Living among the Pharisees of Grace

Unlike when Jesus walked the earth, the Pharisees couldn't see past their own self-righteousness which is why God had to remind them that His gift cannot be earned. No one is righteous not a single one.  On the contrary, in our day and age we are living the inverse of this.  It's a "do what you want, God is love, don't worry be happy, everyone is going to heaven some will just have better seating than others" culture that has been created right under our nose.  While this has become the mantra of the world, regrettably the Church has jumped on the bandwagon. We don't dare to call out sin.  The church is in a constant state of "dishing out grace" and woe to you if you don't!  Church discipline and/or pointing out the sin is frowned upon and is considered to be unloving.  If you don't respond with grace then you are not being a "Christ-like."  The justificationto back up the inability to speak boldly, is to add a couple of "love one another" verses and move on.  See this post for more details.

It was just a matter of time before the "tolerance movement" made its way into the church.  Inside the walls of the Church it's known as the "grace movement."  Just like we've seen the results of it in our society, it's just a matter of time before this movement implodes in the Church.  Moderate-liberal theology doesn't work; it's not God's design.

You see, the problem with handling Scripture with a moderate-liberal ideology is that inevitably you will become a victim of your own ideology.  It is then when you'll want to uphold the "truth" of your situation and you will be confronted with a lack of regard for justice because everyone is professing "grace! grace!"   You'll shake your head at those people wondering "WHAT?! Did you not see what just happened here?!" Unfortunately for you, the inability to be consistent with Scripture, uphold truth, and to call out sin will leave you "drowning in grace," albeit a diluted version of it.

Grace is a gift not to be taken lightly, we should never be flippant about it.  It's God's gift to us.  I'll try to put it another way. Parenting. Think about the kids that are allowed to run free and self-discipline.  We look at that parent that constantly offers "grace" and think they are nuts!  Why won't they just handle the situation?  They are creating a menace that eventually the rest of us are going to be paying for. Just like a parent needs to discipline their child in a loving way, the sooner the better, so is the responsibility of the church.  We are fully equipped with Scripture and should not be afraid to call out sin and deal with issues when we see them.

Just like the Pharisees of Jesus day who were clearly being unloving, the same is true today of the "Pharisees of grace."  These folks are not being loving, rather their fear of conflict, quest for approval by their subordinates, and the search for the "popular vote" from their peers leads them to being self-serving.