“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” — Joshua 1:9
Charles Colson is one of my heroes. “Chuck,” as he was best known, passed away in 2012, while doing what he loved best, speaking at a conference about the Christian worldview. His many books, beginning with “How Now Shall We Live?” caught my attention in the early 90s, but it wasn’t until I attended a speech he gave in my home city that something he said that night really took hold in my heart.
It was a simple statement, and I have repeated it many times believing it to be absolutely true, “Crime is a matter of the heart and until the heart changes we will always have crime and the only one who can change the heart is Jesus Christ.” I believe you could easily substitute the word “crime” with “sin” which by definition is an offense against religious or moral law.1
After Chuck’s death, Anne Morse, his lifelong secretary and the managing editor of his extremely popular radio program, Breakpoint, put together many of his unpublished notes. It’s called “My Final Word” which was released in 2015.
One of the articles, among many that caught my attention speaks of courage and the reluctance of many Christians, especially pastors and leaders, to speak out on the cultural and moral issues of our day. He described a conversation with a pastor of a very strong evangelical church, who when asked about getting more involved in worldview issues and cultural battles of our day replied, “You know, my friend, I have one great regret about my ministry. It is that I got involved in the debate over gay marriage. Do you realize we lost several members over that?”2
Good grief! Are pastors afraid of losing a few members when they speak the truth? Where is their courage? Chuck responded, “What is grievously missing in today’s church is one of the four great virtues. I think the most important one is courage.” This was his definition of that virtue:
“Courage, by its very definition, means you overcome a natural fear of doing something. It doesn’t mean that you don’t fear it. Bravery is not a lack of fear; it is the willingness to do what you have to do, overcoming fear to do so.”3
God’s word is as clear about the institution and purpose of marriage (Gen. 2:24; Mt. 19:5; Eph. 5:31) as it is about the negative consequence of homosexuality (Rom. 1:26-27; 1 Cor. 6:9-11; 1 Tim. 1:8-11). Likewise on the issue of abortion, which is the deliberate taking of a human life. If we hold true to the Bible as the Word of God, then we must have the courage to take a stand even when it’s not popular to do so. Speaking against sin has never been well received by any culture—ever!
Recently, I had a surprising conversation about the subject of same-sex marriage with a leader of an evangelical Christian church. We were discussing the legitimacy and wisdom of his church entering into a financial agreement with a corporation that openly supports and promotes gay marriage and other LGBT issues (to the point of filing an Amicus Brief urging the U. S. Supreme Court to support gay marriage). This is what he replied, “But gay marriage is a civil right, it’s the law. So we must support it.”
My response was similar to that of civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr., when he challenged the established law of his day in regard to segregation, by quoting the great theologian Augustine, who said these famous words, Lex iniusta non est lex, “an unjust law is no law at all.”4 In other words, any law that is in opposition to God’s Law, is no law at all. The apostle Peter said it this way, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
Chuck finished his thoughts on the subject of same-sex marriage by concluding,
“If we’re not willing to fight this, even to the point of breaking the law, or refusing to recognize the law, then we will lose everything. I think our backs are to the wall, and if your pastor doesn’t have the courage to speak out on this issue, look for another church.”5
Pastors and church leaders are called by God to risk it all and to be faithful to the call of God on their lives, regardless of the popular message or the laws of the culture. Might I say that this applies to all who say they are followers of Jesus Christ, as well?
Maranatha!
— Pastor Don
Footnotes:
1 Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
2 Charles Colson, My Final Word, p. 145.
3 Ibid.
4 R.E. Asher, J.M.Y. Simpson, The Encyclopedia of Language and Linquistics, Vol. 4, Pergamon Press, 1994, p. 2058
5 Colson, p. 146
