On June 26, 2015 a deeply divided Supreme Court of the United States handed down a ruling that redefined marriage on a national level, effecting every state. I will admit that I do not agree with this decision, I question it’s Constitutionality and its a sober moment for me. We can debate this all day long, but I believe that Supreme Court disregarded thousands of years of definition of the most foundational unit of society to answer what many are calling a shift in culture.

Notwithstanding which side of this you land on, the popularity of this event has taken front stage on social media, traditional media and the world stage. The White House and many other building around the world have been lit up in rainbow colors in celebration of this decisions around gay rights.

The reactions I’ve seen on social media ranged from expected, surprising, passionate, energetic, disappointing and just downright nasty. Some are rejoicing, some are confused, some are losing hope and some are lashing out with a narrative of decline and hate. Many who call themselves followers of Jesus Christ feel like they just got punched in the gut and are wondering how they should respond to this decision and how they should engage in the broader conversation.

My intent of writing this article is to think through how to respond as the Church when the law of the land and culture fundamentally changes the perspective of marriage and many other issues. Spending some time listening to conversations, reading headlines, doing some research and some soul searching…I started asking myself some questions that many of us might be asking whether we know it or not. Does this decision mean that the sky is falling? Does this decision mean that God abdicated His throne? Does this decision rewrite the Bible? Does this decision mean that a shift in culture trivializes God’s word? What does this mean for churches? Does this decision mean that we should lose hope?

To begin to answer these, let’s dial things back a bit.

We have to remember that God is a Holy God, which presents a big problem for you and me. God is separate from everything that is sinful and evil — He cannot accept sin. John wrote this truth in 1 John 1:5, “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.”

The rub here is that none of us are capable of living up to perfection by means of the law set up in the old covenant…so what did God do? In His compassion and great love for us, He allowed for a new covenant. A covenant that would be established by sending His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus became the true Lamb of God that took away the sins of the world to bring peace and restoration to a broken relationship between God and His people once and for all (1 Peter 3:18).

This is the true gospel – that God is relentlessly pursuing us with his love. This is why God stepped into human history as a man. That’s why Jesus is God Himself who walked among us, because in matters of love you have to go yourself! Jesus came to us, engaged us, and pursued us. He bled for all mankind sacrificing Himself to set us free, to set the record straight and to pave the way for relationship with God Himself – because He loves us that much!

God sent Jesus to pave the way for open access to Himself. When Jesus gave His last breath He said to His Father, “It is finished!” and what Jesus did at the cross is for everyone!

Here is where things might get uncomfortable. You either believe that the Bible is the word of God or it isn’t. Not pieces of it sprinkled here and there to justify our own world view or to support cultural relevancy…all of it as 100% truth!

Sad part is that we are all guilty of not taking God at His word.

So the million dollar question…is homosexuality a sin? According to God’s word, YES. But so is greed, lying, adultery, stealing, envy, murder, lust, sexual immorality, impurity (and yes this includes looking at pornography on the Internet)…I could keep going. Guilty of any of those?

Let’s be honest here, the conversation on family values and homosexuality is really not anything new or “historic” as the media would like you believe because both have shown up in culture since the beginning of time. I don’t stand alone in believing that this decision will hurt people and families, but the Gospel doesn’t stop thriving just because this stuff is generally accepted, popular or in the headlines. Jesus is alive and well and is calling everyone to Him.

Spend time in the Bible and you will learn that God establishes boundaries for a reason and for our own good. When we choose to ignore the creator’s manual on life and choose to do whatever the heck we want, destruction and ruin usually follows. Remember, pleasure satisfies only for a season!

Let’s step away from the Bible for a moment and into the research that Sociologist and Historian Dr. Carle Zimmerman of Harvard found studying the rise and fall of major empires throughout history. I encourage you to give his book “Family and Civilization” a read, but condensing it for this article he concludes that there are eight specific patternsⁱ of domestic behavior that indicate the downward spiral and imminent demise of every culture.

1) Marriage lost its sacredness; it was frequently broken by divorce.

2) Traditional meaning of the marriage ceremony was lost. Alternate forms and definitions of marriage arose, and traditional marriage vows were replaced by individual marriage contracts.

3) Feminist movements appeared, and women lost interest in child bearing and mothering, preferring to pursue power and influence.

4) Public disrespect for parents and authority in general increased.

5) Juvenile delinquency, promiscuity, and rebellion accelerated

6) People with traditional marriages refused to accept family responsibilities.

7) Desire for and acceptance of adultery grew.

8) Increased tolerance for sexual perversions of all kinds, particularly homosexuality, with a resultant increase in sex-related crimes.

Wow, you don’t have to spend too much time on the Internet or watching the media to see that these patterns are behind most of the headlines today. So before Christians start judging and coming down hard on homosexuals and people who support gay marriage, we need to take an inventory of our own lives first because many will find themselves in this list. Overall, we have done a poor job articulating our views of marriage because too many of our marriages have been crushed by divorce or infidelity and we are not living examples of what God intended.

Why do Christians expect non-believers to behave like Christians, when most of the time we don’t? Why do we speak out against gay marriage when we don’t deal with straight sex outside of marriage or adultery within marriage? Why do we hold the world to the same standards that we don’t hold the Church to? If you want to keep proving the non-Christians point of view, if you want to keep adding fuel to the fire, if you want to keep being completely ineffective at reaching the lost…feel free to keep on judging people, because people won’t stick around while you judge them. You don’t like it when people judge you, so stop doing it to others.

[Insert “punch in the face” here]

We have our own house cleaning to do to get back to a place where we embrace, embody and live the true Gospel. We need to show the world a different marriage culture that most of us Christians aren’t modelling. Let’s not only talk about marriage in terms of values or culture or procreation. Let’s talk about marriage the way Jesus and the apostles taught us to — as tightly integrated with the Gospel itself, a picture of the union of Christ and His Church.

Followers of Jesus Christ are called upon to be salt and light, we are called to be counter-culturists and the Church often thrives when it’s at odds with the cultures around it. These conditions have existed many times throughout history; this was the case in Ephesus, in Philippi, in Corinth and in Rome, which all held to marriage views completely out of sync with God’s Word. This was the culture Paul stepped into and he did not conform to it, he exposed it with God’s word. We are not called to be cultural Christians, we are called to be set apart and to not conform to the ways of the world. We are called to be transformed by the renewing of our minds through God’s word. If your views are cultural, you’re probably not reading God’s word closely enough.

So…

We don’t have to be culturally relevant to love someone.

We don’t have to fully understand a situation to love someone in the situation.

We don’t have to understand or condone someone’s choice to love them.

But we need to love people as Jesus does!

Good thing the Gospel does not define us by our temptations, but by the righteousness of Christ, shares Pastor Greg Laurie!

Jesus did NOT condone the woman caught in adultery — but He loved her. As the people began to put down their stones and walk away, the scene is left with this woman and Jesus alone in the town square. She is wrapped in nothing but a bed sheet and her shame. Jesus says “did they not condemn you?” “No, none of them Lord,” she said. Then Jesus says, “Neither do I and go and sin no more!” Wait a minute, what? Right next to this incredible tenderness, kindness, love and grace…in the next breath, Jesus says stop it because He doesn’t want to leave us where we are at.

Bottom line…if the love of God is not for the LGBT tribe, it is for no one. As followers of Jesus Christ, making fun of, mocking or insulting them does not make room for sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives. These responses are not characteristic of Jesus Christ and shouldn’t be characteristic of those who follow Him!

God’s love is for everyone and everyone has access to Him through Jesus Christ! That sounds great, but does that give people the license to sin? Can people do whatever they want under this covering of grace? Can sin run rampant — in our churches? …sadly enough it does in many.

Of course not! Let’s step back into God’s Word, specifically in Romans 6:1-14.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life… Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Yes everyone is saved by grace in Jesus Christ, but that DOES NOT give us the license or the freedom to prostitute that grace!

In this debate, I have noticed a majority find themselves in one of two church camps. A church that has given up on the truth of the Gospel, including marriage and sexuality, and has nothing to say to a fallen world. And a church that shouts with outrage at those who disagree and have nothing to say to those who are looking for a Savior. Jesus did not turn away from the lost, in fact He stepped into their lives — and He loved all of them!

Does everyone have access to God through Jesus Christ? Yes! Has everyone sinned and fallen short of the glory of God? Yes! Can Jesus heal and redeem our sins? Yes! Does He leave us where we are? No! With grace, He restored the woman caught in adultery and then told her to go and sin no more! With grace He will restore you and when He does stop sinning!

Remember when mercy and grace collided with your sin and brokenness?

Always leave the door cracked a bit because the truth of the gospel will always find a way when the time is right! The woman at the well symbolizes all of us who have used their best efforts to satisfy the yearning for love and completion. Jesus will always meet people at their well of sin and brokenness, so stop getting in the way!

We must stand with conviction to our faith and with compassion, with truth and with grace. We must hold to our views and love those who disagree or hate us. We must not only speak the TRUTH in LOVE; we must speak it with a Christian accent — set apart from this world. We must say what Jesus has already revealed, and we must say those things the way Jesus does — with mercy and with an invitation to new life.

I truly hope that there is tolerance left for those whose faith still teaches that marriage is the union of a man and a woman. As Christians, we must earnestly call on God for His intervention in our nation and then take action. To strengthen our own marriages. To speak the truth in love. And to protect our religious freedom.

Let’s continue to seek His Kingdom. Let’s continue to stand with the Gospel.

Let’s fear our God, but let’s not fear our mission field because this is the mission field He has given us. Let’s lean into Him and be encouraged. Like the early Christians; lets turn the world upside down again by out living, out loving and out giving the non-believers!

#LoveOne when Jesus went to the cross and rose again! Remember, God is still on the throne and that’s why #LoveWins!