Holy Sensibility vs. Compromise
God is holy. All His actions and pronouncements are holy. They must not and do not deserve to be compromised. The above represent subtleties in that they do not appear to be active or aggressive evil attitudes or acts. At least, that is how they might appear to us. But how do they appear to a holy God? Slighting or taking lightly His holy character, actions, perspective, or pronouncements dishonors and disrespects Him in every way.
Unholy darkness is so subtle that it may compromise relating to words or actions out of either ignorance or insensibility on the part of some Christians. Due to the subtleties, a greater need for holy sensibility or awareness needs to be encouraged. A first experience to this need for me came through another language—French.
My first two years of language studies for missionary service were spent in Montpellier, France: French in my first year and Arabic in my second year. Members of the French church I attended would invite me to dinners in order to assist my proficiency in the French language through conversation. One evening, I had dinner with two sisters. After dinner (Where I had to learn to eat potato chips with a fork and knife!) they pulled out a word game named Diablo (Devil). It was akin to Scrabble—composing words with lettered tiles. Unlike Scrabble where an unlettered tile could be used for any letter foregoing a score, this game had the image of a devil on the tile to be used similarly. One of the words needing another letter was “CHR__ST.” It was one sister’s turn to add a letter where she could. She placed the deviled tile in the blank space, spelling “CHRIST” with the devil’s image in the middle of it. Looking on, I was shocked and thought to myself, “I could never spell such a holy name using a devil to score. I would forego a turn and lose points rather than combine the unholy with the holy.” To me—without judging her, I thought such a move lacked holy sensibility. It was a compromise.
I was also confronted with a frequently-used French exclamation by even some believers. Coming from the States, I was familiar with commonly uttered profane usage of God’s or Jesus Christ’s name in vain, which is prohibited to all. It was a while before I recognized the French use of the word God in vain appearing at first innocuous because it didn’t damn anyone or wasn’t used against someone. It was simply, “Mon Dieu”! (“My God”!). Eventually, it came to me as virtually calling on God without really wanting Him. In effect, it is simply an exclamation calling on God in vain. It too represented a compromise.
Do these relate to holy sensibility vs. compromise today and here? There are an infinite number of ways, but following are a few.
Perhaps the greatest compromise of all is misnaming murder as a woman’s right, health care, or abortion. The term abortion originally related medically to natural miscarriage, not coerced miscarriage. It comes from Latin, “abortionem (nominative abortio) ‘miscarriage.’” In French, avortement (abortion) was still used for natural miscarriages when I was there. Not realizing this until later caused misunderstanding on my part. Please note holy sensibility so rampantly missing in regard to this unholy act against the most vulnerable and innocent numbering in the millions. Unfortunately, many claiming to be Christian fail to see it for what it is, i.e., killing a genuine human being in an early stage of life. This is compromise.
Another prolific compromise relates to identifying an immoral propensity, temptation, or acts to one’s position and union in Christ. The usage and acceptance of the term “Gay Christian” by so many is a compromise involving an unholy association with a holy union between a believer and Jesus Christ. No other sexual propensity, temptation, or sexual acts ever become an identity factor of one’s position or union in Christ. This, too, compromises the holy with the unholy.
One other compromise is accepting the rainbow colors in a flag or diverse objects—God’s holy promise and sign following severe judgment for evil on earth—for activism representing ungodly attitudes and actions. “I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be eliminated by the waters of a flood, nor shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth . . . I have set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall serve as a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. It shall come about, when I make a cloud appear over the earth, that the rainbow will be seen in the cloud . . .” (Genesis 9: 11, 13-14. God’s holy covenant sign must not be compromised with unholiness or sin.
God is holy. All His actions and pronouncements are holy. They must not and do not deserve to be compromised. The above represent subtleties in that they do not appear to be active or aggressive evil attitudes or acts. At least, that is how they might appear to us. But how do they appear to a holy God? Slighting or taking lightly His holy character, actions, perspective, or pronouncements dishonors and disrespects Him in every way.
Let’s pray for and exercise “Holy Sensibility” by not compromising even in the subtlest of offenses against God. “But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written: ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1: 15-16).
Helen Louise Herndon is a member of Central Presbyterian Church (EPC) in St. Louis, Missouri. She is freelance writer and served as a missionary to the Arab/Muslim world in France and North Africa.
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When God Became Heaven for Me
What’s better than a world without sin, sorrow, and death? A world with God. Yes, he will wipe away our tears. Yes, he will heal our wounds and cure our diseases. Yes, he will finally do away with that awful enemy, death. But those blessings, while infinitely great, will be as puddles next to the ocean of having him and being his.
People often describe pivotal moments in their lives as “the day when God turned my world upside down.” Some experience, some conversation, some trial radically reshaped how they viewed themselves, their lives, their relationships, and the world around them. Well, in my sophomore year of college, God turned heaven upside down for me.
I grew up in a Christian home with loving Christian parents, and had been a Christian myself for a number of years at that point in college. I read the Bible and prayed most days. I was part of a faithful Bible-preaching church and was surrounded by mature and intentional Christian friends. I was even doing ministry among high school students, sharing the gospel and discipling them in the faith. And then, in a moment—in a sentence—God suddenly flooded the gospel with new meaning, new colors, new intensity and joy.
To draw me deeper into the gospel, though, God had to first confront me, but it was the sweetest kind of confrontation, the most satisfying kind of rebuke. The sentence tackled me where I sat and has never let me go.
Christ did not die to forgive sinners who go on treasuring anything above seeing and savoring God. And people who would be happy in heaven if Christ were not there, will not be there. The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God. (God Is the Gospel, 47)
Question for Our GenerationThe gospel is the way to get people to God. The gospel is the way to get me to God. It was the kind of rare epiphany that is both devasting and thrilling. Devastating, because you realize just how much you’ve had wrong until now. Thrilling, because you have stumbled into a land you’d never seen before, an ocean you’d never sailed before, a favorite meal you’d never tasted before.
God is not just the only way to heaven; he is what makes heaven worth wanting. He is the great meal. He is the wild and wondrous ocean. He is the treasure hidden in the field and the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:44–46). John Piper presses home the surpassing gift of God himself with a haunting question:
The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there? (God Is the Gospel, 15)
Could you?
Could I? That was the question that turned heaven on its head for me. Could I be content in a heaven without Christ? And if not, if Christ really was what made heaven an eternity worth wanting, why wasn’t I doing more to know and enjoy him now on earth?
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Who Needs Grace More?
Thankfully, a good, loving, faithful, and kindhearted God provides grace for both the sinner and the sinned against in just the right portions as the need calls. Therefore, what should be done? What can we do? If you are the sinner, then pray desperately for the grace of God to work in your heart to forsake sin, turn to Jesus, and walk in righteousness. Ask for the grace of God to seek forgiveness, to be restored, and to strive for restitution. Thankfully, God provides this kind of grace. If you are the sinned against, then pray desperately for the grace of God to work in your heart as well.
In some recent conversations, I have been reminded of this essential question, “Who needs grace more – the sinner or the sinned against?” No doubt you have been both, as have I. Sometimes I have been the sinner – who certainly needed grace in the midst of it and afterwards. At other times I have been the sinned against – who certainly needed grace in the midst of it and afterwards, too. The answer may surprise you.
Grace for the Sinner
Sin is hard. When we sin, some desire, thought, idea, or thing has captured our heart. In that moment, the follower of Jesus forsakes passionately following Jesus in order to chase after something or someone else. The heart gets captivated by the shining something, whatever that is. When this happens, gratitude and significance for the love of Christ dims in light of whatever it is that has captured the sinner’s heart. In other words, love of something in your life carries more weight than your love for Jesus or your neighbor in that moment.
Jesus summarized the Ten Commandments with two. First, we are to love God supremely, more than anything else in life – with all one’s heart, mind, soul, and strength. This kind of love of Jesus provides the foundation for living. This love for Jesus anchors your heart and keeps you from chasing after other loves. The second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself. Therefore, when you sin against God or against another person, you have switched loves. In that moment you love something in your heart more than your love for Jesus Christ or your love for the other person.
When this happens, your attitude, words, and actions all rush forth out of your heart to express whatever it is your heart desires or loves. If someone disappoints you, you may lash out with your words. You may gossip, criticize, or be unkind. When another driver pulls in front of you, you may blow your horn, follow too closely, or complain. If someone does something you do not appreciate, you may judge motives, talk to yourself negatively about the person, get angry, or some combination of all these things.
Is grace needed? Absolutely! In this moment, the sinner desperately needs the grace of God. This grace of God is in the form of drawing the sinner back to a relationship with God filled with sweet fellowship which flows out of love for Jesus. Further, this grace gently corrects the sinner producing guilt and often shame, which should encourage the sinner to turn back to Jesus. This grace works to help the sinner identify the adulterous love in the heart, turn away from it, and run back to the loving and forgiving hands of God (James 4:1-10).
Grace for the Sinned Against
Being sinned against is hard. Someone chooses to love something more than Jesus or neighbor which results in sin. The neighbor takes the brunt of a heart gone rogue. Possibly it is an attitude. Maybe an unkind look or word. Of course, it can be so much worse than sins of the attitude or tongue. On the extreme end, laws are made to protect people from the extreme sins.
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Cru Employees Fired
Last year, after completing the ministry’s new mandatory sexuality training, the Mundells, who are both 42, said they raised concerns with their supervisors, the human resources department, and other Cru leaders, including the director of theological development, Keith Johnson. Each time, they said, their concerns were dismissed. The Mundells questioned whether it is Scriptural for Cru to allow staff to adopt LGBT identity labels—including identifying as “gay Christian” or using a person’s preferred pronouns—and to refer to same-sex attraction as a “disordering of sexual desire,” not sin.
One of the nation’s largest campus ministries has dismissed two longtime employees who publicly questioned the way it addresses theological issues surrounding sexuality and gender. Uriah and Marissa Mundell, who live and work in Austin, voiced their concern over Cru’s policies in a WORLD story published Feb. 22. Two weeks later, the organization formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ terminated their employment.
“Our primary concern is that the level of dissonance you have with Cru’s position on biblical sexuality that led you to go to public spaces to communicate your disagreement with the ministry,” the human resources department said in a March 13 email.
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