Love and Saying No

I made the mistake of reading an opinion piece from the New York Times . I usually don't read from the Times, whether it's what they call news or what appears on the op/ed page, as I wouldn't even trust it as fish wrapping for fear of food poisoning. Anyway, in this piece, the writer attacks a political figure for things she said based on the Christian Faith which is formed by the Word of God.

The source isn't important, really, since the Times is by no means the only rag that considers it their "journalistic" (and I use that word loosely) and editorial duty to attack the Christian Faith and those who cling to it. And the target isn't all that important, either, as the world is fond of calling the Church a collection of hypocrites and vilifying Christians because we do not blindly accept every travesty of humanity--things like the GLBT agenda, abortion (in the name of the feminine agenda), et cetera and ad nauseam--in the name of "love." After all, "Judge not, lest ye be judged." "Love your neighbor." "Love bears all things..." 

In the end, sometimes the Church has to love someone so much that it says, "No." No, we cannot abide what the Word of God calls sin. No, we cannot look the other way. That doesn't make us homophobes. That doesn't mean we hate women. Rather, it means we love them so much that we do not desire to see them abide in sin. Jesus said, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me" (John 14:23-24). That means that Christians do not--or should not, rather, though it happens--choose indiscriminately what teachings of the Word of God that we keep and which ones we discard. If you consider yourself a Christian but don't take seriously what the Word of God says, maybe you shouldn't call yourself a Christian. "Be thou faithful unto death" doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room.

Do you love your child enough to say "no" when he reaches for a knife or a pill bottle? Do you love your friends so enough to keep them from climbing in a car when they're drunk? How can you then love someone so little that you'll let them live in a way that leads to their eternal death?

The world can keep what it calls love. I'd rather have the real thing.