Christian teaching is not ‘hateful’: the stakes are too high to be silenced by that label
Hate is disobedience to God. "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him" (I John 3:15).
To rage against, physically or verbally abuse, belittle, or diminish the humanity of homosexuals is hateful.
To disagree is not hateful.
To stand for truth is not hateful.
To make arguments about human sexuality and marriage from sociological and demographic data is not hateful.
To object to the legal redefinition of marriage is not hateful.
To oppose efforts to redefine marriage in law is not hateful.
To believe in the uniqueness of male-female complementarity is not hateful.
To herald the Bible's teaching that sexual intimacy is reserved for the covenant of one-man, one-woman marriage is not hateful.
To assert that any form of sexual intimacy outside of heterosexual, monogamous marriage is sinful is not hateful.
To affirm the Bible's teaching that whatever one's sins (sins as defined by the eternal, final, clear, and sufficient revelation of Scripture), they separate him or her from God is not hateful.
To proclaim that the rejection of God's grace in Jesus Christ means eternal punishment is not hateful.
To tell others that God became man in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, that He lived a sinless life, died an atoning, substitutionary death, rose bodily from the grave, is alive today, and that He offers forgiveness to all who will trust solely in Him as Savior and decide to follow Him as Lord is not hateful. It is the most loving thing one can do.
All of the above are Christian teachings. They are not culturally conditioned or theologically malleable.
Those of us who are Christians love people too much not to graciously but unhesitatingly speak God's truth in God's love (Ephesians 4:15).
And those of us who believe these things will not be silenced about them or fail to live according to them in our personal, public, or professional lives.
Any of them. Ever.
It's a matter of love for God and those He has made in His image. The stakes are too high and the costs too great to refrain from talking about the One filled with grace and truth and His will for all of our lives.
Stakes and costs more important that social acceptance, secure employment, personal loyalties, or political viability.
Eternal stakes and costs, which we have weighed in the balance and found far weightier than anything this world can offer. Upon them we have based our lives. Upon them we stand.
Where do you stand?
