It's no secret that there is a constant battle among Christians about
whether accepting sinners or correcting them should be our predominant
focus. So many of us go to great lengths to love the unsaved, treading
lightly, making sure they are not offended by our beliefs. Others of us
make sure the unsaved know that their actions are wrong from first
contact regardless of their response. The Lord makes clear in a very short verse in Hebrews what our
attitude should be in order to show the glory of God. And isn't that
what we're trying to accomplish in the first place?
Hebrews 12: 4 "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:"
According
to this Scripture, we are to be at peace with all men, and, at the
same time, be holy so that these men we are at peace with will see the
Lord in our lives. So the answer is, neither camp is wholly correct. We
are to both be at peace with the unsaved and show them the glory of the Lord through
holiness which the Lord has accomplished in us.
"Follow" could also mean pursuing peace making this an active effort.
I Peter 2:17 Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
Rom. 12: 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.
These
verses make it clear that as far as we are concerned, we are to honor all men. All men are created by God
in His image, and while they are not your spiritual brother/sister as of
yet, this doesn't mean that you shouldn't treat them with respect for
who they are and their opinions no matter how contrary they are to
Christianity. In Romans, we see that sometimes the unsaved will choose
to not be at peace with us. A lot of times, people have a fear of or
hatred for God. When you bring your love for the Lord to them, you bring
that to light too often for them to be comfortable. Why should we
expect anything else from an unsaved person (John 15: 18-19)? Isn't their eternal
destination much more important than our momentary hurt feelings from
rejection? We see this in our government passing laws that
directly oppose Biblical principles, and punishing Christians for
adhering to Biblical principles as being "intolerant." What do we expect a sinner to do?
Sometimes people say they have a restored faith in humanity. What faith
should we have in humanity? The Bible tells us we are all deceitfully
wicked (Jer.17:9) so why should we expect behavior contrary to that?
Now
the basics. Holiness- the part so many of us leave out when we embrace philanthropy. Holiness is achieved by the Holy Spirit in our
lives through sanctification and this takes time and constant effort.
Hebrews 12:1 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so
great a cloud of witnesses, let
us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and
let us run with endurance the race that is set before us"The Lord
clearly states to be holy, for He is holy. We have to choose to allow
God to point out our sin, and we must repent in our desire to turn
completely away from that sin. We must be willing to allow the Lord to
lead us out of temptation, because He has said He will always provide a
way out. If we don't become like Christ, we can't glorify Him, simply put.
What about Jesus' example in all of this?
Matthew 21:12-13
And
Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and
bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and
the seats of them that sold doves,
And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
First
observation- Jesus didn't pick on the individual. His anger was never
focused on any one individual. It was focused on the sin going on in the
place. When we are angry, we usually take it out on an individual
because our anger is based on selfishness. Someone is irritating us,
putting us down, taking away from us. Fact of the matter is that sinful
anger is selfish. Second, He is God and this was His house. We can't
compare us throwing people out of a church because they're doing wrong
because we are not almighty, sovereign God. It was His house and only He
had the authority to throw people out. The whole culture had defamed
His house and He was concerned that it diminished the glory of His
Father and Himself. His anger was focused on the glory of God. Jesus was
also harsh on the Pharisees calling them hypocrites, etc. several
times. However, he didn't exclude them from his teaching groups even
though he knew they were there just to criticize and find fault. Also,
Pharisees usually started the conversation with a controversial
statement, so the Lord answered. He never went seeking a fight with
them, although He did provide instruction to the people on why they were
not suitable spiritual leaders.
On the other hand, the Lord showed great care for tax
collectors and adulteresses entrenched in sin and met their imminent
needs. With the adulteress about to be stoned, he protected her from
certain death even though it was clear she was guilty. Once she realized He had cared enough for her to protect her in spite of her sin, her life was changed
because God applied His holiness to the situation and told her to sin no
more (See John 8:3-11). But to get her to listen in the first place, He
had to meet her imminent need of protection. Many judged lepers as
being punished for sin with their disease, but the Lord healed them
meeting their physical needs. Only one leper came back to thank God for
what He had done. In the same way, just because we love and help to meet
needs does not mean that they will instantly give their life to the
Lord, but a seed has been planted. The Lord cared about that one leper
who trusted in Him (Luke 17:12-19).
However,
what you don't see is Jesus accepting the sin in the life of the unsaved. The Lord made the relationship with the purpose of
leading them to Himself and His power. This is the point of our
relationships with the unsaved- the Bible states clearly that we are not to be
close friends or spouses with the unsaved (Prov.24:1, 2 Cor. 6:14), but we are to be at peace
with them. The point of our existence is to glorify God. If that is
truly the desire of our heart, the unsaved will see the difference and
will become curious eventually. Even if they don't, it will come up in
conversation at some point. Even if that person avoids you from now on,
the seed has been planted and God will do the work in his/her heart.
Holiness is of vital important because without it, there is no difference for the unsaved to see- sometimes when all we do is accept them so well that we support their sin, they see no need to change. Instead of pro-life beliefs with exclusions such as incest and rape, we should compassionately educate the young lady on the realities of what abortion is, and share the gospel with her so the Lord can change her mind and heart. Instead of shunning our homosexual family member, we should explain to them the importance of Biblical marriage in light of the gospel and let God change the heart. Remember, the goal of a relationship with the unsaved is to glorify the Lord through sharing the gospel (Mark 16:15). Simply put, when we are at peace with others, our holiness has a foundation
because not only can the unsaved see the difference, they realize that
the difference is the reason you are willing to be at peace with them.
