There’s been a lot of conversation of late on winsomeness, and how to interact with the lost in light of the demise of Roe v. Wade. The Gospel Coalition published a piece on how to look at those seeking abortions with compassion. Others have encouraged muted celebrations of the court’s decision. All of which is grounded in a PR perspective that is bad for us, for Jesus and for those outside the kingdom.
Consider the root of the abortion issue. A judgment of charity suggests that Christians at least believe abortion is morally wrong. And that they are willing to say so. Abortion, however, more often than not, becomes an issue because of adultery and fornication. One would be hard pressed, based on current standards, to affirm that Christians believe adultery and fornication are wrong. Long before we had the phenomenon of celebrity evangelicals jumping on the LGBTQ bandwagon we had evangelical churches welcoming into church membership couples that were shacking up. I don’t know the statistics but chances are, if there is an evangelical church in your town with over 500 members that it has such couples on its rolls and those in leadership know it.
The sexual revolution has led us to the place where the world believes anything goes. And the church somehow thinks that evangelizing such people means keeping quiet about these sins. We don’t want to look judge-y. So we hide from the lost the obvious, biblical truth that God Himself is judge-y. We become His handlers, smoothing those rough edges away. The result begins when we start sleeping around. We start believing our own spin. And bring God’s judgment on ourselves. We also make Jesus look like a fool. He, after all, promises God’s judgment comes on those who practice such things.
And we lead the blind right into the pit. God’s law on sexual morality isn’t some uptight, stingy, because He’s mean and hates us thing. It reflects who He is, and who we are, as we are made in His image. The problem with sex outside the marriage bond is not that your reputation might be damaged, you might get an STD, you might get pregnant, you might be tempted to kill your unborn child. The problem is you are having sex outside of marriage, harming, immediately, everyone involved and many who are not. Which is precisely what everyone needs to know.
The notion that we mustn’t speak against sex outside of marriage because if we do unbelievers won’t come to church is answered thus- if we don’t speak the whole counsel of God, including those parts the world finds preposterous, there is no reason for the unbeliever to be there. There is no more important message for the unbeliever to hear than “You are under God’s wrath for your sins.” There is no place you are more likely to hit on an actual sin than sex outside of marriage. They need to know their guilt feelings are there because they are guilty. They need to know that they need the atoning death of Jesus. They need to know that when we confess and turn from our sin, we are embraced by our loving Father. They need to know there is a better way.
If we tell the truth from the pulpit, people will get mad. If we do not, people will go to hell. If we tell the truth from the pulpit, those gathering to worship will get mad. If we do not, the One we gather to worship will get mad. Tell the whole truth.