How to preach morality in an immoral/amoral culture

 How to preach morality in an immoral/amoral culture

Premise: Christians, followers of Jesus Christ, march to a different beat—than non-Christians.  There are three things that are noted about this:

1.  The ‘different beat’ is all too often unrecognized.

2.  The ‘different beat’ is used as a bat or stick to beat up non-marchers.

3.   The ‘different beat’ needs to be permeated with the soothing sounds of grace and mercy. 

1.  The ‘different beat’ is all too often unrecognized.

What I mean by this is simple.  If Christians see the Bible as the source of morality (see last blog)—that lifestyle should be easily recognized in our culture.  Our culture is basically ignorant of the Bible—at best—or at worst—anti-biblical.  If you choose to be Biblical in your morality you are juxtaposed to our culture.  The problem that exists is simple—that’s not true in too many situations! Persons, reportedly ‘Christians’ are not following Biblical morality—that’s a problem!

2.  The ‘different beat’ is used as a bat or stick to beat up non-marchers.  This brand of Christianity is militant and uses the Bible as a billy-club to beat up the immoral/amoral culture.  Bigger sticks are needed to get culture to line up with Biblical morality. I’m not convinced this was the approach of Jesus as He ministered on earth.  

3.   The ‘different beat’ needs to be permeated with the soothing sounds of grace and mercy. 

If the church is going to be the church—somehow the Jesus persona must permeate the walls, songs, ushering, prayers, and preaching.  There is this rather disturbing portion of Scripture in Mark’s gospel: “That night Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to be his dinner guests, along with his fellow tax collectors and many other notorious sinners. (There were many people of this kind among the crowds that followed Jesus.). But when some of the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw Him eating with people like that, they said to His disciples, ‘Why does He eat with such scum?’” (Mark 2:15, 16). I read that at face-value.  Jesus —although highly moralistic—was well received by amoral/immoral people.  I don’t for one minute conclude that Jesus’ standards were low or immorality didn’t matter to Him.  However, His own personal understanding, belief, and practice did not hinder Him from loving and caring for people.

I am taking the liberty to insert an article I read by Hans Kung.

“The Church exists, not for the pious and righteous, but for sinners and godless men. It must not judge and condemn, for all the gravity of its message, but heal, forgive, save. Its inevitable warnings must not be an end in themselves, but a reminder of the offer of grace held out by God. It can never, despite all the graces it has received, indeed precisely because of the grace it has received, pretend to be a self-righteous caste or class of pure and holy men. It can never assume, that unholy, godless and evil things exist only outside itself. There is no part of the Church which is perfect, no element which is not endangered, frail, unstable, constantly in need of correction and improvement. The front-line between the world and the reign of God passes directly through the centre of the Church, through the heart of every individual member.

A Church which in these last days does not realize that it is composed of sinful men and exists for sinful men, must grow hardhearted, self-righteous and without compassion, deserving neither the mercy of God nor the confidence of men. But a Church which is genuinely aware that only the perfect reign of God can divide wheat from tares, good fish from bad, will be granted the grace of holiness and righteousness which it cannot create for itself. Such a Church will know that it has no need to affect a high moral tone for the world’s benefit, as though everything in it were as good as it possibly could be; it will know that its treasures are stored in very earthly vessels, that its lights are dim and flickering, its faith weak, its knowledge lacking, its confession of faith halting. It knows that there are no sins and omissions to which it cannot be tempted and to which it has not, in one way or another, yielded and that however much it continues to keep sin at a distance, it has no reason to keep the sinner at a distance also. The Church would be unable to enter the kingdom of God justified, if it looked down self-righteously on publicans and sinners. But if the Church, as the fellowship of those who are called to righteousness and holiness, remains aware of its guilt and sin, then it may live in joyful assurance of forgiveness, then in the dawning reign of God its unholy members will be saints, then it need have no fear despite the almost irresistible temptations to which it is exposed and despite its constant failures and mistakes. For the Church has been promised that he who humbles himself shall be exalted.”

-From The Church by Hans Küng

In this series of blogs I will answer these questions:  

1.  It’s a question of morals

2.  How to live and teach morality in an immoral/amoral culture

3.  Biblical morality—how’s and why’s

4.  Discussions on the ‘source’ for Christians