Until recently, the realities of marriage, family, gender, and sexuality were standard fare in Western society. Routinely, men and women married and remained married for life as their most important human relationship. Normally, married couples, if reproductively able, had (many) children and raised them in an intact family unit. Unexceptionally, boys were boys and girls
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]]>Until recently, the realities of marriage, family, gender, and sexuality were standard fare in Western society. Routinely, men and women married and remained married for life as their most important human relationship. Normally, married couples, if reproductively able, had (many) children and raised them in an intact family unit. Unexceptionally, boys were boys and girls were girls and men were men and women were women. Customarily, sexuality—by which I mean sexual activity that is intended to arouse erotic desires and sensations for pleasure, procreation, and more—was an activity between a woman and a man.How these regularities have changed!
The opening pages of Scripture narrate these four realities and introduce us to a biblical view of marriage, family, gender, and sexuality.
Human Identity as Created Embodied Male Image Bearers and Created Embodied Female Image Bearers: Gender
The first text is Genesis 1:26-28 and comes at the end of the six days of creation, with all preceding creative events preparing the way for one final climactic act:
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.’
“So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.
“God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.'”
As we follow the narrative flow, we first encounter the divine deliberation concerning the creation of humankind as image bearers of God who would rule over the rest of the created order (v. 26). Out of the overflow of the eternal life and mutual love of the triune God, he purposed to and did indeed create a species of being more like himself than any other created being. These “like unto God” creatures would be higher than the plant world, the animal kingdom, even the angelic realm: they would be human beings who would mirror and represent God in his creation.
Next, we read of the actualization of that divine purpose: God created humankind in the divine image such that there were male image bearers and female image bearers (v. 27). This final event was the climactic act of creation and introduced the highest of created beings into the created order.
Finally, we come upon the so-called cultural mandate, the charter God established with humankind to build society/civilization for human flourishing (v. 28). The two aspects of this mandate as divinely designed for humankind are procreation (“be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”) and vocation (“subdue [the earth] and exercise dominion” over the rest of the created order). This charter for humanity signifies that the majority of men and women will be married, and the majority of married couples will have children. It also underscores that able bodied men and women will engage in work to contribute in complementary ways to both their individual and corporate thriving.
Importantly, for human beings as divine image bearers to carry out their divinely designed purpose, they are and must be embodied image bearers. Embodiment is the proper state of human existence. In this earthly life, if we aren’t embodied, we don’t—even more, we can’t—exist, nor can we fulfill the charter that God has established with us his image bearers. Moreover, human beings as divine image bearers are and must be sexed/gendered image bearers. We are gendered all the way down, and this is necessary and wonderful not only for the procreative aspect of the cultural mandate, but for its vocational aspect as well: women and men alike as divinely created image bearers expand the human race and contribute to its flourishing.1
God has created us to be embodied and gendered people; appropriately, then, we should acknowledge that our most fundamental identity—our very nature—is as male embodied image bearers or female embodied image bearers. Importantly (but often overlooked), our identity precedes our function; our essence is that out of which flows our roles. The reverse is not true: our identity is not first and foremost our role, be that as husband or wife, father or mother, employer or employee, carpenter or businesswoman, pastor or congregational member. Rather, our identity is our gendered image bearing: female embodied image bearers or male embodied image bearers.2
At the same time, Robert Spaemann reminds us, “Persons are not roles, but they are role-players.”3 Human beings have a created identity as image bearers and, as image bearers created for the purposes of procreation and vocation, they are also role-players who perform those roles of increasing humankind and furthering its thriving.
Thus, Genesis 1 focuses our attention on human identity, which is embodied image bearing in terms of reflecting God and representing him as either a man or a woman. This gendered identity—and gender is one of the four realities being addressed—is essential for procreation and vocation. And with these responsibilities we hear the opening strains of marriage, family, and sexuality, the other three realities under consideration.
Marriage and Family
The second text, Genesis 2:7, 18-25, narrows the Genesis 1 global perspective on the creation of all things to the telephoto lens close-up view of the creation of the first man and the first woman. With this extended narrative comes a focus on marriage and sexuality, with the family aspect implied:
“Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
“Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper corresponding to him.’ [The man named all the animals,] but for the man no helper was found corresponding to him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. Then the Lord God made the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. And the man said:
‘This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh;
this one will be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken from man.’
“This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.”
The manner of the first human being’s creation addresses the type of relationship that exists between Creator and creature: it is a relationship of dependence of the creature upon the Creator. The material out of which the first human creature was made—dust from the ground—does not signify that human beings were born to die, that is, created mortal. Certainly, the curse following the first humans’ sin was pronounced in similar terms (Gen. 3:19): “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Key here is that dissolution—the return to the dust from which they were taken—is the penalty for human disobedience, not the result of coming to the end of a normal mortal life. As Scripture emphasizes throughout, “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:3); human death comes as the penalty for sin. So human creation out of the dust of the ground sets the stage for eventual death, but death is not the normal outcome of human existence.
So what does creation out of the dust of the ground signify for humans in relationship to God? Human beings are not divine beings; they are image bearers of God, but he and he alone is divine. They are earthy beings, creatures of the earth, and thus completely dependent on their Creator for life and breath and everything.
Contrary to what our contemporary society insists, human beings are not autonomous, independent, self-made, self-sufficient men and women who are sovereign lords over their own lives and destinies.
The first divinely created man not only needed God but, according to God’s own assessment, also needed a woman: “It is not good [contrast with “It is good” repeated throughout Genesis 1] for the man to be alone.” His aloneness was not sinful but due to the incompleteness in the divine design: “Male and female he created them.” At this point, the male existed, but the female “helper corresponding to him” did not yet exist. What is important for our purposes is not male and female roles—authority and submission (remember, these are secondary issues)—but human nature: the woman was of the same nature as the man, a helper corresponding precisely to him, reflected in her being called אִשָּׁ֔ה (’issah, that is, “woman”) because she was taken out of אִ֖ישׁ (’ish, that is, “man”). Being two types of the one humankind, men and women are equal in nature, “of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image.”4 Accordingly, all sense of superiority and inferiority, advantage and disadvantage, vanishes and is to be banished from our perspectives on women and men.
In what sense, then, was the first woman created to be a “helper” for the first man? Returning to our earlier discussion, the first man and the first woman together were designed to fulfill the command as articulated in the cultural mandate (Gen. 1:28): this is the labor to which men and women are called and for which the first woman was formed as “helper.” As for the aspect of procreation, the first man and the first woman were the first husband and the first wife, together responsible for procreation to physically extend humankind. Men and women following these two original human ancestors marry and have children in ongoing fulfillment of this mandate. As for the aspect of vocation, the first man and the first woman were the original workers in the Garden, together called to “Edenize” the world, with the first women formed as “helper” for this responsibility. Men and women following these two original human laborers work hard in ongoing fulfillment of this mandate.
Genesis 4 narrates the initial fulfillment of the cultural mandate with its repeated emphasis on procreation and vocation. According to the opening lines of the story (vv. 1-2), Adam and Eve procreated Cain and Abel. Abel was a shepherd of flocks and Cain was a worker of the ground (an agriculturalist?). This is the initial narrative pattern of procreation and vocation, and it is followed by other similar stories: Cain and his wife procreated Enoch. Cain constructed a city and named it after his son (v. 17). Methushael fathered Lamech, who had two wives: Adah procreated Jabal and Jubal and Zillah procreated Tubal-cain. Jabal was a nomadic herdsman, Jubal was a musician, and Tubal-cain forged bronze and iron tools (vv. 19-22). These stories are the enactment of the cultural mandate. “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth:” So and so begat so and so, and so and so begat so and so. “Subdue the earth and exercise dominion over it:” So and so did such and such work, and so and so did such and such work. This is the cultural mandate being fulfilled, with men and women living out relational and vocational complementarity for both individual and corporate flourishing.
Sexuality
Human sexuality is clearly advanced in these opening chapters of Genesis. Sexual activity that is intended to arouse erotic desires and sensations for (at minimum) procreation is clearly implied in the command to procreate.5 It is highlighted in the sexual relationship between the first couple. Their nakedness without shame signifies the beauty and integrity of sexual activity, with the implication that such erotic expression should be between a man and a woman (not a man and another man, or a woman and another woman), more specifically, between a husband and a wife who are covenanted as complementary persons in marriage. Jesus’ reference to this narrative reinforces this traditional view of marriage and sexuality (Matt. 19:4–6):
“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Though other important purposes for sexual activity exist—pleasure (e.g., Song of Songs), a prophylactic against sexual immorality (1 Cor. 7:1-9), and comfort after tragedy (e.g., 2 Sam. 12:24)—procreation finds its telos in fulfillment of the cultural mandate.
Contemporary Challenges to This Vision of Marriage, Family, Gender, and Sexuality
Following this wonderful portrayal of the divine intent for and the initial actualization of created image bearers regarding marriage, family, gender, and sexuality, Scripture rehearses the fall of our original parents and the devastating consequences of sin on all areas of the creation order and human existence. Biblical examples are heartbreaking and repulsive and include (1) loveless marriages and divorce; (2) dysfunctional families that feature murder, jealousy, trickery, and revenge; (3) gender confusion as expressed in gender dysphoria and transgenderism; and 4) demeaning attitudes toward and disrespectful treatment of women; and (5) sexual immorality expressed in rape, hom*osexual activity, polygamy, and worship of sexualized gods.
To update this tragic picture, we consider the proliferation of similar kinds of maladies today in the United States. According to recent statistics, about half of the adult population is not married and about a third of those will never marry. Marriage as an institution for human flourishing is both under attack and dismissed as some kind of vestige of an antiquated past. Among married couples, the reproductive rate has fallen from 2.1 children per married woman in 2001 to 1.6, well below the number needed to maintain the current population without some mitigating factor. Part of this decline is gruesomely tied to the approbation and practice of abortion, which in the last five decades has terminated the once promising lives of about 65 million image bearers. While divorce statistics have seen a decline (about 40% since 1980), they still hover around the 40–45% mark for married couples. The loss of intact families, a corollary to such breakdown of marriages, means that children from those broken homes will statistically earn less money, commit more crime, do more poorly in school, suffer more mental illness, and will be less happy that those from intact families.6
As for gender, the rapid rise of gender dysphoria disturbs children and adolescents who are already wrestling with problems of body image, puberty, and an increase in mental illness. Add to this the societal and family encouragement of adolescents and young adults to undergo hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery, thus maiming themselves forever. Finally, the ongoing explosion of sexual perversion is breaking down moral barriers never before imagined: sex with robots, sodomy with pets, and pedophilia as an adult sexual preference for children.
Not to belabor the point and to state the obvious, this present portrait of the American society falls far short of the biblical vision for marriage, family, gender, and sexuality. The ERLC is committed to articulating this vision, teaching Christians and churches how to live out this vision, advocating for laws and policies that will bring our cultural trends in line with this vision, and urging all citizens to respect human dignity and to work for human flourishing.
1For further discussion see Gregg R. Allison, Embodied: Living as Whole People in a Fractured World (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2021), chs. 1-2.
2Gregg Allison, “What is a man? Looking at a historical, contemporary, and essential answer,” The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (June 6, 2022), https://erlc.com/resource/what-is-a-man/#:~:text=A%20man%20is%20a%20human,and%20fitting%20for%20a%20man.
3Robert Spaemann, Persons: The Difference between ‘Someone’ and ‘Something,’” Oxford Studies in Theological Ethics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996, 2017), 84.
4Baptist Faith & Message 2000, “Article XVIII. The Family,” https://bfm.sbc.net/bfm2000/#xviii.
5For further discussion see Allison, Embodied, ch. 5.
6Brad Wilcox, Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization (New York: Broadside Books, 2024).
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]]>The last 35 years have featured the advent of the first 24-7 news channel (CNN), the introduction of competing channels such as Fox News and MSNBC, the movement toward news with a more explicit ideological identity, the explosion of internet publishing, and then the astonishing growth of social media. Given the massive technological changes that
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]]>The last 35 years have featured the advent of the first 24-7 news channel (CNN), the introduction of competing channels such as Fox News and MSNBC, the movement toward news with a more explicit ideological identity, the explosion of internet publishing, and then the astonishing growth of social media. Given the massive technological changes that have affected politics, it should not be surprising that it feels as though we are constantly buffeted by the waves of competing messages aiming to secure our attention, activity, and loyalty.
All of this disruption has had its impact on our church bodies. Some time ago, a woman in my local church approached me and tearfully explained how painful political conflict had been for her family and for her Sunday school class. I am sure that many of us share her distress, which raises the question: can we think better about politics as Christians and treat one another better in the process?
Cultivating civic virtue
One of the first things we can do is to remember that we are fallen, sinful creatures. That means that we have a tremendous tendency to see our own opinions and actions in the best light possible, while we look at what others are thinking and doing and judge them without charity.
For years, I have worked with an organization called Braver Angels. One of the things we do is gather “reds” and “blues” for a facilitated conversation about politics. Interestingly, we have often used a marriage and family counselor to help the two sides be fair to one another. Before the conversation begins, the “blues” assume the “reds” are racists who don’t believe in science. The “reds” think the “blues” are commie snowflakes without any common sense.
But when the two sides speak to each other in an honest way with the help of the facilitator, they tend to see things differently. They don’t come to agreement. That’s not the goal. However, they do learn more about the people on the other side and the reasons they have for their positions.
I would call this ability to stay focused on our fellow citizens as human beings like ourselves and not as cartoon supervillains a kind of civic virtue. Christians have a natural advantage in developing this virtue if they will remember what the Bible tells us about our sinful nature and about the inherent dignity and value of every person.
Back in 2020, I was struck by something that happened when I interacted with a liberal congregation at the invitation of a friend who is a liberal pastor with left-wing politics. In the name of reducing political tension, he interviewed me over Zoom (this was the COVID-19 period) in front of his church members. I answered his questions for quite some time when one of the female audience members began to weep. She wasn’t crying because she loved my answers or because she was angry.
Instead, she wept because of how much tension she’d felt before the event. She explained that she had been afraid and had expected me to be some kind of monster. Though she didn’t agree with me, she did feel a sense of relief as she listened to me talking about my beliefs. The fear and tension she felt before the event shows what we are doing to each other politically. She and many others have been harmed by the irresponsibility of it.
How our faithdirects our policy
Another critical point we need to consider has to do with the degree to which our faith obviously directs our politics in terms of policy. While there are certain lines that can be drawn clearly—such as the sanctity of life and the nature of marriage—the simple fact is that most of what we deal with in politics comes down to prudence and wisdom. Accordingly, we should extend more grace and recognize that others often have good reasons even if we don’t consider them ultimately convincing.
Consider issues such as immigration, the environment, taxes, the size of government, education, and a host of others. We can debate these things at great length. Why? The answers are often not immediately obvious. Loving our neighbor matters in the context of politics, but much of loving our neighbor has to do with figuring out how we can accomplish the common good.
We won’t do our best work seeing and accomplishing the common good through propaganda campaigns. I have always been a small-government, low-tax conservative, but as a person who has spent my life thinking and reading about politics and public policy, it is also clear to me that there are real and legitimate reasons and concerns driving the thinking and work of those who disagree with me.
The best thing that can happen is that we have honest conversations instead of wasting our time constantly demonizing each other and trying to gain some kind of public relations advantage.
The natureof government
There are other important considerations, too. For example, we should think harder about the essential nature of government. Several years ago, one of President Obama’s political allies described government as “the things we choose to do together.” Such a portrayal is altogether too flippant and casual. It completely misunderstands the kind of thing government is and the stakes that are involved.
A good social scientific description of government is that it is the institution in society which possesses a legal monopoly on the use of coercive violence. Read that sentence again, carefully. We are not talking about a game. We are talking about the most powerful social and physical force invested in the hands of menand women.
When we deal with politics, then, we should approach the subject with the greatest sobriety and a strong sense of the stakes involved. It is entirely inappropriate to treat politics and government as though these things are the stuff of college football where we cultivate silly hatreds and rivalries. Politics lies on other side of war. If we want to talk about loving our neighbor, let’s think about being very careful before we apply the force of government against them.
We do need this power of government, though. Martin Luther saw it is a gift God gives us to restrain the evil men would do in the world. But again, the stakes are incredibly high. When we deal with political power, we are handling nitroglycerin. So, handle it with care.
Politics are not ultimate
Because of our tendency to make politics ultimate, we guard against irresponsible uses of politics by not getting too wrapped up in it. David Koyzis has pointed out that ideologies end up being idolatrous because they take something, whether it be freedom, equality, or some other value, and elevate it above our love and faithfulness toward God.1 We see it all the time in the Church among both young and old.
There are many people who become intoxicated with political personalities and causes to the extent that it is clear they are more excited about the gospel of this nationalist, that woke campaigner, or this political conspiracy theorist than they are about the gospel of Jesus Christ. The result is tremendous division within a body that should be thoroughly united in its first love.
James K.A. Smith has noted that when we become too focused on creating a better society, we can very easily lose any focus on Christian supernaturalism.2
With only a little reflection, I think many of us can see that politics exerts that kind of gravity on our attention. It should be no surprise that politics often serves as a motive for those engaging in a “deconstruction” of their faith.
The most significantpolitical statement
Finally, I want to share something I’ve been thinking about more and more as I age. I was an unusual child in that I had a strong interest in politics early in life. I can remember Watergate and Vietnam on the television news and also watching the Ford-Carter election returns as I sat on the sofa next to my mother. The whole panorama of politics and public policy has always captured me.
So, I write this essay as much for myself as others. In doing so, I find myself reflecting on the desire of the Israelites for a king and God’s response to them in 1 Samuel 8. While he does not endorse their desire for a king, he does give them what they want in their yearning to be like the other nations. But, when we look at the history of the kings of Israel and Judah in the books of Kings and Chronicles, it is not encouraging. If we were to list out the monarchs and categorize them, the great majority would be failures. Even the best, David, made a spectacularly deadly, tragic, and sinful mistake in his dealings with Bathsheba and her husband, Uriah.
It seems to me that one of the lessons we should learn as we reflect back on that sad history is that Jesus is the only king worthy of the name. Our response should be to focus more and more on him and upon God as the true source of authority and less upon ourselves and the promises others offer.
The most significant political statement we can make is that Jesus Christ is the King.
The 20th century was the most deadly century in the history of humankind. It also happens to be the century in which hundreds of millions of human beings put their hopes in secular messiahs who promised to bring about utopias. In the process, as many as 100 million people died, not because of war, but because of disastrous political and social schemes designed to bring the millennium.
Sinful, fallen human beings will not make a paradise of the Earth through the use of force. Rather, we should follow the Prince of peace and do everything we can to make him known to the nations. Ultimately, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, but it will not be because we created and implemented the perfect political plan. It will be because of Christ’s love and his undeniable status as Lord.
1David Koyzis, “Political Visions & Illusions: A Survey & Christian Critique of Contemporary Ideologies,” IVP Academic. May, 2003.
2James K.A. Smith, “Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation (Cultural Liturgies),” Baker Academic. August, 2009.
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]]>The theological doctrine of the imago Dei is grounded in the truth that every human being possesses an inherent dignity, value, and worth by virtue of being human and ought to be respected. It is the acknowledgment that human life at every stage is sacred. This sacredness of human life is not based on one’s
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]]>The theological doctrine of the imago Dei is grounded in the truth that every human being possesses an inherent dignity, value, and worth by virtue of being human and ought to be respected. It is the acknowledgment that human life at every stage is sacred. This sacredness of human life is not based on one’s attributes, utility, function, or their ability to contribute to society, but rather the idea that humankind, male and female, is created in the imago Dei, the image of God (Gen. 1:26–27; 2:7). Human beings, created in the image of God, possess a unique and special relationship with him as Creator that sets them apart from the rest of creation (Matt. 6:26; 10:29–31; 12:11–12).
Southern Baptists acknowledge that Scripture speaks to the uniqueness of humankind being created in the image of God. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 states, “Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation.”1 This affirmation of the image of God in all humanity informs how Southern Baptists view evangelism and missions, social engagement, religious liberty, and the family.2 Hence, human dignity, in the imago Dei becomes a reference point by which Southern Baptists, governed by Scripture, consider ethical and public policy positions.
The fact that humankind is created in the imago Dei means that God is the one who endows humans with this fundamental dignity, and it is humanity’s responsibility to affirm that dignity in all people. Therefore, human dignity and human life is not independent from God’s own character, attributes, activity, and will. The way in which people interact with others speaks not only to human relationships, but with God as well. Because humankind is made in God’s image, all people model attributes and capacities that reflect God in particular ways, thereby communicating an inherent interconnectedness between creation and Creator that ought to be evidenced in how humanity engages with the created world according to God’s will.3Unfortunately, when people do not affirm the inherent dignity of others and go further by denying that dignity, people are capable of doing atrocious things to one another. History has testified to that reality.
Human dignity is the claim that because God created people in his image, all people possess dignity, value. and worth. It is dictated by God, and is not granted by philosophical systems, international agreements, court cases, or governing documents. This claim has theological, sociological, and political implications because it requires Christians to advocate for all people, affirming their dignity and seeking to maximize their flourishing based on God’s will for creation and his image bearers. Therefore, human dignity impacts all aspects of human life and provides a foundation as to how Christians should engage in the various issues of personal and public importance.
Human dignity and the cultural mandate
Human dignity does not just speak to one’s inherent value as a human being. It also speaks to how God gave humankind a unique role within creation. The cultural mandate (Gen. 1:28) reveals that part of being created in the image of God is to reflect God’s attributes in the created order for the glory of God and the flourishing of creation. Humanity is called to serve God as his vice regents, ruling, shaping, stewarding, and caring for the world God created. The creation mandate and human dignity are interconnected in that when God created humanity in his image, he gave this responsibility to them alone. In other words, because humans are unique compared to the rest of creation, then all human activity should reflect that uniqueness as his vice regents and representatives in the world. Since all human beings are created in the image of God, then every person has a part in shaping the world around them. Although the means and scope of that work may differ among individuals based on cognitive and physical abilities as well as stage of life, every human being, based on their intrinsic value, ought to have every opportunity to exercise their agency to take responsibility for the world around them.
A biblical view of human dignity, established in the imago Dei, affirms that every person can and naturally participates in the creation mandate as part of their God-ordained purpose as human beings. Southern Baptists affirm that a biblical view of human dignity facilitates a wholistic view of human flourishing from conception to natural death as every person has inherent dignity and ought to find the abundant life that Christ provides (John 10:10), fully participating in the life of the world for the glory of God (Col. 3:17; 23), human flourishing, and the common good (Jer. 29:7) as they are able to do so. Just as one’s utility, abilities, or attributes do not determine one’s intrinsic dignity, they do not determine one’s ability to fulfill their God-given purpose as human beings. While contributions to the cultural mandate may differ in degree and outcomes, every person has the opportunity to participate in it.
Human dignity and the “three greats”
When God created humankind in his image, he created humanity too as social beings living in community (Gen. 2:18). Humanity best fulfills its role in the imago Dei when people live a life of worship toward God and in right relationship with one another. The relationship between human dignity and this shared life with others is reflected in “three greats:” The Great Commandment, the Great Commission, and the Great Requirement.
The first “great,” the Great Commandment (Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18; Matt. 22:37–40; Mark 12:29–31; Luke 10:27) outlines the qualities of properly ordered loves that affect humankind’s relationship with God and others. The command to love God, the first part of the Great Commandment, is the acknowledgment that because God created humanity in his image, he is due our worship. Worship is aligning one’s deepest and fundamental loves and affections toward God and living a life that pursues his glory in all endeavors. Human dignity informs the first relational priority—humanity’s relationship with God—by acknowledging that humanity’s dignity comes from God himself, and, in return, humankind best embodies the truth that they are made in the imago Dei in their worship of God. The creature (who is an image bearer) gives to their Creator the honor and glory that he is due.
The second command in the Great Commandment is the command to love one’s neighbor as oneself. The command to neighbor love is grounded in the reality that every person is created in the image of God and as such is due the love and respect that comes from being a fellow image bearer. Luke 10:25–37 further outlines what neighbor love looks like by clarifying who is one’s neighbor. Because of our human sin and the brokenness of the fall, it is common for us to decide that our neighbors must be like us in some unjust manner. Societal vices such as racism, ethnocentrism, and sexism, among other manifestations of partiality, (James 2:1–9) are all fundamentally attacks on human dignity where groups not only determine who one’s neighbor is, but also who is worthy of life. In the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10, Jesus makes clear that human groups do not have the authority to dictate who one’s neighbor is. Instead, the triune God who created every person in his image does. Therefore, neighbor love is the affirmation of the human dignity of every person.
The second “great” is a byproduct of obeying the Great Commandment. Sin distorted the image of God within humankind by creating a “moral vertigo” where the “effects of sin so upended our perspective on the shape and nature of both reality and morality … ”4 This moral vertigo, created by the fall (Gen. 3:1–10), alters how people relate to God and subsequently, how people view and treat one another. Because sin has estranged humanity from a right relationship with God and one another, Jesus gave his followers the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18–20) as the mission for his people. This matters in the area of human dignity because if every human is created in the imago Dei, and sin has distorted this image through this moral vertigo, then the Great Commission is the mission by which every person can experience the fullness of human purpose in the imago Dei as established by God through Christ.
The third “great” recognizes that the Great Commission is more than a verbal proclamation of the gospel. It is the practical declaration of the gospel through action (individually and collectively) by addressing the lived barriers of evangelism, typically those that are affronts to human dignity. The Great Requirement (Micah 6:8) informs the posture of how the people of God should live out the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. God’s will for his people is to affirm the fullness of human dignity by “acting justly,” “loving faithfulness,” and “walking humbly with our God.” In other words, the Great Requirement says that the call to love God and others ought to inform how one engages the world around them because their dignity is endowed by God, and his people have a responsibility to make sure that dignity is affirmed in all people.
Human dignity and public witness
Core to many of the issues Southern Baptists address in the public square is the affirmation that all persons are created in the image of God. Thus, human dignity is just as much a political issue as it is an anthropological and theological one. It is political in the sense that politics entails how people organize social life in a manner that articulates a vision of the common good. Public policy and governance, therefore, is the means by which this social organization is implemented. The importance of the Christian worldview, ethics, and anthropology cannot be understated because worldview, ethics, and anthropology impact policy and legislation. As such, a Christian view of human dignity ought to be verbalized in the larger public discourse.
The BFM2000’s article on “The Christian and the Social Order” connects our obligation to God and his moral order to our public witness and social activism. Central to understanding why we would repudiate the evils of “greed, selfishness, and vice” as well as why we would care for “the orphaned, the need, the abused … ” is our understanding of human dignity. As the BFM20000 states:
“All Christians are under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in our own lives and in human society. Means and methods used for the improvement of society and the establishment of righteousness among men can be truly and permanently helpful only when they are rooted in the regeneration of the individual by the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ. In the spirit of Christ, Christians should oppose racism, every form of greed, selfishness, and vice, and all forms of sexual immorality, including adultery, hom*osexuality, and p*rnography. We should work to provide for the orphaned, the needy, the abused, the aged, the helpless, and the sick. We should speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death. Every Christian should seek to bring industry, government, and society as a whole under the sway of the principles of righteousness, truth, and brotherly love. In order to promote these ends Christians should be ready to work with all men of good will in any good cause, always being careful to act in the spirit of love without compromising their loyalty to Christ and His truth.”
One recent example where Southern Baptists have made public statements is on the topic of immigration. In the 2023 resolution “On Wisely Engaging Immigration,” the Southern Baptist Convention affirmed the inherent dignity of the refugee and immigrant while recognizing the need for order and security of the nation.5 A wise view of immigration argues that the two should not be in opposition to one another, but policies should work in cooperation for the good of the immigrant/refugee and the citizen/resident because all parties involved are created in the image of God. By acknowledging the inherent dignity of all people regardless of ethnicity, national origin, background, language, or circ*mstances, engaging immigration becomes an issue of how to affirm that dignity and maximizing the agency of all parties involved.
When it comes to creating and implementing policy, there will be differences of opinion. However, for Christians, the inherent dignity of each individual is nonnegotiable. A key role of Christian public witness is to remind the larger society of this reality. Additionally, Christian public witness must hold the larger society and its governing bodies accountable when the concepts of human dignity are violated in policies and practices. This responsibility derives from the Christian call to live out the “three greats” mentioned earlier.
Human dignity is the idea that all human life is sacred. That sacredness is not something that humans endow upon others, but which flows from each person’s status as an image bearer of the triune God. Therefore, all human beings, regardless of utility or attributes have an inherent dignity that must be affirmed. This affirmation ought to facilitate human agency as every person is called to the task to make something of the world around them as outlined in the cultural mandate. The Great Commandment, Commission, and Requirement not only affirm human dignity but inform how Christians are to live in light of how God views human life. Christians are given the mission to proclaim God’s will for humankind to all people groups through the gospel. Lastly, the Christian public witness, as part of that mission, must look for ways to advocate for policies and practices that affirm God’s standard of human dignity and prophetically confront those that violate it.
1Baptist Faith & Message 2000 – The Baptist Faith and Message, https://bfm.sbc.net/, accessed May 10, 2024, https://bfm.sbc.net/bfm2000/.
2See the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 for the Southern Baptist Convention’s position on “Evangelism and Missions,” “The Christian and Social Order,” “Religious Liberty,” and “the Family.”
3John F. Kilner, “Dignity and Destiny: Humanity in the Image of God” (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2015), 134.
4Mark Liederbach and Evan Lenow, “Ethics as Worship: The Pursuit of Moral Discipleship” (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2021), 59.
5“On Wisely Engaging Immigration – SBC.Net,” https://www.sbc.net/, accessed May 16, 2024, https://www.sbc.net/resource-library/resolutions/on-wisely-engaging-immigration/.
The post Made In the Image of God: Why Human Dignity Matters appeared first on ERLC.
]]>Now that schools, churches, and businesses have closed due to COVID-19, most parents and caregivers have their children at home. In the first few days of closures, I saw the online jokes: ”the whole nation is learning what it means to homeschool.” Then, I received some frantic texts from parents. But as the number of
The post How the Exodus Narrative Can Help Us Disciple Kids Through COVID-19 appeared first on ERLC.
]]>Now that schools, churches, and businesses have closed due to COVID-19, most parents and caregivers have their children at home. In the first few days of closures, I saw the online jokes: ”the whole nation is learning what it means to homeschool.” Then, I received some frantic texts from parents. But as the number of cases climbs, the sadness and trouble beneath the surface is beginning to set in. Some of the griefs seem relatively minor: kids missing the end of the school year, perhaps the last year of their middle or high school experience. Some of the griefs will be felt for years: a girl who is immunocompromised living in constant fear or a grandson grieving the loss of his grandmother.
I’m thankful for all of the articles that have come out in recent days encouraging an emphasis on family discipleship in the midst of the pandemic. The articles I’ve read have cited the classic family discipleship passages: God’s command to impress his commands on the hearts of our children (Deut. 6:4–9); Asaph’s beautiful song about celebrating God’s praiseworthy deeds before the next generation (Ps. 78:1–10); Solomon’s psalm about building your house on a foundation of faith (Ps. 127); and the new covenant command to bring up your children in the training and instruction of the Lord (Eph. 6:4).
But, today, I want to invite you to look a little further back in biblical history—to the priorities God revealed and instructions he gave to his oppressed people just before the Exodus. Let’s journey back to a time when believing families huddled together, isolated in their homes while trouble and death reigned around them.
Now there are big differences between what is happening in our time and what occurred in Egypt. As Christians, we believe COVID-19—and every great evil—is a result of the fall, but we must avoid thinking this pandemic has come as a judgment against some particular evil in our world; Jesus was absolutely clear about this when he warned those who felt self-righteous when the tower of Siloam fell (Luke 13:1–5). The plagues—which were given as specific judgments against Pharaoh’s hard-hearted oppression—were unique events in redemptive history. It is inappropriate to say COVID-19 is a judgement from God. But having clearly stated that, there are some lessons we can learn from the time of locusts and lambs—encouragements that will serve our households today.
What can Christian parents learn from God’s instructions to the Israelites under Pharaoh? Consider these four truths:
1. In the midst of the pandemic, we have a story to tell (Ex. 10:1–2).
Exodus chapter 10 introduces the eighth plague: the plague of locusts. The chapter begins with these words: “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them that you may tell your children and grandchildren . . . and that you may know that I am the LORD.” Throughout the Exodus narrative, in the midst of oppression—through every plague and disaster—God had a plan. God was giving a story to tell for generations.
Even though we don’t know what God’s doing right now, we can tell our children the great story of what he has done for us in the past. Each time you pick up a Bible storybook or download and work through one of those free Sunday School lessons the Christian publishers are giving away, you’re reminding your kids that we have a God who made us, who loved us by sending the Savior, and who will one day return to heal this broken world. When preaching on Exodus 10, pastor Marty Machowski once remarked, “Isn’t it kind of God that he would allow us to tell his story?” It certainly is! The great story reminds us that our troubles and sufferings are taking us somewhere. Just as God had a purpose for the children of Israel when they were under oppression, we get to remind our kids that he has a purpose for us too.
2. In the midst of the pandemic, we wage spiritual war (Ex. 10:8–9).
After the plague of locusts, Pharaoh nearly gave into Moses and Aaron’s pleas to let God’s people go. He called them into his throne room and said, “Go, worship the LORD your God . . . but tell me, who will be going with you?” The first eight plagues made enough of an impression with the hard-hearted king that he was willing to let the men of the nation take a sabbatical from forced labor. But when Israel’s leaders informed the king that all of the people—young and old, sons and daughters, flocks and herds—would go and worship the LORD, he balked: “The LORD be with you—if I let you go, along with your women and children! Clearly you are bent on evil!” Pharaoh received God’s call for his people’s wholehearted devotion as a declaration of war.
Even though we don’t know what God’s doing right now, we can tell our children the great story of what he has done for us in the past.
It was. In the midst of COVID-19, we have an enemy too. He wants to divide our children’s hearts so that they turn away from our good God. I loved Megan Hill’s article recently at The Gospel Coalition about family prayer. She wrote, “The invisibility of a virus (at least to those of us without scientific instruments at our disposal) is a reminder to Christians that we have concerns beyond the visible world.” There is a whole world beyond what our eyes can see—a real battle raging in the spiritual realm for the souls of our children. When we bow our heads to pray and lift our children’s griefs and fears to God, we’re appealing to him to do invisible work in their hearts. When we pray that he would protect their bodies and also protect them from Satan and his schemes, we’re waging war.
3. In the midst of pandemic, we need the household of faith (Ex. 12:1–2, 24–28).
When the last plague came, God gave Israel the Passover ceremony. Each family and perhaps a few neighbors—enough to eat one roasted lamb—gathered together for a family meal. Those family meals should remind us of the importance of the household in God’s economy, and they should also point us forward to the reality that the primary household in the New Covenant era is the household of God (Matt. 19:29; Eph. 2:19). I love what Andy Crouch has written about this recently: “In the history of the church, over and over it has been local ‘households’ extended-family-size outposts of the Kingdom of God, that have been able to most effectively mobilize care of the vulnerable in their midst, and to reach out and care for the vulnerable around them.”
In other words, your family needs your church community. So, gather your kids around the television on Sunday morning for that livestream worship service. But don’t stop there. Connect with your church community personally. Dial into that small group video chat, or FaceTime with your accountability partners. Set up video chats for your kids as well. Help them to see that even when we’re secluded, we need the household of faith.
4. Finally, in the midst of pandemic, we must hope in Jesus (Ex. 12:21–28).
When God gave the Passover ceremony, he anticipated the fact that kids would ask questions. In Exodus 12:26–28, we find these words: “When your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt, when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes.” God made kids with a sense of wonder. He knew they would ask questions.
Often they ask simply because they’re curious. In a time of crisis, they’ll also ask questions because they’re afraid. When the kids asked, God wanted Israelite parents to be prepared to give a reason for their hope. So, he gave them that little script in verses 26–28 to put to memory; it was one that connected the kids’ active faith to his redemptive plan. In season and out of season, we must be ready to give our kids an answer about our hope as well. Parents, I’d encourage you to write out a simple one-sentence reason for why you have hope in Jesus so that you can tell that personal testimony to your kids. If that’s difficult for you, you might consider adopting question one of the Heidelberg catechism as your answer: “What is your only comfort in life and death? That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.”
When God sent his angel throughout Egypt, what kept their firstborn sons safe from death was the blood of the lamb over their doors. God hasn’t promised that he will keep us safe from sickness and death in the same way, but the Passover lamb does point us to the One who will keep us safe through death—to our Savior, Jesus, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). As your kids’ griefs and questions about COVID-19 come, remember the Israelites before the Exodus: Tell the story; wage war on your knees; connect with the household of faith; and, most importantly, model hope in our faithful Savior who holds us through the storm.
The post How the Exodus Narrative Can Help Us Disciple Kids Through COVID-19 appeared first on ERLC.
]]>Now that schools, churches, and businesses have closed due to COVID-19, most parents and caregivers have their children at home. In the first few days of closures, I saw the online jokes: ”the whole nation is learning what it means to homeschool.” Then, I received some frantic texts from parents. But as the number of
The post How the Exodus narrative can help us disciple kids through COVID-19 appeared first on ERLC.
]]>Now that schools, churches, and businesses have closed due to COVID-19, most parents and caregivers have their children at home. In the first few days of closures, I saw the online jokes: ”the whole nation is learning what it means to homeschool.” Then, I received some frantic texts from parents. But as the number of cases climbs, the sadness and trouble beneath the surface is beginning to set in. Some of the griefs seem relatively minor: kids missing the end of the school year, perhaps the last year of their middle or high school experience. Some of the griefs will be felt for years: a girl who is immunocompromised living in constant fear or a grandson grieving the loss of his grandmother.
I’m thankful for all of the articles that have come out in recent days encouraging an emphasis on family discipleship in the midst of the pandemic. The articles I’ve read have cited the classic family discipleship passages: God’s command to impress his commands on the hearts of our children (Deut. 6:4–9); Asaph’s beautiful song about celebrating God’s praiseworthy deeds before the next generation (Ps. 78:1–10); Solomon’s psalm about building your house on a foundation of faith (Ps. 127); and the new covenant command to bring up your children in the training and instruction of the Lord (Eph. 6:4).
But, today, I want to invite you to look a little further back in biblical history—to the priorities God revealed and instructions he gave to his oppressed people just before the Exodus. Let’s journey back to a time when believing families huddled together, isolated in their homes while trouble and death reigned around them.
Now there are big differences between what is happening in our time and what occurred in Egypt. As Christians, we believe COVID-19—and every great evil—is a result of the fall, but we must avoid thinking this pandemic has come as a judgment against some particular evil in our world; Jesus was absolutely clear about this when he warned those who felt self-righteous when the tower of Siloam fell (Luke 13:1–5). The plagues—which were given as specific judgments against Pharaoh’s hard-hearted oppression—were unique events in redemptive history. It is inappropriate to say COVID-19 is a judgement from God. But having clearly stated that, there are some lessons we can learn from the time of locusts and lambs—encouragements that will serve our households today.
What can Christian parents learn from God’s instructions to the Israelites under Pharaoh? Consider these four truths:
1. In the midst of the pandemic, we have a story to tell (Ex. 10:1–2). Exodus chapter 10 introduces the eighth plague: the plague of locusts. The chapter begins with these words: “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them that you may tell your children and grandchildren . . . and that you may know that I am the LORD.” Throughout the Exodus narrative, in the midst of oppression—through every plague and disaster—God had a plan. God was giving a story to tell for generations.
Even though we don’t know what God’s doing right now, we can tell our children the great story of what he has done for us in the past. Each time you pick up a Bible storybook or download and work through one of those free Sunday School lessons the Christian publishers are giving away, you’re reminding your kids that we have a God who made us, who loved us by sending the Savior, and who will one day return to heal this broken world. When preaching on Exodus 10, pastor Marty Machowski once remarked, “Isn’t it kind of God that he would allow us to tell his story?” It certainly is! The great story reminds us that our troubles and sufferings are taking us somewhere. Just as God had a purpose for the children of Israel when they were under oppression, we get to remind our kids that he has a purpose for us too.
2. In the midst of the pandemic, we wage spiritual war (Ex. 10:8–9). After the plague of locusts, Pharaoh nearly gave into Moses and Aaron’s pleas to let God’s people go. He called them into his throne room and said, “Go, worship the LORD your God . . . but tell me, who will be going with you?” The first eight plagues made enough of an impression with the hard-hearted king that he was willing to let the men of the nation take a sabbatical from forced labor. But when Israel’s leaders informed the king that all of the people—young and old, sons and daughters, flocks and herds—would go and worship the LORD, he balked: “The LORD be with you—if I let you go, along with your women and children! Clearly you are bent on evil!” Pharaoh received God’s call for his people’s wholehearted devotion as a declaration of war.
It was. In the midst of COVID-19, we have an enemy too. He wants to divide our children’s hearts so that they turn away from our good God. I loved Megan Hill’s article recently at The Gospel Coalition about family prayer. She wrote, “The invisibility of a virus (at least to those of us without scientific instruments at our disposal) is a reminder to Christians that we have concerns beyond the visible world.” There is a whole world beyond what our eyes can see—a real battle raging in the spiritual realm for the souls of our children. When we bow our heads to pray and lift our children’s griefs and fears to God, we’re appealing to him to do invisible work in their hearts. When we pray that he would protect their bodies and also protect them from Satan and his schemes, we’re waging war.
Even though we don’t know what God’s doing right now, we can tell our children the great story of what he has done for us in the past.
3. In the midst of pandemic, we need the household of faith (Ex. 12:1–2, 24–28). When the last plague came, God gave Israel the Passover ceremony. Each family and perhaps a few neighbors—enough to eat one roasted lamb—gathered together for a family meal. Those family meals should remind us of the importance of the household in God’s economy, and they should also point us forward to the reality that the primary household in the New Covenant era is the household of God (Matt. 19:29; Eph. 2:19). I love what Andy Crouch has written about this recently: “In the history of the church, over and over it has been local ‘households’ extended-family-size outposts of the Kingdom of God, that have been able to most effectively mobilize care of the vulnerable in their midst, and to reach out and care for the vulnerable around them.”
In other words, your family needs your church community. So, gather your kids around the television on Sunday morning for that livestream worship service. But don’t stop there. Connect with your church community personally. Dial into that small group video chat, or FaceTime with your accountability partners. Set up video chats for your kids as well. Help them to see that even when we’re secluded, we need the household of faith.
4. Finally, in the midst of pandemic, we must hope in Jesus (Ex. 12:21–28). When God gave the Passover ceremony, he anticipated the fact that kids would ask questions. In Exodus 12:26–28, we find these words: “When your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt, when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes.” God made kids with a sense of wonder. He knew they would ask questions.
Often they ask simply because they’re curious. In a time of crisis, they’ll also ask questions because they’re afraid. When the kids asked, God wanted Israelite parents to be prepared to give a reason for their hope. So, he gave them that little script in verses 26–28 to put to memory; it was one that connected the kids’ active faith to his redemptive plan. In season and out of season, we must be ready to give our kids an answer about our hope as well. Parents, I’d encourage you to write out a simple one-sentence reason for why you have hope in Jesus so that you can tell that personal testimony to your kids. If that’s difficult for you, you might consider adopting question one of the Heidelberg catechism as your answer: “What is your only comfort in life and death? That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.”
When God sent his angel throughout Egypt, what kept their firstborn sons safe from death was the blood of the lamb over their doors. God hasn’t promised that he will keep us safe from sickness and death in the same way, but the Passover lamb does point us to the One who will keep us safe through death—to our Savior, Jesus, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). As your kids’ griefs and questions about COVID-19 come, remember the Israelites before the Exodus: Tell the story; wage war on your knees; connect with the household of faith; and, most importantly, model hope in our faithful Savior who holds us through the storm.
The post How the Exodus narrative can help us disciple kids through COVID-19 appeared first on ERLC.
]]>Last year, messengers to the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting voted to adopt a resolution on the Uyghur genocide, calling upon the Chinese Communist Party to immediately“restore to the Uyghur people their full God-given rights.”1 While the resolution passed unanimously, there remain some who have questioned why Southern Baptists should advocate for groups like the Uyghurs,
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]]>Last year, messengers to the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting voted to adopt a resolution on the Uyghur genocide, calling upon the Chinese Communist Party to immediately“restore to the Uyghur people their full God-given rights.”1 While the resolution passed unanimously, there remain some who have questioned why Southern Baptists should advocate for groups like the Uyghurs, many of whom are followers of Islam. As Southern Baptists, our answer to this question is clearly stated in Article XVII of the Baptist Faith and Message—because religious liberty belongs to those who hold to“any form of religion” (emphasis added).2
If we believe, more broadly, that freedom—religious or otherwise—is a right endowed on all people, to what extent are we willing to act upon that belief on behalf of others? Are we willing to take what we affirm in the Baptist Faith and Message and apply it to all our neighbors, both here and abroad, when their religious freedom is being unjustly ignored or trampled upon?
Why Does the ERLC PrioritizeReligious Liberty for All?
We can’t answer these questions until we have addressed the more foundational question,“why?” Why should Southern Baptists—or Christians generally—advocate for the freedom and just treatment of people of all religions or no religion at all?
Imago Dei
Why should we advocate for all people? First, because Christian anthropology begins in Genesis 1, where we learn that all people, without exception, are made in the image of God.
In his book, Dwell: Life with God for the World, Barry Jones says,“make sure your theological anthropology begins in Genesis 1 and not Genesis 3.”3 The first chapter of Genesis contains the creation account, where we learn of God’s power and humanity’s privileged status as those made in his image. In the third chapter, we witness humanity’s precipitous fall into sin, tarnishing (but not diminishing) that image and breaking everything else with one fateful bite of fruit. Both events are true, and both are seismically important.
Often, our assumptions about humanity, especially about those of different religious faiths, are firmly rooted in Genesis 3 and nowhere else. But our fallenness and depravity are only possible because there is something more fundamentally true about us: we are made in God’s image. That humanity is irrevocably made in God’s image means that we all possess certain fundamental rights. And as Southern Baptists we affirm that one of those rights is religious liberty, which is grounded in our understanding of soul freedom—the ability to choose whether or how each individual follows God.
The Ministry of Jesus
Secondly, we should advocate for people of all religions becausethe ministry of Jesus compels us to. Soul freedom is at the core of Jesus’itinerant and ongoing ministry. In the New Testament, for example, Luke’s gospel transports us to a Nazarene synagogue where we hear a sermonette Jesus delivered to a crowd of people. Kicking off his teaching, Jesus was given the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, from which he read:
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:18–19, CSB, emphasis added).
At his coming, Jesus is saying, those held captive, imprisoned, and oppressed—both spiritually and physically—have the hope of being liberated by God’s only begotten Son, who has come and announced an end to their enslavement. But Jesus didn’t only proclaim release to the captives; he actually set them free. For example, in the region of the Gerasenes, Jesus introduced“the year of the Lord’s favor” to a long-oppressed captive by freeing him (Luke 8:26–38). This man, seen as an“other” by the religious community, was set free from his spiritual and physical bondage by the eternal Word made flesh.
As those who have been released from spiritual captivity (Rom. 6:17, 2; Col. 1:13), we have been called to take up the ministry of Jesus and, through evangelism, proclaim release to the captives. But should we not also, through advocacy, work to set free those who are oppressed physically? This is central to the work of God’s people, even on behalf of those whose beliefs fundamentally clash with our own. After all, religious liberty is not merely freedom from oppression, but the freedom to act in accordance with one’s conscience. And because“God alone is Lord of the conscience,” religious liberty for all is a right the church should affirm and insist that the state not infringe upon.4
Christians are Ambassadors for Christ
If Christ came to“proclaim release to the captives” and“to set free the oppressed”—to bestow liberty, in other words—then, as his ambassadors (2 Cor. 5:20), we ought to go out on his behalf and carry on his work. This is why religious liberty is supremely important to the ERLC’s work.
The ERLC is committed to advocating for this first freedom on behalf of all peoples. We have focused much of our attention on being a voice for the Uyghurs, a group enduring brutality at the hands of the Chinese government.5 Many of the Uyghur people have been subjected to reeducation camps, forced labor, and even forced sterilization in women. We supported various pieces of legislation including the Uyghur Human Rights Protection Act and the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, and urged the United States government to issue an official determination that the CCP is committing genocide.
The ERLC was also a part of an amicus brief in the case of Ramirez v. Collier, which concerned the religious rights of a prison inmate in Texas. We asked the Supreme Court to protect the religious freedom of Ramirez, who was sentenced to die for his crime, and allow him to have his Southern Baptist pastor lay hands on and pray for him when he receives a lethal injection. On March 24, in an 8-1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Ramirez and affirmed that religious freedom does not end at the execution chamber door.
Likewise, we are standing firmly opposed to The Equality Act, a bill that would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes under federal civil rights law. The bill would curtail religious freedom protections, hinder the work of healthcare professionals and faith-based hospitals, undermine civil rights protections for women and girls, and ultimately steamroll the consciences of millions of Americans.6
Religious liberty is essential because true faith cannot be coerced, nor should it be outlawed. Where soul freedom is not recognized by the state, the state is violating those made in the image of God and the freedom of its citizens. As ambassadors of Christ, then, we seek not to coerce or strongarm consciences, or permit the state to do so, but to advocate for their freedom and, by God’s grace, make our appeal to those free consciences to be reconciled to their Lord.
And, like Jesus, our words are to be paired with action. May we be those who take Christ’s good news to oppressed peoples here and abroad, working to set them free spiritually and physically, until the earth is“filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14).
1https://www.sbc.net/resource-library/resolutions/on-the-uyghur-genocide/
2https://bfm.sbc.net/bfm2000/#xvii-religious-liberty
3Barry Jones, Dwell: Life with God for the World (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014).
4https://bfm.sbc.net/bfm2000/#xvii-religious-liberty
5Oppression and the Olympics: What Christians Should Know About China’s Human Right Atrocities, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffEQ463eGB8
6https://erlc.com/equalityact/
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]]>Neighboring is hard, especially in a pandemic. As Christians, we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:31). Yet, the challenges of a pandemic have many of us shrinking back from our neighbors. Our family lives and ministers in New York City, a city that was once the epicenter of the global pandemic.
The post 3 ways to engage our neighbors during a pandemic appeared first on ERLC.
]]>Neighboring is hard, especially in a pandemic. As Christians, we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:31). Yet, the challenges of a pandemic have many of us shrinking back from our neighbors.
Our family lives and ministers in New York City, a city that was once the epicenter of the global pandemic. At the height of our city’s grim struggle against the virus, I remember when my wife and I walked our kids to the park. It was a daily ritual, a small practice to keep us sane as we quarantined in our tiny Brooklyn apartment. We walked our three kids (now four) to the park only a few blocks from where we live. We nervously eyed other pedestrians. Were they carriers of COVID-19? Were we carriers?
In the early days, before the mask mandate, we did not know who we could safely talk to or who we could stand face to face with. So, nearly every morning, we would go to the park before it filled up with people who, like us, were desperate for a refuge from quarantine life. We hustled our kids down the sidewalks, kept them away from others, and ushered them safely—we hoped—into the nearby park and its soccer field.
This is what we did to survive as a family, both literally and metaphorically. And yet, we came to Brooklyn to do more than survive; we came to plant a church and serve others. We knew that we had to engage our neighbors, even in a global pandemic. But how to begin?
1 Corinthians 13:13 is a cherished verse for many Christians. It is also a verse that shows us a template for engaging our neighbors in a pandemic. Paul ended his poetic chapter on love by reminding us that “these three remain: faith, hope, and love – but the greatest of these is love.” What if faith, hope, and love frame our response to a global pandemic and provide our pattern for engaging our neighbors during this strange moment in history?
1. We must model faith for our neighbors.
Many of our neighbors are non-Christians, and they desperately need to see our faith in action. As Christians, we do not believe the sky is falling. Not now, not ever. It was not falling on Good Friday, and it is not falling due to COVID-19. We are the people who believe the gospel. We acknowledge that death and tragedy are a part of life, but we also believe in a greater reality. Good Friday is part of our story, but so is Easter.
We must demonstrate to our neighbors that we are not living in the grip of fear. We believe that Jesus is the King of the universe and that he rules over everything—including the deadly germs that we cannot see with the naked eye. It is this calm assurance that ought to characterize our life for as long as the pandemic lasts. Every Sunday during those early days, our neighbors heard through the thin walls of our apartment building. They heard us rehearsing the gospel as we sang, isolated, but never alone.
2. We must provide hope for our neighbors.
Early on, we decided that you cannot quarantine hope. I began to write a daily blog for our entire 79-day lockdown. My goal was to provide a daily dose of hope, to inoculate against fear and despair. We taped a sign up in our apartment building’s stairwell inviting our neighbors to read and find daily hope. We set sanitizer bottles outside of every apartment in our building. We told our neighbors we had to stick together.
New Yorkers are famously closed off, so neighboring is different here. Yet, when we left the sanitizer and messages for our neighbors they came and knocked on our door, even in the middle of a deadly pandemic. Why? Because we dared to offer the hope that they craved.
It was not a sentimental “we’re all going to make it” kind of hope. It was a hope centered on an old rugged cross and an empty garden tomb. Our neighbors need hope. It is up to us to provide it.
3. We must show love to our neighbors.
A couple of weeks after the virus descended on New York City, we decided it was time to launch relief efforts. Many people could not safely shop for groceries due to their age or health condition. We began to collect names from leaders in our community (most of them non-Christians) and safely deliver groceries to these vulnerable neighbors.
We partnered with a non-profit and with other churches. We obtained a membership at Restaurant Depot so that we could buy groceries in bulk. In 2020, our church basically became a restaurant so we could love our neighbors as ourselves. Every week, nearly 40 people received a “Box of Hope” from our church. It was full of fresh vegetables, non-perishables, and meat. There was also a letter from me and evangelistic resources to point our neighbors to Christ.
We called them boxes of hope, but it was ultimately an exercise in love. Because, as Paul reminds us, faith, hope, and love go together. We gave away gallons of sanitizer and thousands of masks because we love our neighbors. Not as well as we should, but hopefully in a way that shows them the even greater love of Jesus.
Now that we have resumed church services, there is a new couple in our midst. People we met through our relief efforts. Neighbors that we engaged in a pandemic. I certainly do not have all the answers. Our church has been on a wild ride these last 12 months in NYC. But we are learning to embrace a lifestyle of faith, hope, and love. our neighbors need to experience all three of these ideals as they interact with us. Maybe, just maybe, God will use us—and use you—to draw our neighbors to himself. Even in a pandemic.
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]]>On July 9, the U.K. Parliament intervened in the politics of Northern Ireland by voting for a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage and abortion. Under the current law, same-sex couples can only attain civil partnership status. Likewise, abortion is only permissible under the National Health Service in Northern Ireland if the mother’s life is
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]]>On July 9, the U.K. Parliament intervened in the politics of Northern Ireland by voting for a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage and abortion. Under the current law, same-sex couples can only attain civil partnership status. Likewise, abortion is only permissible under the National Health Service in Northern Ireland if the mother’s life is in danger or there is suspected long-term mental or physical damage caused by having a baby.
To understand where this bill came from and how it was voted on, it’s important to map out a timeline of events.
How did we get here?
November 2012: A renewable energy initiative called the renewable heating initiative (RHI) was introduced, seeking to shift Northern Ireland from fossil fuels to renewable sources of fuel. Major spending oversights equated to an excess of £700 million. The responsibility for the scheme lay with the devolved governmentin Stormont’sDepartment of Enterprise.
February 2016: The evidence of overspending hit the press, showing the major spending oversights within the scheme. Arlene Foster (Democratic Unionist Party leader & First Minister of Northern Ireland) came under scrutiny for her role as secretary to the department in 2012. The Good Friday Agreementrequires two parties that represent two distinct perspectives within Northern Ireland to share the power in the devolved government. Therefore, when opposition party leader Martin McGuinness (Sinn Fien) tendered his resignation as Deputy First Minister, it triggered a general election.
The results of the election favored Sinn Féin, who won 27 seats, the same number of seats as the DUP. The DUP lost 10 seats from the previous election, and with that lost the majority. The election exasperated the stalemate between Sinn Féin and the DUP, later leading to the shutdown of the devolved governmentin Northern Ireland in January 2017. 2019 has revealed that nothing has changed; both parties are yet to come to an agreement to form a government again. The July 9 vote was a last resort due to the effects of not having a government.
What does the bill mean?
The Northern Ireland (Executive formation) Bill grants the powers to the secretary of state (Karen Bradley, member of Parliament) to circumvent devolved Government in Northern Ireland. An amendment allowing for same-sex couples to marry is included in this bill. The bill also has an amendment added to it allowing the secretary of state to pass laws amending the “strict” abortion laws that currently exist in Northern Ireland. The bill would change Northern Ireland’s laws to widen the laws beyond the 24 weeks limit set in the rest of the United Kingdom to 28 weeks. A study carried out by pro-life organization “Both Lives Matter” showed that because Northern Ireland didn’t implement the Abortion Act in 1967, 100,000 people are alive today who would have been aborted otherwise.
What are the next steps?
The bill gives the Northern Ireland Assembly until Oct. 21, 2019, to form a government. If it doesn’t, the bill will be imposed by the secretary of state. The prospects of an agreement being reached are slim due to Sinn Féin’s vested interest in passing similar laws like this in the past. An open letter has been sent to Prime Minister Theresea May seeking to highlight the “constitutional abuses” the bill has brought about. A staggering 15,000 people have signed the open letter over the weekend, showing the public disapproval of Parliament’s actions last week.
How should we respond?
Many Northern Ireland evangelicals have expressed their dissatisfaction with the proposed laws. As Christians, how should we deal with all the anger and frustration at the dismaying laws due to be passed? We need a biblical worldview.
Our primary purpose in this discussion is the Lordship of Christ over every governing power on earth. In How the Nations Rage, Jonathan Leeman drives this integral doctrine when he uses the example of John 19. Jesus is being delivered up to Pilate to be crucified. The rest of the Gospel accounts tell us that he has been silent during the questioning of the chief priests during their kangaroo court. Now, he’s before the most powerful man in all of Jerusalem, one who has the power to take his life.
What does Jesus say? “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.”
This should provide a wake-up call to the church. Politics is not the final judgement; God is. The government does not have complete authority; God does. Our political party or policy position should not have our complete submission; God should. A biblical worldview then, shows us that God is ultimately in control. We should turn our anger and dissatisfaction into zeal, longing to see hearts and minds changed by the gospel and desiring the see our neighbors and societies flourish.
Glossary of terms:
Devolved government: Powers given to local politicians in Northern Ireland that were originally under the control of Westminster.
Stormont: A building that is home to Northern Ireland’s devolved government.
Department of Enterprise: Full title: Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment. A department that is in charge of developing plans for Northern Ireland’s economic policy, encompassing a host of services from tourism to consumer affairs.
Good Friday agreement: An agreement made between the two main political parties (Sinn Fein and Democratic Unionist Party) enabling Northern Ireland to sustain a devolved Government.
Nationalist: Political motives lie with uniting Northern Ireland (UK) with the Republic of Ireland.
Unionist: Political motives lie with continuing the union with the United Kingdom.
Executive formation: This phrase is used within the bill to summarize the law that is being delayed until Oct. 21. The law calls for secretary of state (Karen Bradley MP) to call a general election in Northern Ireland to overcome the impasse.
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]]>The Muslim call to prayer filled the Central Asian village. All the men in the house slowly rose from the floor cushions to cleanse themselves for prayer — all except the one Western visitor in a private guest room. Mohammed’s heart beat as fast as a hummingbird’s wings. He had waited years for this moment
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]]>The Muslim call to prayer filled the Central Asian village. All the men in the house slowly rose from the floor cushions to cleanse themselves for prayer — all except the one Western visitor in a private guest room. Mohammed’s heart beat as fast as a hummingbird’s wings. He had waited years for this moment to transpire.
“I will stay with our guest,” he said, stroking his long black beard. Since hospitality and honoring guests are highly valued among Central Asians, the others nodded in agreement. Cultural standards dictated a guest should never be left alone. Mohammed could pray after the group returned.
Once he was certain the other men were gone, Mohammed leaned toward the guest and whispered, “All my life, I have wanted to be near to God.” With 10 minutes of privacy, the middle-aged Muslim man asked the visitor questions about a Bible passage he had read years ago. The guest wanted to give Mohammed a copy of the New Testament in his own language, but he wouldn’t be able to return to this newfound seeker’s far-flung village without raising suspicions. They would need to find a time when Mohammed could visit the city.
What is an unreached group?
The concept of a person or group being unreached can be difficult to grasp in America where multiple churches exist on the same block. But in many parts of the world, this is not the case. A people group is considered unreached when less than 2% of its population is Christian and when that group lacks the momentum to see their people discipled. Simply put, when a people group is unreached, this means that from the time a person is born until the day they die, they do not have a chance to hear who Jesus truly is.
People who reside in an unreached country can’t walk down the street to a church to ask questions about Jesus, and it’s unlikely they’ll find a Christian in their community. If there are believers present, they are often not open about their new faith because of the persecution and high level of personal cost that comes with leaving their former faith behind. In parts of Central Asia, for example, it’s still illegal for a Muslim to become a Christian.
According to the Joshua Project, 42.5% of the world is unreached with the gospel. This includes 61% of people (about five billion) who reside in the 10/40 Window — an area between 10 degrees north and 40 degrees north latitude that stretches across Asia, the Middle East, and northern Africa.
The Bible’s call to care for the unreached
Christians have a role to play in ensuring those without the gospel get access to it. Some believers go as missionaries to preach the gospel in hard places. But if we aren’t called to go to the unreached, then an important way we can participate in this work is through prayer (Isa. 49:6). In Acts 10, God leads the way for Gentiles to hear the gospel by sending two visions — one to Cornelius and another to Peter. While there are many important truths in this text, I want to point out three that relate to our responsibility as believers to care for the unreached.
First, Cornelius needed someone to share the gospel with him. Cornelius was not a follower of Jesus yet, but when we meet him in Acts 10, he was being drawn to God. Cornelius had “a zeal for God,” but he didn’t yet have the full picture. The Bible tells us that “no one seeks for God” (Rom. 3:11) — that no amount of morality or religious devotion can lead to salvation — but the seeking prayers of a person who hasn’t yet been made new can serve as a springboard to their later coming to know Christ.
Acts tells us that Cornelius’ prayers and alms were acceptable to God (10:4). We can attribute this to God’s grace in his life (Eph. 2:8, Gal. 1:15) — grace that God brought to fullness when he sent Peter to Cornelius’s home. God handpicked the apostle to share the good news with Cornelius so that the Gentiles could repent, believe, and become a part of the global church (10:45; Rom. 10:17).
Second, Peter learned that God’s salvation plan includes the Gentiles. Through a vision, Peter learned that gospel was intended for every nation who fears God (10:35). The vision centered around food initially, but Peter quickly began to understand that God was talking about more than food. God was indicating that “all people are clean” and can become followers of Jesus (10:35). When Peter entered Cornelius’ home, it went against all the Jewish traditions and customs he’d been taught (see Lev. 20:24–26). But though he’d learned not to mingle with Gentiles, Peter now proclaimed the reality that God was making the two divided groups into one.
When Peter preached to Cornelius’ household, he emphasized the fact that God is the Lord of all — over everyone and everything (10:34, 43, and 47). Peter repeats the word “all” several times (10:36, 38, 43) in his sermon. He’s making the point that God’s plan — since Old Testament times — has been to save people from every nation (cf. Deut. 10:17; 2 Chron . 19:7; Job 34:19). God does not show partiality; his purpose is to save people from around the world, not just the Israelites (Gen. 12:3; Isa. 49:6; Psa. 67:2).
Third, the inclusion of the Gentiles is a fulfillment of the Great Commission. It’s the mission mandate in action (Matt. 28:18–20). God was clearly orchestrating the Acts 10 events. He sent both Cornelius and Peter visions, and through both men’s obedience and the work of the Holy Spirit, many Gentiles were saved. Across the globe, God is drawing people from every tribe, tongue, and nation to himself. He works in a variety of ways: through dreams, visions, healing works, and through the witness of individual believers who share the gospel.
How your family can pray for the unreached
As we see in Acts 10, God desires that all people to know and worship him. It is his purpose to include those without access to the gospel. As Christian parents, we can share God’s heart for the unreached with our children. Through our prayers, we can take an active role in caring for unreached people like Mohammed who waited years to meet a Christian.
God wanted Cornelius to hear the gospel, and he sent Peter to proclaim the good news. If God cares about saving those in places where the gospel hasn’t reached yet, then we should find delight in praying for those still waiting to hear the good news. Here are five resources your family can use as you care and pray for unreached people:
- You can pray for Bible translation work using Wycliffe’s Bible Translators children’s book, Around the World With Kate and Mack: A Look at Languages From A to Z. This resource engages children with the impact Bible translation has on communities around the world, and it fosters a heart to pray for the Bible to continue to be translated into more languages.
- Pray through different countries and people groups around the world using Window on the World: An Operation World Prayer Resource. This made-for-kids missionary prayer book provides insight into what life is like for people in different countries and regions of the world, and it gives prayer prompts that families can use to pray for the people in each country to be reached with the gospel.
- Read Rivers Overseas, a children’s picture book that shares about how some are called to go overseas to share the gospel. The book will help children understand how God is faithful to those he calls to go.
- Download the free Loving Northern Africa and Middle Eastern Peoples Family Activities resource from the International Missions Board. This five-day devotion allows children to learn more about the culture and needs of unreached people in the NAME region.
- Finally, you can sign up for a Joshua Project newsletter and pray for an unreached people group each day. The daily email lists an unreached people group and a prayer focus for that group. During your dinner meal, on the way to school, or before bed — whatever fits your family’s schedule — you can incorporate the daily unreached group into your prayer time.
Because Peter was a key leader in the Jerusalem church, God wanted him to be an early part of his new work among the nations. Later, when Paul was sent on his missionary journeys, he became known as the apostle to the Gentiles, but God also wanted those who were not working to reach unreached groups as their full-time work to understand God’s bigger plan.
Peter’s ministry focus wasn’t shifting — he would still primarily focus on sharing the gospel with the Jews (Gal. 2:8) — but God wanted him to embrace the larger mission, so he gave Peter a front-row seat for the enfolding of the Gentiles into the church. God wants our families to have a front-row seat as well. We can teach our children that God is a God for all peoples by regularly praying for unreached people like Cornelius and Mohammed.
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]]>One of the most discouraging things in my walk with Jesus has been seeing Christian leaders fall. At this point in my life, I’ve seen it happen so many times that it is hardly surprising anymore. In fact, at times I feel numb to it. It seems like every year, and sometimes every week, there
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]]>One of the most discouraging things in my walk with Jesus has been seeing Christian leaders fall. At this point in my life, I’ve seen it happen so many times that it is hardly surprising anymore. In fact, at times I feel numb to it. It seems like every year, and sometimes every week, there is news of a different Christian leader, on some level, who has fallen into moral failure. Most recently, it was the lead pastor of Hillsong Church in New York City, who was dismissed from the church earlier this month due to an extramarital affair. Following the news of his firing, social media was filled with a range of responses. Some mocked Lentz for his brand of cool Christianity. Others expressed their disapproval and regret to see another Christian leader fall. But many who had been influenced by Lentz expressed emotions of hurt and confusion.
Moral failure
Seeing some of those responses, particularly those reflecting pain and doubt in the wake of seeing a spiritual leader fall, made me think again about the issue of moral failure. Moral failure brings about a great deal of fallout. It marks the end of ministries. It marks the end of marriages. It devastates families. As the apostle Paul said it “makes shipwreck” of faith, but not only of the faith of the one who fell (1 Tim. 1:19).
In the aftermath of a leader’s moral failure, great damage is done to those who looked to that person for guidance. This is because Christian leaders have much more than benign influence. For those under their spiritual care, such leaders are living pictures of Jesus. In their lives, words, and actions, they model what it means to follow Christ. And whether they intend to or not, their lives serve as a sort of validation of the gospel. Seeing some live in a way that demonstrates the authenticity of conversion and new birth verifies that Christianity itself is based upon something real and true.
It’s no wonder seeing a spiritual leader fall is so painful. At the very least, as a result of their fall, many begin to second-guess the things you learned from them. Were those things really true? Or were they simply expedient in some way you didn’t recognize before because you never thought to question them? And sometimes the result is much worse, leading not merely to doubts about the lessons that person taught but the faith he or she represented. Few things are more jarring than seeing someone who has shown Jesus to you fall into sins that repudiate the very things you most admired about them.
Christian faithfulness
I’ve seen Christian leaders try to hedge against this problem by speaking regularly about their own brokenness. Reminding those under your care about your own humanity and fallenness is, in general, a good practice. A Christian leader who never admits to struggling with sin isn’t doing any favors to those they are leading for a number of reasons. All of us are broken and struggle with sin. And inevitably, even the most faithful among us will still fall short in ways that disappoint and cause pain to those around us. But simply reminding others of our own sinfulness is neither a remedy for our sin nor a bulwark against its effects.
Faithful Christian leaders recognize two things at the same time. First, they know that Jesus alone is perfect. But second, they know that our fallenness is no excuse for unfaithfulness.
There is a reason the apostle Paul instructed the Corinthians to follow his example (1 Cor. 11:1). Paul was an apostle. He was not a superhero. By instructing those believers to follow him, he was not setting up a precedent that the rest of us are just supposed to ignore. Instead, he was showing us what it looks like to follow the example of Jesus who instructed us to go and make disciples (Matt. 28:19). A disciple is a follower. And though we are all called to be followers of Jesus, we learn what that looks like through the example of believers who are ahead of us in the faith.
Faithful Christian leaders recognize two things at the same time. First, they know that Jesus alone is perfect. But second, they know that our fallenness is no excuse for unfaithfulness. Christian leadership is a burden. This is the reason that James says that “not many of you should be teachers” (3:1). But those who assume the burden of Christian leadership really are expected to walk in a manner worthy of imitation. Our sinful nature does not lessen that burden. And knowing that, we should commit to memory the words of Hebrews 12, “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, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.”
Keep watch
If the stories I know of Christian leaders guilty of significant moral failure are any example, none of us should assume that we are safe from future sin because our lives seem to be on track right now. The Scriptures are filled with warnings about the insidious nature of sin. Peter tells us that the devil prowls as a lion looking for someone to devour (1 Pet. 5:8). Paul not only tells us to keep a close watch over our lives and doctrine, but admonishes us that anyone who thinks he stands should take heed lest he fall (1 Tim. 4:16; 1 Cor. 10:12). The point could not be more apparent: we are always in danger of falling into sin.
You might be tempted to explain away the moral failure of others. But what happened to Carl Lentz can just as easily happen to you. It may come in a different form, but temptation is coming for you all the same (Gen. 4:7). Sin is no respecter of persons. And the devil seeks your destruction. I’ve had to remind myself that numbness is not the answer to revelations of moral failure among believers. Nor is judgement. Instead, I have resolved that each time I hear about another leader’s failure, I will pray for them and pray for me. I will not ask how they could do such a thing, but ask that God would protect me from that which most tempts me.
It is a weighty thing that the lives and faith of many believers are bound up with a leader’s ability to fight against sin. But they are. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, Christian leaders owe it to Jesus and to his people to fight against sin with all they have.
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