Biblical Christianity teaches that Jesus Christ did not only come to seek and to save sinners but also to call them to repent from their sin. Jesus came to the world to deliver sinners from their sins, not to tolerate their sin and deviant behavior or accept them as they are.
True Christian love and compassion toward sinners include calling them to turn away from their sin and to resist their sinful thoughts and desires by the grace of God.
True Christian kindness also includes helping repenting sinners overcome sin. It provides a loving community that truly loves the penitent enough to tell them the truth that Jesus forgives and cleanses their sins when they repent, no matter how great their sins may be.
Remember that Jesus did not condemn the woman caught in adultery (John 4). Yet He did not condone her sin either but told her to go and not to continue in her sin. That's what Jesus meant when He told her, "Go and sin no more." True love necessarily hates and forsakes sin.
Liberalism in the Christian church professes love devoid of truth. It boasts on warm feelings not based on fact. Worst still, it denies the truthfulness of God's word ignoring the fact that although "they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things [shameful lusts, indecent acts, every kind of wickedness, evil greed, etc.] deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them" (Romans 1:32).
Liberalism in the Church will stay. It's been there from the beginning, at the Garden of Eden, when the serpent said, "Did God really say...?", "You will not surely die," and "You will be like God, knowing good and evil."
The seed of the serpent and the Seed of the woman will continue the enmity God has initiated at the Garden of Eden. These two seeds and their followers will always be at war (Gen. 3:15).
Those who follow the Seed of the woman will continue the battle against the children of the serpent, even if the latter pretend or present themselves to be followers of the woman's Seed. The followers of the serpent will continue to hate those who believe the holy God and stand on and live by His word.
Yes, God will surely save sinners who humble themselves. Yet, at the same time, God warns the unrepentant, those who do not take heed His passionate warning of the coming wrath.
Sin needs to be paid. It's either one pays for his own sin now and throughout eternity or trust in Someone who bore our sin and paid its penalty once-and-for-all. And He who carried our sins away also calls everyone to repentance from sin and obedience to God.
God saves and sets apart sinners, no doubt. But He cannot be mocked. "The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life" (Gal. 6:8).
Comments