The current mêlée in the United Methodist Church is the division which centers
around sexuality and gender identification.
Somehow Paul’s counsel to Tiimothy is not sacred advice to a young
minister anymore. Rather, it has become an
inconvenient
truth, dropped from the comfort zone of denominational managers. When it comes to what drives worldly, culture-pandering
leadership to twist what Scripture means, even when that means obtusely ignoring
what Scripture has presented clearly, it is, sadly, a weaponized form of
teaching false doctrine. Paul advised
Timothy to steer clear of it at all cost.
When dealing with the Pharisees, (supposed) teachers of the Law of God,
Jesus tossed aside their pedigrees and prestige in two short sentences:
Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat,
but you swallow a camel!
Matthew 23:24
Swallowing the camel of law, and doing it in the name of grace, is what is
wrong with the current practice of swatting the traditionalist gnats in the
sexuality/gender-identification standoff, fueled by a higher commitment to political
correctness and denominational survival, than fidelity to Scripture.
In the name of “grace” progressive thought says all humanity is exempt
from law; there is nothing to forgive.
Yet, that kind of thinking lays aside the very substance of grace, as
being forgiving that which is unforgivable.
It says perverted sexual practices are not sin…therefore, there is
nothing to be forgiven, only embraced.
It belies the very essence of our vows in confirmation, to confess our
sinfulness, and reject evil in every form.
Without accepting the grace of God, admitting our sins, and accepting
that we deserve death, not a parade, we do not belong to Him, let alone get to presume
upon His favor. And that “camel” of
false presumption that God winks at sexual perversion, is swallowed by
unthinking (so-called) religious leaders every day.
For You Today
Continue to pray for
leaders who are trying their best on both sides of this morass of sexual
misunderstanding, especially in the halls of United Methodist leadership. May God’s will be served.
There
are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library. To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some
of these:
Paul's Legal Review and De-railed
[1] Images: via Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
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