Every Christian has been told to beware of the slippery slope.
If we start having women in leadership, before too long we’ll be ordaining them! It’s a slippery slope.
If your church tries to love LGBT people, sure as shootin, you’ll be going liberal. It’s a slippery slope.
If you welcome Christians co-habitating – living together, pretty soon everyone will be fine with that. That’s a slippery slope.
And so it goes. “Yes,” there are slippery slopes and “yes” we need to be aware of them. But how should Christians who want to be faithful to scripture engage these topics without heading down the slippery slope? Have it firm in your mind what you believe.
I remember a conversation with an older Christian, a great member of our church. I had just explained to him my conviction that every Christian needs to get to know some LGBT people. Have coffee with them. Get to know them as people.
But Clare, that’s the problem. I’m afraid that pretty soon we’ll get to like them and won’t want to confront them for fear of offending them and there goes the church. It’s a slippery slope!
Do you think Jesus was on a slippery slope when he hung out with tax collectors, prostitutes, and party-goers? Obviously the Pharisees thought he was and they were all over Jesus for doing so.
How did he, and how can we, avoid that slippery slope?
The best defense against the slippery slope is being so convicted of what you believe, and why you believe it, that you’ll not abandon what you truly believe, even if it means a loss of friendship.
I’ve been meeting with LGBT Christians and non-Christians for years. Many of them I enjoy immensely. But I know what I believe about same-sex, sexual relations and marriage and I’m not afraid to tell them, even if it threatens our friendship. They may not like what I believe, but I am not going to stop trying to love them. I have no fear of the slippery slope because I am convicted of what I believe.
Yes, there are LGBT people who do not want to meet again after I tell them what I believe. Now if I’ve told them in some cold, doctrinal language that sounds “holier than thou,” that’s my fault. But if I’ve spoken to them with grace and as respectfully as I can, and they leave in anger – that’s their problem.
The same is true for the other topics, one of my dearest woman friends is an ordained pastor. She knows what I believe the Bible teaches about women pastors. (I don’t want to get into that topic in this blog.) But the point is my views on women pastors have not changed in spite of our friendship.
Defend the Bible, not your opinions.
I can’t tell you how often the conversations on this topic, starts like this, “But Clare, how can you say…”
My response is often, “your issue isn’t with me. I believe God is clear in scripture on this question. As a follower of Jesus, I have no other choice but to make God’s position, my position. I actually wish your position was God’s, but I don’t believe it is.”
Could I be wrong, and have I ever incorrectly interpreted scripture? Of course, I’m human. But, if Christians abandon any clear teaching of the Bible to preserve a friendship, they’re going to have to answer to God someday for that.
The best defense for the slippery slope is studying scripture, getting good godly counsel and prayer, so that when you’re at the top of that slope, there’s little danger of a slide.
How following Jesus works in real life.
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