The Church Must Take a Balanced Stance

I was reading some of the meditations we presented on the subject of homosexuality, a delicate and difficult subject, as we can imagine, but a very necessary one in the times we are living in.

And I was reading some of your responses. You are so generous in writing to tell us what a blessing the programs are to you, and let me say, that encourages us; it blesses us. We read your comments and the prayers you write, and we love to read the exchanges among brothers and sisters who build one another up, answer one another’s questions, and affirm what one another says. That is a great blessing, and it is what we so deeply desire, isn’t it, for this virtual community God is creating through God Speaks Today: that there be this kind of fellowship and this sense of community and family in Christ Jesus. It gives us tremendous joy to be part of the formation of this virtual Christian community in so many different countries.

But again, reading your comments and seeing that these meditations, specifically those on homosexuality, are meeting a great and pressing need in the lives of our brothers and sisters—and let me say that when I wrote them, I wrote them with a little fear, because I thought, well, perhaps this sounds a bit condemnatory and too heavy for these Internet meditations. But I have always believed that the Word of the Lord is a little sharp and cutting, yet necessary for the health of the body.

I think one of the Church’s great problems is that, by not addressing delicate issues, we sometimes fail to build up our brothers and sisters on matters that they greatly need help with, matters on which they need to know the counsel of the Word of God and of their pastors. That is why we ventured to make these comments, and I am glad to know they were a great blessing to you.

Seeing the gap, so to speak, that these thoughts fill, I have decided to continue a little further with the subject of homosexuality and open it up a little more to other considerations about the life of the Church in the twenty-first century: the challenges we face as the Church of Jesus Christ in a society that is continually changing, where the Gospel is being questioned as never before and societies are subjecting themselves to all kinds of social, ethical, and moral experiments, many of which question the truths of the Word of God.

I believe that in these times, more than ever, the Church of Jesus Christ must have a clear position, and it must be a balanced one that reflects the balance we also see in Scripture between God’s love and His holiness, between justice and mercy, between holiness and grace. That is why I want to devote the coming meditations to this, and I encourage you to watch the whole series or read it, whichever you prefer, because I believe it will be a great blessing.

I was thinking about the passage in Galatians 6. In this meditation I can only touch on it briefly. Verse 1 says: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore him in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest you too be tempted.” I only have time to touch on it briefly in this meditation; later I will continue to address it in more detail.

Notice here that, in the preceding verses, Paul is speaking about the balance between the freedom to which Christ calls us and not abusing that freedom by falling into fleshly and sinful practices that God does not tolerate and that He certainly punishes as well.

So we see that the Church has always been called to have a balanced position: to call God’s children to Christ-centered conduct that reflects God’s holiness, while also maintaining an attitude of mercy, grace, and patience toward the believer who is in the process of sanctification and needs time and space to reach the full stature of the character of Christ, as the apostle Paul says. We will always live in tension between those two dimensions.

And the connection I feel in my heart, in my spirit, with respect to homosexuality is precisely that, isn’t it? There are churches that place great emphasis on holiness, and glory to God for that. We must insist on it, and that is why I have put out those meditations on homosexuality, because there is a clear call from God to purity that we cannot compromise. But often the tendency can be simply to keep condemning and attacking people and denouncing sin, and we can forget the other side: the pastoral dimension, the fatherly dimension of the Church, in which we also encourage people to trust in God’s grace and mercy and always to see the open arms of the Father, who wants to receive the prodigal children, bring them back into the family home, restore them, and have a dialogue with them.

And I believe that people out there in the world must always see both sides of the coin in the pastoral life of the Church: on the one hand, the call to God’s holiness, and on the other, the call to trust in the Father’s mercy. I believe that, in this way, we can be much more fruitful and do far more good for people, and that is what I believe verse 1 of Galatians chapter 6 reflects. We will talk more about it later. May the Lord bless you, and we will continue reflecting on this in our next meditation.