The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love

I have begun to read a book by Jonathan Leeman called, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God’s Love.  In the opening section, he makes some very interesting observations in his analysis of our modern view of love and authority.  He uses this angle to introduce the doctrines of Church Membership and Church Discipline.  The following are some thoughts from that first section that I found interesting.  I apologize for any rambling as some of these thoughts are still under construction.  For a better treatment, I recommend buying the book.

It’s no wonder that most churches have left orthodoxy for an “all we need is love” mentality.  But, is it really loving to sacrifice truth on the altar of pragmatism?  This seems more of a love for self than God.  Pastors don’t want to sound authoritative, judgmental, or dogmatic because our culture frowns at that.  We are told Christians should be people who overlook sin and accept people just as they are in the name of love.  I don’t know where they are getting their idea of love but it’s not from the Bible. 

To tell someone that they are ok with God when they are not, is most unloving.  Many churches today hold the cure in one hand but choose to treat the sinners symptoms instead.  Many pastors feel the demand and supply what the people want usually in the form of moralisms and therapies.  The consumerist mentality of our culture has crept into the church.  People want church their way and if you don’t give it to them they will leave just as quickly as they came for the next best thing.  Many pastors know the greatest need but feel the pressure and minister to felt needs in order to fill pews and to avoid rejection.  At the heart of the matter, is an individualistic love of self on the part of the pastor and the people.

The unholy union of individualism and consumerism have conceived anti-authority-ism.  The God of the Bible, His Word, and the message of His church are offensive to the modern mind. 

The campaign that Western culture has been waging for several centuries for the individual has been a campaign waged against all forms of authority.  From elementary school through graduate school, Western educators have taught us to question authority: the authority of the church because of what it did to Galileo; the authority of the king because of his usurpations; the authority of the majority because of its tyrannies; the authority of males because of their exercise of brute strength and acts of oppression; the authority of the Bible because of its alleged contradictions; the authority of science because of its paradigm shifts; the authority of philosophy because of its language games; the authority of language because it has been deconstructed; the authority of parents because they are not cool; the authority of the market because of extravagant inequalities; the authority of the police because of their fire hoses and night sticks; the authority of religious leaders because they’ll make you drink the Kool-Aid; the authority of the media because of its biases; the authority of superpowers because of their imperialism.   -Jonathan Leeman

We like authority as long as it conforms to our self-conception of right and wrong.  We like community as long as we are allowed to openly express our individuality.  We like the church as long as it tells us that we’re all right.

However offensive it may be to our culture, our God and His Word are authoritative.  God is the source of truth and his Word is true.  He is Lord and King.  He sovereignly rules over all things and will judge everyone according to His righteous standards.  He will not sweep sin under the rug.  Christians are those whom by his grace have been saved from his wrath through faith in Jesus Christ.  Instead of sweeping sin under the rug, God sent his son to die on the cross for all those who repent and believe.  The life and death of Jesus Christ put truth and love on display for the world to see. 

Any church that exchanges truth for love has fallen into error.  The redeemed of the Lord are called to hold fast to the truth and to speak it in love.  The church should be the pillar and ground of the truth.  Its authority does not lie within corporate or individual autonomy but on God and His Word.  True biblical love has an outward focus.  We are commanded to love God and one another through the power of the Holy Spirit.  The expression of Christian love is always guided by truth.

A proper view of God and man, as they are presented in the Bible, puts things into a right perspective.  The church is a group of individuals created by God, under His authority, in community, to love and serve one another for His glory.  The pastors as well as the people of the church are sinners prone to error but striving to obey God’s Word.  Obedience encompasses the proclamation of truth as well as loving one another.  We must avoid the great temptation to elevate love or authority above one another for both are to be equally exercised in light of biblical truth.