A pastor's response to Alistair Begg's gay wedding advice
A few years ago, I had the privilege of attending a pastor’s luncheon at Focus on the Family with guest speaker Alistair Begg. I jumped at this opportunity and thoroughly enjoyed my time listening to Pastor Begg rightfully divide the Word of God and encourage us pastors with the importance of faithfulness to God and His Word.
Recently, Pastor Begg was criticized and the American Family Association removed his program “Truth For Life” from their programming because of his advice about whether a Christian should attend a same-sex ceremony.
Pastor Begg believes that if the person you are supporting knows you don’t approve, it is okay to attend and “bring a gift.”
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Begg went on to explain that Christians not attending such a ceremony could reinforce “judgmental” stereotypes the culture holds about the Church.
Well, let’s break down Pastor Begg’s comments from a definition of countenance point of view and then a biblical point of view.
It appears Begg’s advice goes against the universal definition of “countenance.” If you disagree with something you are not only to disagree with it, but not allow it to happen — meaning, in this case at the least, don’t attend and certainly don’t take a gift! As Christians, when we engage in a formal ceremony, we are giving tacit approval to the ceremony we are attending and anything beyond this is a representation of approval.
Marriage is primarily a symbol of Jesus’ relationship to us the Church (Ephesians 5). Jesus’ first miracle was at a wedding. Marriage is the centerpiece relationship of God’s created world. Adam and Eve were not just the first humans, they were also the first male and female to be married, and the first two to give us the example we are to follow as a society. Outside of your relationship with Jesus Christ, there is no other relationship that is more significant. Once it is removed, tampered with, or redefined, as Romans 1 tells us, this is the beginning of the end. Once this occurs God eventually turns us over to a series of unfortunate realities that produce greater and greater self-destruction.
Now I understand the reality that we don’t want to be perceived as judgmental and we want to show love to our loved ones. The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:6, the great chapter on love, that love “does not delight in evil but rejoices with truth.”
God’s love has its limits.
A same-sex or transgender ceremony is not God’s design — it is evil. It is sin.
God’s love requires us not to go to a same-sex or transgender ceremony. And if we go, we are functioning outside of God’s love and delighting in evil. God requires our love not to delight in evil and not to rejoice in falsehood. We have a responsibility to our loved ones to turn our countenance from them because we love them.
If I apply Pastor Begg’s approach to other areas of my life, then when someone needs an abortion, and although I don’t agree with it, I should still drive them to the clinic as a way of demonstrating my love for them. If someone wants to destroy their life through drug usage, but I don’t agree with it, I should still give them a place to live while they pump their bodies full of substances. Does this make any sense?
Sometimes love requires you to choose Jesus over the human relationships of your life when their choices go against the life Jesus has called us to live.
Jesus spoke of this in Luke 14:26, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
Do you want to be perceived as nonjudgmental by the people in your life or do you want to be known as a disciple of Jesus? The choice is yours.
God’s love requires us to choose wisely.
Kelly Williams is co-founder and senior pastor of Vanguard Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. His books include: The Good Pastor, The Mystery of 23, Friend of Sinners and Real Marriage. He also maintains a blog.
