Grace and Truth (cross-post)
While I believe we as Christians must be compassionate to unbelievers—just as Jesus was—I believe this necessarily requires showing “tough love” to disciples and not hiding that from the unbelievers in our midst. I believe we do a great disservice to “seekers” when we butter them up to get them in, then start acting in tough love once we’ve “got ‘em”. It’s like a nasty bait-and-switch tactic.
The more loving thing would be to say, “There is grace, but there is also responsibility. Christ’s atonement covers all your sins if you repent, but the ultimate purpose of that forgiveness is to free you to live a God-glorifying life. You absolutely cannot use the Cross as a ‘get-out-of-Hell-free card’—that would be a mockery of God, and ‘Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.’1 If you would come to God, you must come on His terms: you must lay down your sinful rebellion, be washed of not only your sins, but your sinfulness, and be reborn by him as a new man—that is, a Christian (’mini-Christ’); one who lives as a son of God and desires nothing so much as God’s being honored and glorified in all his creation.”
The world does not hear that if our corporate worship looks and sounds like a rock concert followed by an episode of Dr. Phil.
