In 2020, the highest court in the Australian Anglican Church, the Appellate Tribunal, allowed clergy to bless same-sex civil marriages. According to a report published by RNS earlier this year, a motion celebrating same-sex marriage failed to pass at the Anglican Church of Australia’s General Synod, but still won the support of nearly 40% of voters. Bishops at the General Synod also voted against a statement defining marriage as only between a man and a woman.
As a result there was a significant split in the Anglican church of Australia.
Over the last few years, marriage, along with abortion, the traditional definitions and roles of men and women, and many other central teachings of scripture, have been subjected to battles that a lot of Christian ministers simply do not want to fight.
But all such battles are inescapable. The question is never whether there is a battle, but which battles should be fought.
The driving motivation (we are told) for refusing to go into battle is always love, because, you know, love, love, love.
But this is a lie. And we know it is a lie because when the wolves threaten to attack the sheep over these issues, all we see are heels and elbows and a mass of shepherd’s crooks left lying on the ground by hirelings who have abandoned their posts. And by, “abandoned their posts”, I do not mean that they abandoned their pay cheque or their status. I mean they abandoned their task of defending the faith once and for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3-4).
This is because, as Jesus plainly says, the hireling does not love the sheep (John 10:13).
The Good Shepherd, by way of contrast, lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:15). And He does so because there is a battle. And He is willing to go into battle because He loves.
Taking one thing with another, I think it’s fair to say that much of the church’s leadership on these important issues has been lame, embarrassing, arrogant and compromised—not to mention polished and respectable—the last two representing the heart of the problem.
Many of today’s under-shepherds not only refuse to fight the error in front of them, but will even join forces with the world and do battle against the faith either silencing, rebuking or misrepresenting those who do fight.
Their line has been that those who put up a fight, fight because they love fighting, but that they, the sweet, respectable ones, stay out of fights because they love peace and harmony. But there is an inescapable binary choice here, one that is routinely overlooked.
Everybody fights, and everybody seeks peace. But with whom? What are the terms? By what standard?
There is always a battle, but where do we draw the battle lines?
We are to be peacemakers. But peace with what? We are to fight the good fight (1 Timothy 6:12). But fight with what? With whom? And why?
Like a backwards Ruth to Naomi, many shepherds have said to the world, where you go we will go. Your gods will become our gods. These are the kind that style themselves as lovers, not fighters. But, believe it or not, a willingness to fight is one of the key indicators of love.
Jesus fought because He loved. And no husband has ever received an award for standing to one side in a dark alley and calling for peace while his wife was being mugged.
And so, the point that I am making is not that they do not love fighting. My point is that they do not really love at all.
They do not want to be seen as enemies of the current thing, whatever the current thing happens to be. They do not want to do battle where the battle needs to be fought.
For them, Jesus’ command to love our enemies was conveniently reinterpreted to mean that we should have no enemies.
Jesus told us to love our enemies. Among other things, this implies that we will have enemies. The question is not whether, but which. Which enemies will we have? Who are they? Where are they?
Paul had enemies. In Galatia, he had those who were introducing social distancing rules so that the Jews wouldn’t catch any Gentile germs (Galatians 2:11-14). He also had those within the church who maintained that only the circumcised were true worshippers of God (Galatians 5:11-12).
Paul disagreed very strongly and very publicly.
Notice the way Paul talked about these enemies of the gospel. In Galatians 2:11-14, he flat-out condemned those involved as hypocrites. In Galatians 5:12, Paul said, in effect, “If you really are trying to please God, why stop at circumcision? Why not lop the whole thing off?”. Then, in the very next breath (Galatians 5:14), he tells the Galatians to love one another.
Paul’s rebukes would never in a million years be voiced by many of our pretty-boy churchmen. They would simply refuse to do it.
But any minister of the church who cannot describe for us a situation in which such strong language might be used in a righteous way to protect the flock from an enemy of the gospel is automatically disqualified from lecturing any of us on what it means to love our neighbour. If you can’t make it through Galatians 5:12, how can you possibly show us the way to live out verse 14?
Jesus knew how to fight. He also knew how to spot a true enemy.
His enemies were those who were willing to set aside the gospel and the commandments of God for money, status, likeability, or any other reason. His enemies were those willing to knee-cap the worship, faithfulness and fellowship of God’s precious flock.
He also knew what it meant to love. It meant some serious straight-talking. It meant dying. Not for the sake of a fight, or even a love of fighting, but out of deep love for the sheep standing behind Him. Sheep that He was seeking to save, disciple and protect at the cost of His own life.
Such is the way of all shepherds who love the flock. Such is the way of all shepherds who love the gospel.
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