For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.

– 2 Corinthians 7:8–9 –

In a world without sin, sermons on marriage would not be needed.

In fact, without sin, pastors might not be needed either. Or at least, they would not be needed to condemn sin, preach repentance, or offer grace. They might be needed to organize the worship of God in Christ—for God, the almighty, good, and glorious Creator would still be praised. Or, they might be needed to study the history of God’s world and to report their findings.

But, in a world without sin, heralds of the gospel would not be called to preach Christ crucified for wicked sinners, for there would be no sin. Nor would such pastors have the task of identifying idols and destroying every false idea that stands against Christ. Instead, they could just be unswervingly cheerful.

Tragically, in a world overrun with sin, many preachers have taken this path. Famously, when Larry King asked Joel Osteen about the eternal condition of Jews, Muslims, and other unbelievers, Osteen said he didn’t like to talk about sin, only about love and what the Bible says about Jesus.

Yet, what does the Bible say about Jesus? And what does Jesus say about sin? Quite a bit, actually.

The whole reason the Son of God became man was to climb the hill of Calvary and put an end to sin and death. Jesus’s whole ministry consisted of preaching about the kingdom of God and calling sinners to repent (Mark 1:14–15). Thus, it is a misnomer to speak of Christ’s love without addressing man’s sin (cf. 1 John 4:10). Unless we address the wrath of God, we cannot understand his grace or preach his gospel.

The Evangelistic Pressure to Stay Positive

To speak honestly, however, it is not always easy to preach the gospel clearly, because our world so disdains plain speech about sin, wrath, judgment, and hell. Equally, our world has so misshapen its understanding of love that Christians are tempted to tone down their speech in order to have a relationship with others. But what good is love, if we cannot speak truth? If Paul thinks that prophetic speech without love sounds like a noisy gong or a clanging symbol (1 Cor. 13:1–3), he also declares that love without truth is equally unloving (1 Cor. 13:6). Yet, this is exactly the pressure we face today.

In our me-first world, it is only fitting to speak in tones of affirmation and approval. It is equally uncomfortable and unloving to call out sin and to separate ourselves from those who celebrate it. Yet, this is something Christians, living in the negative world, must learn to do. Indeed, the call is not to leave the world (1 Cor. 5:11–13), but to engage the world without becoming like the world (1 John 2:15). For as James says, to love the world is to become an enemy of God (James 4:4). And this is where the pressure to be positive becomes a snare.

If we’re honest, all of us, preachers included, would prefer to say nice, affirming, encouraging things. But in Scripture, those who say “Peace, Peace” when there is no peace are the false prophets (Jer. 6:14). The true prophets, by contrast, are the ones who look at God’s people and say, “Repent and Return to God.”

The willingness of these prophets to confront sin did not earn them approval from their peers, but anger. Jeremiah was ridiculed and rejected for his willingness to call out the sins of Israel. And Jesus was identified with Jeremiah (Matt. 16:14) for the way he condemned the leaders of Israel, too. So, clearly faithful messengers are controlled by the unchanging truth of God, not the everchanging feelings of their audience. For as Paul says, to fear man is to surrender ones place as a servant of God (cf. Gal. 1:9).

Yet, such a faithful ministry will offend as many as it attracts. And if one is not careful, the desire to maintain close relationships for the sake of evangelism, will render that evangelism null and void.

Preaching Christ in Negative World

Consider how this works: Today, nothing leads faithful pastors to change their message more than the pressure of staying positive. Indeed, for decades it was possible in a world positive, or neutral, to Christianity to preach Christ faithfully and to be seen as a loving, positive, and personable minister of the gospel. Pastors who preached against sin, even sexual sin, were once embraced as positive figures in the community.

But is no longer the case.

After Obergefell (2015), the negativity towards Christians, and Christians who speak plainly against same-sex marriage or those who refuse to go to transgender celebrations are considered to be bigoted Neanderthals. Today, an unwillingness to affirm a sinful activity is perceived as a mean-spirited attack. Animus is no longer an objective reality; it is all in the eyes of beholder. And thus, preaching Christ in a negative world has become increasingly hard—especially for those trained to do evangelism positively!

The Positive World Counsel of Alistair Begg

I can think of few pastors who have been more faithful in the last four decades than Alistair Begg. Alistair, who hails from Scotland and has served as pastor of Parkside Church since 1983, has been a trusted gospel herald on radio, at conferences, and beyond. I remember the sermon he preached when I was a student at Southern Seminary. It was on the danger of pride as seen in the life of King Uzziah; it was exactly what I needed to hear as a young seminarian. Just the same, his last message at Together for the Gospel was excellent, as it pushed against wokeness. Even recently, he preached a series of sermons against same sex marriage at a California college. He received backlash for this, as he expounded Romans 1.

So in short, Alistair is a faithful brother who has been overwhelmingly helpful to the church. And yet, recent events have rightly raised red flags.

In the last few weeks, this dear brother doubled down on his counsel to an elderly grandmother and her attendance at a wedding of a transgender grand-daughter. In short, Alistair attempted to argue that it was most compassionate, and even most Christian, to attend the wedding because it would give the chance to show love and to share the gospel in a surprising way.

Yet, such a surprising act of evangelism fails in a couple ways. First, it misses the fact that a wedding between a woman and another woman who thinks she is a man is based upon a lie, and invites the participants to celebrate such a lie. Second, weddings like this are not like other social settings (a dinner party, let’s say), which have no status of covenant-making. Attending this covenant-making ceremony, illusory as it may be, comes with the implicit communication of approval. And third, Alistair’s pastoral counsel is based upon sentiment, not Scripture. It appeals to feelings, not truth.

Therefore, the encouragement to attend the wedding for the sake of positive evangelism is an encouragement to bow the knee (whatever the individual’s intention is) to a false religion and a false god—the god of sexual self-expression. Biblically, however, this sort of evangelistic strategy is like bowing the knee to Nebuchadnezzar’s idol, with the intention of later sharing about the God of Israel around the punch bowl. As well-intended as this may be, the participation in the ceremony actually undermines everything at the reception.

So, Alistair’s compassionate counsel, as gospel-centered as it is, is not in-keeping with his years of biblical exposition. Instead, it fails to understand what time it is, or how to demonstrate love in the negative world requires saying “no” to those celebrating sin. Again, true love can never rejoice in wrongdoing; it always rejoices with the truth. And thus, Alistair’s bad counsel is a good reminder that evangelism cannot be the driving force for Christian ethics, for it only leads to bad ends.

More broadly, the need to share Christ positively in a negative world is going to be an ongoing snare for Christians, especially if pastors like Alistair Begg make ethical exceptions for the sake of evangelism. Accordingly, other pastors are going to have to explain why refusing to affirm others is the most loving way to share Christ.

Pursuing What Is Good, Not Just What Feels Good

Last Sunday, I preached on marriage and the need to define it biblically. And I began with these opening remarks to remind us that we who live in an increasingly anti-Christian culture must know what marriage is and what weddings are for. And in knowing those biblical basics, we must also resolve to pursue what is good, more than what simply feels good.

Even though morality is now defined by what feels good, Christians must remind the world what is good. Yet, this is easier said than done. Swimming in the same waters of our pluralistic post-modernism peers, we easily default to thinking that if I make someone feel bad, I must be bad. I must apologize. I must go to the wedding, even though it makes me uncomfortable. But notice the subjective nature of this whole thought process. It is entirely based on feelings—feelings that will lead us to oppose what is truly good!

In truth, our sin, selfishness, and shortcomings may make us feel bad; they may make others feel bad. But ultimately, feelings cannot define what is good. For if we keep our eyes on God’s Word, it is also true that our love for others, in calling them to reject sin and embrace Christ, will make them feel bad too. Paul said as much in 2 Corinthians 7, when he grieved over making others feel bad. Yet, that subjective grief was quickly overturned by the objective reality of genuine repentance.

Today, when are dealing with moral questions, we need to be certain we are not drive by sentiment and the feelings that are forced upon us by the negative world. Instead, we must engage the negative world with an unswerving commitment to what is true, good, and beautiful. We must let Scripture speak to what is good and what is not. And, by God’s grace, we must not move from our post, even when that means responding negatively to a negative world.

Today, countless pastors who have been trained in a world positive, or at least neutral, towards Christianity are failing to stand in a world negative towards Christ and his moral counsels. This does not deny their faith or their faithfulness in most matter. But it does mean that those who only think of evangelism in positive terms will likely stumble when it is necessary to bring a negative word.

Indeed, our world is no longer that of Roy Rogers ‘home on the range,’ a place where the deer and the antelope play, where seldom is heard a discouraging and the skies are not cloudy all day. No, our world is much more like the cloudy days of God’s judgment. And to a nation under God’s judgment, we need to beware of the snare of positivity.

Bold witnesses for Christ are needed today, and those heralds of the gospel need to know how to bring good news to bad people. And that means being free from the manipulation tactics of those who would make us feel bad for making others feel bad. Most of us are wired to make people feel good, and we are equally trained to fear the accusations of others, if we make them feel bad. Yet, these feelings cannot set our morality, our preaching, our evangelism, our decisions about weddings.

Instead, we must return to Scripture and ask: What does God say? And what is truly good?

Preaching the Good News in Negative World Will Mean Hurt Feelings

Again, goodness is not a subjective feeling, but an objective fact. And thus, we must submit all our feelings and decisions to those facts. This is what it means, in our whatever-works-world, to take up your cross and follow Christ. Only from a position of humble submission to what God declares good can we truly preach the good news. This is has always been true, but now in the Negative World, Christians who affirm God’s goodness will need to get comfortable being labeled all sorts of names. And sometimes, we will need to reject social customs and invite ridicule in order to remain faithful.

In truth, the gospel still works in a negative world, because the gospel is the power of God for salvation (Rom. 1:16). Yet, we will undermine that power if we prioritize positivity to avoid the name-calling. In positive world, such overly positive messaging came in the prosperity gospel of men like Joel Osteen. But in negative world, it may come from us, those who are most centered on the gospel.

And knowing that, we should not try something novel. But instead, we should return to the truth of God’s Word and to train ourselves to delight in what is good more than what feels good. For often, in our fallen world, what feels good is not good. And what is good does not feel good. Indeed, this is the way of the cross. And if we are to faithfully herald the message of the cross, we must know how to discern good from evil, and to live accordingly. For otherwise, we will preach a gospel disconnected from the world, and one that does not change the lives of those living in the world.

Already, many accept Christ so that they will feel good about themselves. But this is not the true fruit of faith and repentance; it is but a false faith that turns on individual. Many have been won to faith with with exclusively positive messages of Christ, but we know better. The gospel that is good is not one that just makes us feel good. Rather, the good news of Christ begins with the bad news of sin, and brings us to the bad news that we are sinners. Can we present that negative message, positively? Only at the risk of losing the whole message of the gospel.

As recent events remind us, knowing the difference between what makes others feel good and what is good is more difficult and more necessary than ever. And it may be most difficult for those faithful preachers of the gospel who were trained in a positive world. In this day, we need to recover a bold and loving witness that knows what is good, even when we cause others to not feel good. This is what Paul told the Corinthians and, for the sake of true evangelism, it is what we need to recover today.

For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.

May God help us know what is good, to love what is good, and to preach what is good.

Soli Deo Gloria, ds

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