Trent Renner

I wrote in post 1 of this series, “It has hit the Christendom fan!”  This post is part 2 of a series and I’m not positive how many posts will be in this series.  So…let’s continue.

World Vision, a self declared Christian Ministry, after publicly coming out with a position saying that as a Christian Organization they have decided to leave the “theology” up to the Church and they are going to hire people who are openly living outside the guidelines of the Bible…2 days later reversed their decision back to its original stance!  I am grateful for their reversal, and yet concerned for what is happening in our country that tempted World Vision to make such a decision in the first place.

I tweeted the other day, “Christians in this PC society are facing intense pressure to love the sinner more than the Savior.” #DefilingGrace.

I want to be clear about something.  For the record… I love all people no matter who they are or what they are doing…but… NEVER-EVER more than I love Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord, Savior, and King of Kings.

In John 15:14, Jesus says, “If you love me, obey my commandments.”

One simply cannot love a sinner the same as the Savior.  According to Jesus, obedience to what someone says, is what demonstrates loyalty and love.  There must be a priority structure in who you love.  There must be a priority structure in who you are loyal to.  There must be a priority structure in who you obey.

So, this post is not about Christians spending time with unbelievers living in sin.  This post is about Christians accepting other people who call themselves Christian while openly living in the sins the Bible speaks of.  I am leaving my opinion out of this one.  I appeal to the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians Chapter 5 for evidence on this subject.  (I have included the last part of this short chapter below.  If you would like to read the whole chapter before moving on…click here…)

9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a (Christian) brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolateror slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. 12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”

This passage is clearly saying that as Christians we are to judge other Christians…hold each other accountable.  The bible talks about correcting, rebuking and pushing each other to finish the race to the finish line/Jesus/Heaven.  But…we should never judge the unbeliever.  As Christians…we are to judge each other.  Who told you that we shouldn’t judge?

 Q:  So after reading that Bible Passage…Do you think that Christians are supposed to Judge other people?  A:  We are not to judge unbelievers, but we ARE to judge each other as Christians.

The whole… “Christians should not judge is just not accurate.”   Here’s the deal.  If I just quote one Bible verse by itself, then it seems that Jesus says it’s totally wrong to judge someone.  Here is the verse…Matthew 7:1 and following…

7 :1“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. (There it is…Do not judge!  Right?)   But hold on…there is more…

2 For you will be treated as you treat others.  The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. 3 “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? 4 How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.

If you read that right…then it actually doesn’t say that it is wrong to judge.  It simply says you will be judged according to how you judge others.  It says, first get rid of the log/sin in your own life before you point out a fellow Christians.

It is clear that this passage is telling us how to judge correctly.  It is not saying it is wrong to judge!  Please understand this.  I know you don’t hear it in our Christian world today.  But we must get back to biblical accuracy on this issue.  There is a lot of teaching in our Christian Society that has been swayed by great and smooth arguments, but it is contrary to what the Bible teaches.  We are warned of this very “tweaking” in the Bible….Paul writes in Romans 16:17-18…

17 “And now I make one more appeal, my dear brothers and sisters. Watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people’s faith by teaching things contrary to what you have been taught. Stay away from them. 18 Such people are not serving Christ our Lord; they are serving their own personal interests. By smooth talk and glowing words they deceive innocent people.” 

I do not think teachers are purposeful in their ‘contrary’ teachings…I’m just really convinced that people have quit reading their Bibles and have substituted Bible reading with the popular opinion of man and other books.    And, by the way, when I say reading your Bibles…I mean reading them from the perspective of a Child reading it.  You and I should be able to read the Bible, away from our commentaries and other people’s opinions and make sense of it.   Jesus said, “If you don’t have faith like a child, you’re not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven.”   Read your Bible straight up…no bias….as if you were a child reading it for the very first time!  While reading it be asking 2 questions.  1. God what are you saying to me?  2.  God, what should I do about what I’m reading?

Back to point….

Again…for clarity… I think the Church (See Post 1 in this series for a clear understanding of what the Church is.) should be heavily involved with people who are living openly in sin…but holy-carefully.  Jesus was heavily involved with people who were living in sin.  In fact, Jesus hung out with so many people who were living in sin that He was accused by the religious people of being a drunkard and a glutton. 

If you are a Christian and you refuse to spend time and love people who are unbelievers and homosexual, greedy, drunkards, thieves, etc…then admit it, you are just not like Jesus.  He spent a lot of time with unbelievers who were living in sin.

But that is not the problem this blog post is trying to address.

THE BIG PROBLEM…

There is a serious problem with claiming to be a Christian, and openly/unrepentantly living in any sin that the Bible says is a sin.  If you are a Christian who is openly saying you are greedy, drunkard, glutton, homosexual and other sexual sin, addictions, false idol worship, foul mouthed, and the many other sins referred to in the scriptures…then for God’s sake, stop calling yourself a Christian and for your own sake…especially if you are in Christian leadership, get out of ministry leadership until you get yourself living holy again!  Please.  Jesus deserves better.  Please live like He commanded you to live.  He gave up His life and His blood for you to be forgiven and Holy.  If you are going to call yourself a follower of His and if you are going to say you love Him…then according to Him…you have to obey Him!

Read the following passage like a Child reading for the first time… Hebrews 10:26-27

26 “Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. 27 There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies.”

Ouch!  The only way out of that kind of sin…is full repentance and a desire to stop sinning.  After reading that passage…how could you or anyone actually believe its okay for somebody living in unrepentant sin to work in a Christian organization.

A scarier question…Can you be a Christian and be living in unrepentant sin?  The Bible is clear…no.

Your eternal security is wrapped up in REPENTANCE!  Without Repentance…you will spend eternity in Hell.  Stop trying to twist the scriptures to make you feel good about your unrepentant sin…it might make you feel better now…but your eternity is going to suck!  Jesus says, take up your cross and carry it!  Jesus says, “if you try to keep your life, you are going to lose it.”

Why would you want to keep your sin?  Why would you want to keep living in sin and the earthly pleasure it gives?  Come on!  You are better than that!  You deserve better than your sin!

This pressure to love the sinner more than the Savior is a serious problem.  There is a serious pressure to just accept the sin in your life as it is and that you can’t change it.  Have you been lulled into thinking, “If you can’t beat it, join it”?   The comments I received from Christians on my Facebook post, from people posting about how it should be okay for an openly sinning person to be in Christian leadership, took my breath away.  What has caused this alarming unbiblical opinion?  I think it is pure biblical ignorance.  I am fully convinced that most people rarely ever read the Bible anymore. 

If you read the Bible regularly….You would never say that Christians should be in Christian leadership and remain unrepentant about their sin.  I am convinced that too many Christians don’t even know that the Bible lists sins and warns us.  We should openly welcome such lists and warnings.  It’s a fair God that tells us to not sin and then gives us lists of the sins He is referring to.  If you haven’t studied what The Bible labels as sins…then then click any of the passages below to read them from the Bible.

Romans 1:18-32

Romans 13:9-13

1 Corinthians 5:11

1 Corinthians 6:9-20

2 Corinthians 12:20-21

Galatians 5:16-25

Ephesians 5:1-14

Colossians 3:1-11

James 3:14

1 Peter 4:3

2 Peter 2

If you read the above passages…remember…there is a difference between feeling guilty and feeling convicted.  If you are convicted by any of the sins mentioned in the Bible, then I ask you to trust this next Bible verse…

1 John 1:9 “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”

God is that Good!  All the time!

There is no doubt in my mind that we live in what the Bible calls the “End Times.”  Jesus may or may not return in my lifetime, but Jesus says we will be able to know by “reading” the signs of the times.  If you want to see what Jesus said about this, then read Matthew 24…just click here.    Here is another passage about Christianity in the end times.

2 Timothy 4:3 says, “For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will reject the truth and chase after myths.”

I say…if you are one who is openly saying that it is okay for people living in sin to be in Christian Leadership…the passage above is speaking of you.  Please repent, get back in your Bible and read it and stand for the truth of the Word of God again.

Part of the problem is that you might be guilty of buying into the lie that you are judging others if you stand for the truth.  Listen to what the verse just before the one you read above says about this… “Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.” 2 Timothy 4:2.

People, who like living in their sin, believe that to rebuke or correct someone is to be judgmental.   Not according to the Bible. Christians are commanded to patiently correct and rebuke and even judge…ONE ANOTHER.  I can’t be more clear about the ONE ANOTHER…and not the unbeliever.  By the way… we could rebuke and correct with more patience than we do.

My Goodness….if you are judging the unbeliever…and you are a Christian…STOP IT…you are living against God’s way.

Also…if you are going to judge your fellow brother or sister in Christ…as 1 Cor. 5 says we should….then you better be living your life holy…make sure you aren’t pointing out your sister’s splinter in her eye, while you have a log sticking out of your own eye.

Please…if you are a Christian…please resist the temptation to love the sinner more than the Savior.  Please don’t twist the Scriptures to make them fit the popular worldview.  If you are speaking on behalf of the Bible…please know your Bible or at least exactly what the Bible says about that topic.

It hurts us all us when we witness Christians butchering the Scriptures with unstudied opinions and points because they have been swayed by the world and how it thinks.   Please study your Bible.  Please read your Bible frequently. Please stay silent about a Bible passage, if you have to guess what it might say, until you do the study and can speak with biblical accuracy.  If you are in doubt about what the Bible says, then please resist the temptation to shout out your opinion on Facebook or in public until you’ve taken the time to study and actually know what the Bible says.  The Apostle Peter dealt with this 2000 years ago…

“15 And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him— 16 speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are IGNORANT and unstable have TWISTED his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. AND THIS WILL RESULT IN THEIR DESTRUCTION.  I am warning you ahead of time, dear friends. Be on guard so that you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing. 18 Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3:17

That passage is all about people misrepresenting the Word of God.  It says it leads to your destruction if you do it.  Please have enough reverence for the Holy Scriptures, that if you can’t be sure of what you are saying is accurate….then just remain silent and go study the Bible.

But…to the main point.

 The Bible is clear.  Holiness and Sin CANNOT mix!  Listen…One CANNOT be living in sin and twisting the scriptures to make their sin seem biblically okay…and be a Christian…especially Christian Leadership.   Again… One cannot be a Christian…let alone a leader of Christians…while living in unrepentant sin(any sin)…they must repent and admit their life is not as God designed it and start living like God designed us to live. 

So…this brings up another serious hot topic…

One of the biggest twists that Christians have put on the Scriptures is this “Bible verse”…

“No sin is greater than any other sin.”  NotaBibleVerse 3:16

THE above “verse” IS NOT IN THE BIBLE! 

In fact the Bible says that there are sins that ARE greater than other sins.  The Bible says that some sins lead to eternal death/destruction/hell and some do not.  So…the Bible says that not all sins are the same.  What!?  Really!?  Yep…

That is in the next post!

The Biblical Truth is that you can’t be living in open unrepentant sin and go to Heaven.

Otherwise…Jesus’s word about The Narrow Road…would be bogus…a joke.

  Here’s a teaser of the next post…post 3 of ? …

Jesus and verses in the Bible tell us, “Go and sin no more.”  (I’ll post the passages in the next blog.)  So…what do you mean “sin no more?”  Let me ask you this…

When you woke up this morning…What Sin…did you just HAVE to commit today?  Go ahead and list the sin right now…before my next blog post….What sins do you HAVE to commit today.  I mean….they just force themselves upon you.

“We are ALL sinners…saved by Grace!” …right?

That phrase is not in the Bible.

So…are you really a sinner?   I challenge you before you read my next blog to look up where in the Bible  it calls you a sinner after you have given your life to Jesus through His crucified and sacrificial blood!

Or… are you a conqueror…who can do ALL things through Christ who gives you strength?

Hmmmm.