You don’t have to dig very deep to discover that our culture is not what it once was. Issues that seemed fringe and culturally impossible, now stare us in the face. It goes beyond transgender bathrooms to things like trans-species, where one man named Gary identifies as a puppy, to trans-ager, where a grown father of seven decided he identifies as a 6 yr old girl…and was adopted into another family as such. Then there’s a girl named Jewel who felt she identified as blind, so she mutilated herself to become blind…declaring herself trans-abled.
And of course, we have some Christians debating these issues on Facebook…often time using cracker-jack-box theology based on feeling and opinion, not necessarily on the whole of God’s Word.
So, the question is how do we approach these issues as biblical Christians? Some would argue for things like boycotts of Target over their bathroom policies. Personally, I’m not the boycott type and I don’t think it does much to fix the root of the issue, but I have no real problem with the boycott…as all Americans, Christians included, have a right to speak their mind. Yet, others argue that such things are not what Jesus would do, he would be inside Target reaching out to the employees and store in love. Yet, I have yet to experience any of them come up with a plan to do so. Just how are we going to show Target employee’s love? And, one social media argument held that in life, as Christians, we should only do what Jesus did and he never confronted sociopolitical issues. Well, in fact, Jesus challenged people, he was polarizing, he said you’re either with me or against me, he rebuked adultery, lying, cheating, dishonesty, he was bold. He was not some little wimp that ran around hugging everybody like the 1970’s low-budget Christian films portray. In addition, I want to say that we are not called to do exactly what Jesus did…well, next time you’re on a cruise, tell the waves to stop. And, at your church supper, make one little meal feed 5,000 people. Or, heal a blind man, leper, dead man…or make water to wine. Jesus was (and is) God the Son; we can’t do exactly what he did.
What we do is FOLLOW him…which is something much different than copying him. When we follow Jesus, we realize that God has made each of us as a special creation, one that celebrates our identity in Christ, we don’t have to change our identity or self-mutilate to try and discover what’s missing.
In order to follow Jesus, we need to read the entire context of Jesus’ ministry, not just the parts we like…or the parts that compliment our fears of actually standing for something. In fact, all throughout God’s Word we find God sending messengers to tell people to shape up! Jonah told Nineveh to repent, the prophets confronted, Moses took on Pharaoh head on, the apostles confronted sin and gave the solution!
God is holy and righteous…or he is not God at all. As such, he demands the righteousness of his creation. He’s provided a way, through love and grace, for our sin to be cleansed through the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the message we are to share, that God loves his creation, he desires to be in relationship with his creation, and there is only one-way for that to happen. The gospel.
