ENDORSING SOMEONE'S SELF-DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR IS THE OPPOSITE OF LOVING THEM:

A number of thoughtful Evangelical commentators (captured here by my brave and faithful friend Owen Strachan) have responded pointedly to Elizabeth Dias's Time story, "Inside the Evangelical Fight Over Gay Marriage." They have demonstrated logically, theologically and philosophically why the movement to abandon Scripture's teaching on human sexuality in order to accommodate supposedly Evangelical advocates of normalizing same-sex "marriage" and attraction is an offense to God and the Gospel. [...]

1. Those professed Evangelicals who are willing to jettison the Bible's teaching regarding homosexuality can no longer claim to be persons of the Gospel -- Evangelicals. In terminating their allegiance to the bi-testamental instruction about homosexual conduct, they are diminishing what God's Word teaches about sin, the eternal penalty for which God's Son died on the cross. Their exegetical gymnastics admit to a sense of desperation: We have to get the Bible on our side or we can't make our case to those who believe in it. The problem is, contort Romans 1, et al, as they might, Paul and Moses and, yes, Jesus still say what they say: Homosexual behavior is wrong in the sight of the Creator.

Matthew Vines, Brandan Robertson, and their kindred theological pleaders have every right to make their case and persuade others with it. But they are not Evangelicals. They might take counsel from Abraham Lincoln, who, in late 1862, was having a discussion with a Congressman named George Julian and told the following story to make a political point: There was "a boy who, when asked how many legs his calf would have if he called its tail a leg, replied, 'Five,' to which the prompt response was made that calling the tail a leg would not make it a leg."

2. Elevation of personal affection and sentiment over the truth of God's Word is sin. Consider the words of a pastor named Ryan Meeks, quoted in the Time article: "I refuse to go to a church where my friends who are gay are excluded from Communion or a marriage covenant of the beauty of Christian community. It is a move of integrity for me -- the message of Jesus was a message of wide inclusivity."

To use a profound theological term: Bosh. Jesus's message was indeed inclusive -- inclusive of those who would turn from their sin and follow Him (Luke 9:23). Jesus will include in His kingdom only those who will follow Him, the Messiah Who affirmed the entire Mosaic Law (Matthew 5:18). It pointedly excludes those who will not (Matthew 7:14).

God loves every person. He purposefully created every individual from his or her conception. But He never condones sin, even as He grieves for the sinner (Ezekiel 18:32). I know of no man or woman allegiant to the Gospel who hates anyone. Indeed, refusal to affirm as right that which is wrong is loving, because heralding the truth means not only proclaiming the evil of sin but the astonishing hope of redemption in the Person and work of Jesus Christ. That's what it means to be Evangelical. Anything else, by whatever name, is falsehood, and can never be affirmed as anything else.

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