He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?'...You will surely not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. And the eyes of both were opened...
Genesis 3:1, 4-7
The first lie that the Serpent, who is Satan the father of lies (see Revelation 12:9, 20:2; John 8:44), ever told a human being about God is that God can't be trusted. Whereas before the serpent spoke, man and woman woke up each morning with the reality that God was sovereignly good and that He cared for and loved them, the serpent implants into the woman's mind the idea that God wasn't as good as she originally thought. The woman's sin and the man's subsequent sin is NOT the serpent's fault. But it certainly is his voice that they're listening to when they rebel into unbelief. Further, it should be noted that they never stopped believing in God or in His power--they believed in Him enough that when He comes back around the garden, they're hiding because a) they know He's there (He exists), and b) they know that He can deal with them accordingly as He sees fit (He's powerful). Their struggle is with whether or not He's actually good. It's easy to believe He's real and powerful, but it's apparently much more difficult to believe He's good.
Why is it so easy for Eve to believe that God is not so good as to speak truly when He says not to eat from the tree? Why is it that His Word (don't eat from the tree, you'll die) seems to pale in comparison to the serpent's words (you'll not die--God just doesn't want you to be like Him)? Man has always had an innate desire for understanding and wisdom--but before, he never doubted that God would give it to him in the right time. The serpent speaks and tells man that what they want, God won't give...so go get it! Man's trust in God's goodness is now on it's head--in that moment, man begins to view God from man's own perspective, and he begins to trust in his own understanding instead of in God's goodness and love and HIS understanding (see Proverbs 3:5-6, 1 Corinthians 1:22-25). It's the very nature of desire that was born in that moment. Before, Adam and Eve hadn't wanted anything. They had everything. But the seed is implanted that maybe there's more than this. If man feels that there's more than this, he'll invariably reach out and attempt to secure it, not trusting God has given him all he needs and will continue to.
It's easy for us to understand where Adam and Eve are coming from because now we operate from our own perspective. Before the Fall, humans didn't have perspective. And it was better this way! How could that be? you may ask. Before and after, God was the Judge. But BEFORE, humans not only knew and accepted this, but this was all they knew, so the idea of anything different wasn't even a thought; and now, AFTER, humans only operate from a singular perspective of 'my mind-->this world'. Since we only know sin and corruption (see Genesis 6:5, 12; 8:21; Psalm 14, 53), God is only understood through that lens as well. Of course, most of us wouldn't admit that we struggle with trusting God's goodness in His sovereignty--but the shadows prove it clearly if you look closely enough: Anxiety and worry in general; fear of...ANYTHING, etc. We know we struggle with things like this and that we shouldn't, but instead of throwing ourselves on God's grace in Christ and accepting the gift, we remain hostile towards Him for setting the bar so high that we can't seem to reach it ourselves (Romans 8:7, 1 Cor. 1:14).
Let's probe deeper: Man's constant railing against the truly and clearly Biblical doctrines of God's sovereignty over salvation. If man's hostility is ever shown truly for what it is, it's in this area. It's in the idea that God "chooses", "forces", and "keeps". The only reason man rails against this is because culture defines 'choosing' and 'forcing' and so man projects those understandings on God. And Christians hate the idea of 'keeping' because they constantly feel the need to have to work for it (get to that in a minute).
What we fail to remember is that "no one is righteous, not even one...no one seeks for God" and "the intentions of man's heart is only evil continually" (see passages is previous paragraph). If God doesn't call me and give me the faith to choose to follow Him, I'll never come to Him in the first place. Why? Because I'm evil.
It's only within an understanding of and acceptance of this that God's choosing, forcing, and keeping are seen as delights instead of burdens:
--choosing means that He's calling a remnant back to Himself in grace (notice Romans 8-9 is all about His sovereignty over salvation, and 10 says 'all who call on the Name of the Lord will be saved'. The point?--even though God's sovereign from HIS perspective, from our perspective, ANYONE can call on Him and be saved; as Packer has said, these ideas are not at odds, or else Scripture wouldn't contain them, let alone side-by-side)
--forcing doesn't mean 'forcing' in the traditional sense, where He drags me kicking and screaming, against my will; rather, when He calls me my situation is in such a way that I'm forced to ask the question "what other option is there, and why would I want it?", and it's because God's called "at just the right time". Therefore, God is getting me, THROUGH His calling and my choosing (sovereign the whole way).
--keeping means that I continually am brought to the place where I'm force to ask again "what other option is there?..." Better yet, Peter's words, "Where else are we going to go--you have the words of eternal life! And we've come to believe that you are the Holy One of God" (to which Jesus interestingly replies, "Did I not choose you?").
But since man will continually operate from his own perspective (which is tainted because of the Fall), he will continually think the idea of God calling, choosing, forcing, keeping, etc. is unfair. And this is because man knows that if he himself were to be doing the calling and choosing, it would be unfair. But God is not like man. "For my ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts, for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and thoughts higher than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9).
In fact, Scripture tells us a lot about God's transcendent character over us:
Deuteronomy 32:39--"See now that I, even I, am he, and there's no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand."
1 Chronicles 29:10-12--"Blessed are you God forever; yours is the greatness and power and glory and victory and majesty, for all that is in the heavens and earth are yours...In your hand is power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and give strength to all."
Job 34:10--"Far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong" (see Gen. 18:25--'shall the Judge of the earth do what is just?', and also Romans 3:5-6, where Paul says in effect "is there injustice on God's part? By no means, for then how could He judge the world?!" It's God's very NATURE to be perfect and righteous and holy--he could never be wrong, or else He wouldn't be God).
Daniel 4:34-35--"His dominion is everlasting, and all the earth's inhabitants are counted as nothing, and He does according to His will in the counsel of heaven...and none can stay his hand or say 'what have you done?'"
We could continue on for a while, but the point is this: God absolutely transcends humanity--your sense of justice and fairness is nothing compared to His. At the Fall humanity changed, but God didn't.
So when He decrees that "one day" He'll send a Savior/Messiah/Servant who will be the new and better Adam but will be without sin (see Romans 5)...who, instead of using his freedom for personal gain and doubt of God's goodness, and will cling with all he has to the fact that God is good and his own life is a gift from God, and will live with such a complete surrender to God's will that he will be murdered on a cross to atone for the sins of the many whom God is going to save...when God says this will happen, God has one objective in mind: To restore that which was lost in the Fall. Back then, God was the Law, and man was a man subject to God. At the Fall, man became his own law, and God became a defendant "pleading his case" before man the judge.
Of course, this was never the reality--it was a delusion in man's mind. God was always judge, but man though he was. But in Christ, God would put an end to the delusion, by putting an end to sin and rebellion and corruption, and draw many back to Himself. The 'many' would not think about and consider God from their own perspective anymore, but from Christ's perspective. Whereas it's delusional to trust a serpent's words over the Words of the God who is the Creator, now they're learning more to listen to God's voice first, because they're coming to Him through Christ, since He came to them through Christ.
I can't work for this. Instead I trust that God's coming to me through the Word of Christ, in sovereign power and grace, has done all that's necessary. The whole paradigm changes to that which it was in the garden pre-Fall. God is my reality, and I trust that even in this chair I sit in, at this desk, I'm accepted and saved by God, because of Christ. Of course, I want to give all I have to Him and for Him, and I will--but it doesn't save me. Rather, Christ saves me. And I trust that this is all that's needed for me to be a child of God. In this, that which was lost is restored--the serpent still slithers around speaking words of doubt (or rather, "prowls around" like Peter says), but even if there are times I do give in to listening, I'm always and consistently drawn back to the God who has saved me, because Christ clings me to Himself, as I cling myself to Him (see Jude 21, 24).
Christians hate the idea of God keeping Christians Christians. But they don't understand the differences between the covenants in Scripture--in the garden, man could listen to the serpent and COMPLETELY lose his innocence (and he did). In the covenant with Israel, man's whole duty was to keep the commandments and pull his self to God (which never worked, because they always fell away). But in this present covenant, if it's a real conversion, I will persistently and consistently be drawn back to God, by grace (like it was in the first place). If I'm a true child of God, I will be saved "from all my sinful backslidings" (Ezekiel 37:23). Man doesn't want to accept this, because he wants to be a law to himself still--he still wants to work for his salvation and thinks others should, too (since HE-or she-has to). But those that are in Christ rejoice and delight in the fact that a) God called me, b) God empowered me, and c) God keeps calling me and empowering me. If I'm in sin, I'm convicted (either by the Spirit in me or by the Spirit in others) and I repent, and this is God's way of sanctifying me.
If I'm alone, I'll fall away. But I'm not alone--Christ is in me. "It's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me".
Perhaps the best Scripture that speaks to this is Philippians 2:12-13: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." From where I'm sitting, I work it out by consistently surrendering and seeking the Lord. But Scripture is God's Word from God's perspective, and He's telling me that He's working in me.
So as regards being a saved child of God, who am I to trust? The serpent? Myself? Or God? The serpent will tell me God can't be trusted. I'll tell me I'm the only one who can be trusted. But God will tell me the truth--the serpent is a liar, and I'm evil, "so trust ME because I'm the only One who can be trusted". And since He has a proven record eternity long, I'll gladly do that. What about you? Who are YOU a child of?
Scott Stine - PhD, Pastor of First Baptist, Newton NJ. Follower of Jesus; husband, daddy, too distracted by basketball.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Love and Christianity
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22:36-40
The common theme in these recent times is for Christians to throw up "Love your neighbor" as that which is the most important command in all of Christianity. Because of the recent argument amongst people in the new public forum which is Facebook (the 21st century Aeoropageus), Christians who don't know their Bibles very well and know God less are "tossed to and fro by the waves and every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes" (Eph. 4:14), showing that their faith truly lies in what seems right to the culture and what keeps the most amount of people happy. They forget passages such as Proverbs 14:12 ("There is a way that seems right to man, and its end is always death"), Genesis 8:21 ("The intention of man's heart is evil from his youth"), and Psalm 14:2-3 ("The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one"). In all honesty, they didn't forget these passages. They never accepted them to begin with.
In this they fail to consider the very nature of the Gospel of Jesus Christ--since all people are sinful (see aforementioned passages, specifically Ps 14), beyond repair in and of themselves, with evil intent, headed towards death, and hostile to God (see Romans 8:7), the only way that anyone could be saved is if help from outside comes. That help has to come from God Himself; the Christian is supposed to know this, that if they call their self a Christian, it's because they believe that since "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15), He has saved ME from my sin and from this world. This means that whatever my leanings and whatever thoughts I have, I take my own understanding with a grain of salt, because I know that my heart is inherently evil and I don't know HOW to think. I throw myself entirely on Christ, because apart form Him, I have nothing and I know nothing. "Lean not on your understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him."
This means that when I come to the Bible, I don't put it up next to my own understanding, tainted by the world, as though I'm the judge and the Bible is pleading for my approval. Rather, I believe God's Word is eternal (Ps 119:89), and that I'M the one who sits naked and exposed before it as it "discerns the thoughts and intentions of my heart" knowing that "no creature is hidden from his sight" (Hebrews 4:12-13). This means that I recognize the Bible is true before I begin thinking about it--if something doesn't make sense, it's not because it's not true or trustworthy. It's because I don't know how to think and consider things rationally...I'm driven by my own hunger for sin. Earning for myself the knowledge of good and evil, I've earned "evil intentions of my thoughts...continually" (Gen. 6:5). I understand this when I come to Scripture.
Instead, the world's population thinks that they are a law to themselves, and God and His Word have to stand account before them. But in reality, according to the Bible, WE have to stand account before IT. This means that just because someone struggles with a particular sin, that doesn't mean the Biblical message isn't true--and it certainly doesn't mean that it has some sort of alternative meaning. It means that whereas there are some imperatives in the Book of Leviticus ("Don't do this...") that we can understand the New Covenant as bringing us out from under, there are declaratives in Leviticus that still have to be observed, regardless of what Covenant ("Don't do this...it's an abomination").
This also means that just because someone struggles with a sin, that doesn't mean God created them that way--by no means! How could God call something an abomination, and then create someone SO THAT they will do that thing? If He did create them to do this, He's God, and we have to trust that He knows best and will judge best according to His holiness and goodness (see Genesis 18:25b). But He didn't. The far more Biblical possibility is that since man is fallen in his sin, one is raised by parents who are fallen and are imperfect, around a culture that is fallen and imperfect, is exposed to fallen and imperfect images at too young an age, is possibly tempted with enticements that go contrary to nature but in-step with culture, and since he wants to justify himself and have a sense of entitlement, he'll begin to believe certain things about himself until they become his reality. Sin isn't always as simple as "a choice"--sometimes it's a series of choices and based on faulty reasoning until I'm enslaved more than I was in the first place.
"Because the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth," and who says this? The God of the Bible who created them and has created all people since the beginning of time. And since so-called Christians don't understand the nature of human sin (man thinks he's the judge) because they don't understand the nature of the Gospel (GOD is the judge, and man needs a Savior from himself), they'll be content to believe that someone's struggles with sin are God-given, and therefore isn't really sin. Therefore, the "loving" thing to do is accept things the way they are, because there isn't really anything wrong. "Wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of death?!"
But there are some Christians who do believe in the power of sin, and they don't condone something if it's sin. So they throw up the blanket statement, "Jesus commands us to love our neighbors" and stop right there. They'll never have an honest and humble conversation with one who is in sin, because they think "loving" them means letting them drown in their sin without AT LEAST letting it be known that the two don't share the same conviction (or lack thereof). "Love your neighbor as yourself" as though THIS is the greatest command. But Jesus didn't say that, did He? He said the GREATEST command is to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength"...and a SECOND one is like it, "Love your neighbor as yourself." The GREATEST two commands are these two, but the greatest OF these two is for a person to love God with everything that they have. Secondly, love your neighbor as yourself. (You may argue that Paul said in Galatians 5:14 that the Law hangs on "love your neighbor as yourself", but the context of the rest of the chapter is how Christ has set us free from bondage to the Law's slavery...clearly he means that since we love God with our hearts which are full of His Spirit, now we CAN love our neighbor as ourselves).
My concern is that many of the "Christians" who yell and shout "Love your neighbor! Love your neighbor!" as though that's everything there is are yelling and shouting from a heart that doesn't really love God with even PARTS of their heart, soul, mind, or strength, let alone "ALL your heart...". Remember Jesus' words, "Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks."
How do you show whether or not you actually love God? It's simple, because Jesus answers it for us in the passage--"On these commands depend all the Law and Prophets." Here's the question: Do you love God enough to uphold the Law and Prophets, the Scriptures? Do you believe that the Bible is true enough that no matter what direction the culture is going in, the Bible is true, because it's eternal and perfect, and our understanding is neither? Do you love God enough to come honestly up under His Word and say "Have mercy on me a sinner!", instead of "Well, surely we won't die...God just doesn't want us to be like Him."
If you remember, Paul said in Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern the will of God is..." What is 'this world'? The place where Satan the Serpent reigns, enticing people into thinking God's a liar until they agree with him, so that eventually they think "truth" is defined by what seems best at any given moment TO US, the people. Why does Paul say not to be conformed to this? Because of what Proverb 14 said--it seems right, but it is death. YOU ARE DYING SLOWLY BUT SURELY IF YOU LISTEN TO YOUR HEART AND THE VOICE OF THE SERPENT THROUGH THE PATTERN OF THIS WORLD.
And my concern is that the aforementioned 'Christians' are proving how little they actually believe in God or His Word, by showing that they really actually believe in the overall goodness of people enough to question the validity of the Word that is eternal. Friends, Jesus, the eternal Word of God (John 1:1) is asking you 2 simple questions: "Who do you say that I am?" (Matt 16:15), and "Do you love me?" (John 21:17). You can't love your neighbor truly without first loving your heavenly Father--if you try to, you'll be more influenced by your neighbor than you are by the Father (see Matt 6:24 and John 8:34). "Who do you say that I am?" If He's the Christ, then you and I need saved, and being saved, we must cling to Christ from first to last...that's the nature of the Gospel: Christ came to save sinners. But if you think sin doesn't play a part in people's opinions and convictions, including your own, the Gospel will never be good news to you, because you don't think you need saved. We must answer "Do you love me?" with "Yes Lord, you know I love you" in honesty, because we believed we've been saved, redeemed, reborn of imperishable seed, and "it's no longer (we) who live, but Christ in (us)."
Then and only then can we speak with authority about God's revealed Word in Scripture. Otherwise, we're the lukewarm who Christ has promised to spit out of His mouth. Let your statements and comments and arguments and debates be made 100% of the time underneath the checking of the Holy Spirit's "Who do you say I am?" Christians, do you even love Jesus? If you do, you will love the sinner...but not so much that you sacrifice the truth and validity of God's Word to accommodate the acceptance of their lifestyle. The fact that you have Christ will always keep you humble, and they'll see it, even if they call you bigots. But you will always stand firm on Christ. Who do you say that He is? Because who you say HE is will inform who you say YOU are who you say OTHERS are. Christians, get honest, and stop accepting sin at the expense of rebuking your brothers and sisters in Christ--that is, IF you're even in Christ. Meditate on 2 Corinthians 13:5.
Matthew 22:36-40
The common theme in these recent times is for Christians to throw up "Love your neighbor" as that which is the most important command in all of Christianity. Because of the recent argument amongst people in the new public forum which is Facebook (the 21st century Aeoropageus), Christians who don't know their Bibles very well and know God less are "tossed to and fro by the waves and every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes" (Eph. 4:14), showing that their faith truly lies in what seems right to the culture and what keeps the most amount of people happy. They forget passages such as Proverbs 14:12 ("There is a way that seems right to man, and its end is always death"), Genesis 8:21 ("The intention of man's heart is evil from his youth"), and Psalm 14:2-3 ("The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one"). In all honesty, they didn't forget these passages. They never accepted them to begin with.
In this they fail to consider the very nature of the Gospel of Jesus Christ--since all people are sinful (see aforementioned passages, specifically Ps 14), beyond repair in and of themselves, with evil intent, headed towards death, and hostile to God (see Romans 8:7), the only way that anyone could be saved is if help from outside comes. That help has to come from God Himself; the Christian is supposed to know this, that if they call their self a Christian, it's because they believe that since "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15), He has saved ME from my sin and from this world. This means that whatever my leanings and whatever thoughts I have, I take my own understanding with a grain of salt, because I know that my heart is inherently evil and I don't know HOW to think. I throw myself entirely on Christ, because apart form Him, I have nothing and I know nothing. "Lean not on your understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him."
This means that when I come to the Bible, I don't put it up next to my own understanding, tainted by the world, as though I'm the judge and the Bible is pleading for my approval. Rather, I believe God's Word is eternal (Ps 119:89), and that I'M the one who sits naked and exposed before it as it "discerns the thoughts and intentions of my heart" knowing that "no creature is hidden from his sight" (Hebrews 4:12-13). This means that I recognize the Bible is true before I begin thinking about it--if something doesn't make sense, it's not because it's not true or trustworthy. It's because I don't know how to think and consider things rationally...I'm driven by my own hunger for sin. Earning for myself the knowledge of good and evil, I've earned "evil intentions of my thoughts...continually" (Gen. 6:5). I understand this when I come to Scripture.
Instead, the world's population thinks that they are a law to themselves, and God and His Word have to stand account before them. But in reality, according to the Bible, WE have to stand account before IT. This means that just because someone struggles with a particular sin, that doesn't mean the Biblical message isn't true--and it certainly doesn't mean that it has some sort of alternative meaning. It means that whereas there are some imperatives in the Book of Leviticus ("Don't do this...") that we can understand the New Covenant as bringing us out from under, there are declaratives in Leviticus that still have to be observed, regardless of what Covenant ("Don't do this...it's an abomination").
This also means that just because someone struggles with a sin, that doesn't mean God created them that way--by no means! How could God call something an abomination, and then create someone SO THAT they will do that thing? If He did create them to do this, He's God, and we have to trust that He knows best and will judge best according to His holiness and goodness (see Genesis 18:25b). But He didn't. The far more Biblical possibility is that since man is fallen in his sin, one is raised by parents who are fallen and are imperfect, around a culture that is fallen and imperfect, is exposed to fallen and imperfect images at too young an age, is possibly tempted with enticements that go contrary to nature but in-step with culture, and since he wants to justify himself and have a sense of entitlement, he'll begin to believe certain things about himself until they become his reality. Sin isn't always as simple as "a choice"--sometimes it's a series of choices and based on faulty reasoning until I'm enslaved more than I was in the first place.
"Because the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth," and who says this? The God of the Bible who created them and has created all people since the beginning of time. And since so-called Christians don't understand the nature of human sin (man thinks he's the judge) because they don't understand the nature of the Gospel (GOD is the judge, and man needs a Savior from himself), they'll be content to believe that someone's struggles with sin are God-given, and therefore isn't really sin. Therefore, the "loving" thing to do is accept things the way they are, because there isn't really anything wrong. "Wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of death?!"
But there are some Christians who do believe in the power of sin, and they don't condone something if it's sin. So they throw up the blanket statement, "Jesus commands us to love our neighbors" and stop right there. They'll never have an honest and humble conversation with one who is in sin, because they think "loving" them means letting them drown in their sin without AT LEAST letting it be known that the two don't share the same conviction (or lack thereof). "Love your neighbor as yourself" as though THIS is the greatest command. But Jesus didn't say that, did He? He said the GREATEST command is to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength"...and a SECOND one is like it, "Love your neighbor as yourself." The GREATEST two commands are these two, but the greatest OF these two is for a person to love God with everything that they have. Secondly, love your neighbor as yourself. (You may argue that Paul said in Galatians 5:14 that the Law hangs on "love your neighbor as yourself", but the context of the rest of the chapter is how Christ has set us free from bondage to the Law's slavery...clearly he means that since we love God with our hearts which are full of His Spirit, now we CAN love our neighbor as ourselves).
My concern is that many of the "Christians" who yell and shout "Love your neighbor! Love your neighbor!" as though that's everything there is are yelling and shouting from a heart that doesn't really love God with even PARTS of their heart, soul, mind, or strength, let alone "ALL your heart...". Remember Jesus' words, "Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks."
How do you show whether or not you actually love God? It's simple, because Jesus answers it for us in the passage--"On these commands depend all the Law and Prophets." Here's the question: Do you love God enough to uphold the Law and Prophets, the Scriptures? Do you believe that the Bible is true enough that no matter what direction the culture is going in, the Bible is true, because it's eternal and perfect, and our understanding is neither? Do you love God enough to come honestly up under His Word and say "Have mercy on me a sinner!", instead of "Well, surely we won't die...God just doesn't want us to be like Him."
If you remember, Paul said in Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern the will of God is..." What is 'this world'? The place where Satan the Serpent reigns, enticing people into thinking God's a liar until they agree with him, so that eventually they think "truth" is defined by what seems best at any given moment TO US, the people. Why does Paul say not to be conformed to this? Because of what Proverb 14 said--it seems right, but it is death. YOU ARE DYING SLOWLY BUT SURELY IF YOU LISTEN TO YOUR HEART AND THE VOICE OF THE SERPENT THROUGH THE PATTERN OF THIS WORLD.
And my concern is that the aforementioned 'Christians' are proving how little they actually believe in God or His Word, by showing that they really actually believe in the overall goodness of people enough to question the validity of the Word that is eternal. Friends, Jesus, the eternal Word of God (John 1:1) is asking you 2 simple questions: "Who do you say that I am?" (Matt 16:15), and "Do you love me?" (John 21:17). You can't love your neighbor truly without first loving your heavenly Father--if you try to, you'll be more influenced by your neighbor than you are by the Father (see Matt 6:24 and John 8:34). "Who do you say that I am?" If He's the Christ, then you and I need saved, and being saved, we must cling to Christ from first to last...that's the nature of the Gospel: Christ came to save sinners. But if you think sin doesn't play a part in people's opinions and convictions, including your own, the Gospel will never be good news to you, because you don't think you need saved. We must answer "Do you love me?" with "Yes Lord, you know I love you" in honesty, because we believed we've been saved, redeemed, reborn of imperishable seed, and "it's no longer (we) who live, but Christ in (us)."
Then and only then can we speak with authority about God's revealed Word in Scripture. Otherwise, we're the lukewarm who Christ has promised to spit out of His mouth. Let your statements and comments and arguments and debates be made 100% of the time underneath the checking of the Holy Spirit's "Who do you say I am?" Christians, do you even love Jesus? If you do, you will love the sinner...but not so much that you sacrifice the truth and validity of God's Word to accommodate the acceptance of their lifestyle. The fact that you have Christ will always keep you humble, and they'll see it, even if they call you bigots. But you will always stand firm on Christ. Who do you say that He is? Because who you say HE is will inform who you say YOU are who you say OTHERS are. Christians, get honest, and stop accepting sin at the expense of rebuking your brothers and sisters in Christ--that is, IF you're even in Christ. Meditate on 2 Corinthians 13:5.
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