Monday, August 9, 2010

Tolerance and Worldly Preaching

I have to wonder sometimes if while entrenched in a culture that preaches tolerance, Christians let the world's greatest commandment-"thou shall not judge"-infiltrate our thinking without even knowing it. This idea that the church should not judge anyone on any matter lest we be accused of not being loving. Don't get me wrong, we do want to be loving in all that we do but love does not separate itself from discerning what is true and what is false (1 Corinthians 13:6), particularly when falsehood has crept into the church. I have seen this affect the way we deal with "preachers" who have dumb-downed the gospel and preaching. Many factors may contribute to this, including our low view of God's word and preaching, but I do think we have let tolerance take priority over the biblical command to stand firm on God's truth and oppose those who water it down by their methods and message. This must not be so...there is too much at stake (see Titus 1:9-16).

How would the preachers of old respond to what goes on in the church today? By comparison, we would probably look like cowards.

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