ON LOVE IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

 

Within the Christian Church many things are being permitted in the name of love which are clearly contrary to the will of God as revealed through the teaching of the Bible. Since we prefer tolerance to correction we allow:

 

·        Divorced couples to remarry

·        Practicing homosexuals to marry and to even hold positions of oversight over believers

 

We prefer to define love as an obligation to accept all people, regardless of who they are or what they believe, with a non-critical and non-confrontational attitude. We are taught to accept human frailty without acknowledging God’s power to heal and so condemn those we accept never to face the necessity to repent and be forgiven of what we are allowing. We use arguments like:

 

·        God is a forgiving and merciful God, He would not want a divorced person to be alone all their lives but would permit them to marry again even though their divorced spouse(s) is (were) still alive

·        The Biblical injunctions against homosexuality are cultural, meaning that in our culture today it is an acceptable way of life and should in no way impact on a practicing homosexual’s ability to minister within the Church or even to marry

 

In accepting this weakened definition of love we do not allow people the pain that would normally draw them to God, we are more concerned with their present well being than with their eternal condition. Of what worth, though, is one or two decades of worldly joy if at the end there is nothing to face but the fire of God’s judgement. The apostle Paul, who above all had the chance to allow people to carry on with their lives, had this to say:

 

Romans 8:16-18 – The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, also heirs; truly heirs of God, and joint-heirs of Christ, if indeed we suffer together, that we may also be glorified together. For I calculate that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to compare to the coming glory to be revealed in us.

 

It is the witness of the Spirit with our own that Paul views as of higher importance than whatever suffering may take place in our lives on earth for this witness is the confirmation that the glory that Jesus promised to His disciples is ours as well.