people present, who have repented of some of the more obvious sins, and to act accordingly. He will also speak to the regular attenders, reminding them to love their neighbours, including those whose life choices are immoral and harmful, in the hope of leading them to Christ.
It is with some reluctance that I must mention a third category of person. We've thought about Bible-believing Christians and about people who have not yet found repentance and life-changing faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. I now turn to those people who claim to be Christians but who continue to indulge in gross sin, and perhaps even teach that gross sin is not sin. I must remind us of two scriptures.
Writing about a church member who persisted in gross sin, Paul instructed the church in Corinth:
1 Corinthians 5v4-5
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.
When speaking about those who would bring false teaching to the church:
Luke v1-3
... Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to stumble are
bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come.
It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied
around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.
So watch yourselves.
Perhaps I can summarise all this by saying that: we should teach Biblical truth, including unpopular Biblical truth; we should discipline - sometimes with expulsion - those who claim to be Christians but who choose to live in denial of Biblical ethics; and we should love all those who are still without saving faith. Please consider:
1 Corinthians 5v9-11a
I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.
I was not including the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and
swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.
But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a
brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a verbal
abuser, a drunkard or a swindler.
Luke 15v1-6
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus.
But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes
sinners and eats with them."
Then Jesus told them this parable:
"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he
leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until
he finds it?
And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders
and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says,
'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.'
May we work together to maintain the purity of the church, while reaching out in love to those who have not yet found Jesus.