Woe to those who call evil good, and
good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who
substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Isaiah 5:20 (NASB)
The
world is surely a place of conflict these days, isn't it? It seems that every
day the news bring some new assault against our faith and our Lord. What is
evil is being promoted as good, and what is good is being spoken of as being
evil. The voices that speak these things are loud and far reaching, even to the
ends of the civilized world.
I just
re-learned this lesson recently after responding to something that was on our
local news. One young man in our area is running for Homecoming Queen. He has
decided he is a girl and has told the world about it over social media. The point
of my commentary was that it is intellectually and factually dishonest to agree
with this young man that he is a female, regardless of what he says, how he
dresses, and most importantly how he feels. While my response to this news
story was only factual, not overtly spiritual or emotional, I can’t say that
for those who commented on what I said. The filthy, vile, hateful responses
were breathtaking. Some of those who disagreed with me told me I was a bigot,
others wished I would get cancer, that I would have children or grandchildren
who would be sick, that I would be assaulted, and so on.
Therefore,
take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil
day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Ephesians 6:13 (NASB)
It is so easy to be pushed back
by these forces for "change" and "progress" that we are
faced with every day, and hard to stand firm against the tide. It is not always
easy to pray for those folks and not to be hateful and retaliatory against them
and their rhetoric. Hopefully, our desires are born out of righteousness and a
zeal for truth but I suspect that too often we simply get angry and sin in that
anger.
The sad reality is people without
Christ will one day have to face God and account for what they have said and
done in the flesh and in their thoughts. They will be held accountable for
every wicked deed.
While the Christian will not face
such a bar of judgment, that does not give us the right to hate or to store up
that hate in our hearts toward them. We are to let no bitter root spring up
(Heb. 12:15) so we do not defile and pollute those around us. Bitterness and
sinful anger do not glorify God.
Our true enemy the devil wants us
to hate and lie and partake of every wicked thing. Jesus' desire for His
children is to love and overcome evil with good.
Do not be overcome by evil, but
overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:21 (NASB)
What is to
be our role and response when this subject comes up? How can we approach the
subject of transgender and sexual identity in ways that are gospel centered?
I believe it
is unkind to allow someone to persist in believing a lie. If someone is being
lied to, or is lying to themselves the kindest thing you can do is to gently
confront them with the truth. While the
truth may hurt and it may be unpopular, it is unkind to allow them to persist
in a delusion. Wouldn’t it be much better to help them to accept reality? To embrace
their God-given gender and work within it? To help them develop as people according
to the plan of their Creator? God doesn’t make mistakes. Every person is
created in His image and likeness, and every person is born according to His
will exactly as He wanted them to be. This means male or female.
The rub really
comes in when we bring God into the subject. People no longer like God and they
don’t want Him to have anything to say about their lives or their choices. They
want to be their own god and self-determine everything about themselves. What horrific
idolatry to look God in the face and tell Him He screwed you up. To tell Him
that He just got you all wrong. To tell Him you know better than He does about
who you are supposed to be. The pomposity is absolutely astonishing.
Prayer
is the most effective weapon of this warfare, yet it is the least used and most
abused. Many truly don't want to pray for unbelievers and when
they do pray for them the prayers are often focused on how the unbelievers can
be affected to make our lives better. We fail to realize that
a majority of unbelievers have not thought about Jesus or salvation through Him
once in their entire lives. We forget that we were once just like them.
And you were dead in your
trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of
this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that
is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly
lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the
mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Ephesians 2:1-3 (NASB)
When we were regenerated by the
grace of God we became His slaves (1 Cor.7:23) and we are now to do His bidding, not our own. The Lord God has
asked us to stand firm against the tides of evil and to pray for those who
perpetrate that evil. This will mean that you will have to wade into some
uncomfortable waters. You will incur
the wrath of people on Facebook, at work, school, or in your social circles. It
is not easy to stand alone in the face of the cruel vitriol that will be hurled
at you, but consider this: as a Christian, there is persecution in your
future. You will have to be strong in the Lord to be able to withstand what is
coming. Consider this practice.