Why It Matters

I know, we Christians talk a lot about homosexual sin and abortion. And Alan Shlemon of Stand to Reason does a good job explaining one key aspect of why we talk so much about these things instead of just the Gospel. (It's short; you can spare 3 minutes.) But I recently ran across another reason why it matters.

In reviewing information about the Hobby Lobby case I read this on the Freedom From Religion Foundation:

FFRF notes that its original founders, Anne Nicol Gaylor and Annie Laurie Gaylor, formed FFRF "partly in response to unwarranted governmental and religious intrusion into a woman’s reproductive health decisions."

Do you see that? The original founders of an organization dedicated to promoting nontheism by legal force -- to removing Christianity from the public arena -- formed the organization "in response to unwarranted governmental and religious intrusion into a woman’s reproductive health decisions." Now, I'm sure you can all read that code, right? Because there is the claim that abortion is murder, these women formed an organization to block Christianity from the public.

Now, it is true that the world naturally hates Christ and His followers (John 15:18, 24). It is true that the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God (Rom 8:7). But Jesus's message to sinners, along with "Follow Me", was "Go and sin no more" and if we don't get across the dangers of rebellion against the Creator along with the answer to that problem, then we're not doing our jobs right. If all they hear is moralism, we're not doing our jobs right. If we're preaching good works without the necessary repentance that drives them, we're not doing our jobs right. Perhaps we're not giving a good "reason for the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3:15). Perhaps we need to check our motives. Is it righteous indignation or love? We aren't going to argue them into the kingdom, but we should avoid pushing them out with legalism. Sin matters because we have the answer to that problem. We need to keep both in mind.