Wolves and Sheep

FOX News headline reads: “Minneapolis pastor and church expelled over gay marriage.”[1]

According to the Associated Press which broke the news, Rev. Dan Collison was defrocked and the First Covenant Church, a founding member of the Evangelical Covenant Church, was removed from church membership on Friday night, June 28th. Their reasoning – Rev. Dan allowed a staff member to officiate an off-site wedding of two female members of First Covenant’s worship band. The church further issued a “love all” statement welcoming members of the LGBTQ community.

In the back of my mind I’m hearing Aaron Tippin belt out, “…you’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything. You’ve got to be your own man not a puppet on a string. Never compromise what’s right and uphold your family name. You’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything…”[2]

I can also hear my critics saying, “Here he goes again. He says this blog is about God’s love, yet he uses it to hate on anyone not heterosexual, white, Republican male.”

Critics and Christians alike, God can love the women in First Covenant’s worship band and still reject their sinful union. God expects us to do the same. Jesus ate with sinners, yet condemned their sin still.

“Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi’s house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him. And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, ‘How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?’ When Jesus heard it, He said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.’ (Matt 2:15-17, NKJV)

But Jesus never failed to condemn the sin.

“For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.” (Rom 1:26-27, NKJV)

Simply put, Christian, God loves us, but our sin separates us from Him. A church that permits open sin, especially one that condones sin, should not be defended. The wolf among the sheep is unapologetic, as was Rev. Dan in the FOX article. While the wolf may look like a sheep, it is his nature to destroy the sheep. Mistaking love of the sinner for love of the sin is a slippery slope that leads to separation from God and invites the wolf. Love sinners – just don’t slide into loving the sin, because that is where the wolf lives.

[1] https://www.foxnews.com/us/minneapolis-pastor-and-church-expelled-over-gay-marriage

[2] Tippin, A. (Performer). (1990). You’ve Got to Stand for Something. Nashville, TN, USA.