I have been noticing a trend in people who call themselves Christians. A trend that leads me to wonder if these people are even saved by grace. A trend in which they ignore the scriptures in order to try and satisfy their anger against the things of this world.
This is not to say that they are wrong to be upset at the things of this world. The world is full of sin and evil that seeks to destroy the things of God. However, there are things which we have been commanded as Christians to do as a prescription against these things and it is these commands that are being ignored by this growing group of people.
Firstly, the younger people (especially women) of this country are realizing that what they have been told about being sexually promiscuous is in fact a lie. It isn’t fulfilling and it can’t be engaged in without consequences. Because of this, they are turning away from hook up culture. This is something to be celebrated. Yet ironically, there are a growing amount of people (mainly young men) who call themselves Christians that will in one breath celebrate these people from fleeing such debauchery and then say such things as “The church should emphasize people marrying virgins.”
This is a terrible contradiction. We cannot simultaneously celebrate people changing or leaving their sinful lives, show them that there is a better, true, and good path to life, and then suggest that they might not be able to live that to its full extent. To put it simply, these people are the unforgiving servant and the servant who buried his master’s money. They do not forgive as they have been forgiven, they hold one’s former sin against them saying that it makes them unworthy to be wed.
None of this is to say that remaining a virgin until marriage isn’t good, it is. But that should be the message to those who still are. To encourage them to remain on the path. To those who aren’t, the message should be that all can be forgiven in Christ and that they will be born again and given a new spirit, one that delights in the things of God.
Secondly, as society is becoming more sinful and degenerate by doing things such as transitioning kids, doing one of the hardest things as a Christian becomes even harder. That’s okay. We rely on God to give us the strength to do the things that are difficult. The issue I see arising, however, is that more and more people are embracing hatred for their neighbor when they do evil instead of loving them as themselves.
These people who embrace such things do so, I believe, because they are looking for the wrong kind of justice. They are looking for a worldly, bloodlust kind of justice. A justice that enjoys and revels in the demise of the evildoer. A Godly justice is different. One would revel in the holiness and perfect justice of God and not in the demise of the evildoer.
These issues are tied together, they are rooted in either a lack of understanding of the scriptures and need to be discipled, or they have not been saved by grace and are born again.
I encourage everyone to keep an eye out for this behavior. Raise up your young men in the Word, be in the Word yourselves, sharpen each other as iron sharpens iron, and pray that God would cast out the goats from amongst your body so that the bride of Christ may be pure.