It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
(1Corinthians 5:1-2)

Why is sin so comfortable in many, if not most, local churches? Why is it that a domestic abuser, for instance, is typically permitted to remain a member of the church? Why do churches far too often look like the world rather than Christ?

Forty years ago when I became a pastor, I did not fully understand the answers to these questions. In fact, I didn’t really even grasp how typical this thing was, and is today. I did know however, that unrepentant sin and people who claimed to be Christians but walked in sin, were not supposed to be in the church. I knew that because the Bible said so. And yet, I consistently met with strong resistance when I pointed out to the church board that sin needed to be confronted and if not repented of, the individual was to be put out of the church.

What is underneath all of this? What is the root? Well, now I know. It is this:

Most pastors – even in doctrinally conservative churches – preach an incomplete gospel, which is no gospel at all. They teach their people that a person can be justified before God, his sins forgiven, and yet still walk in sin. Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven – that is the motto. Holiness is disconnected from salvation. Justification and sanctification are compartmentalized so that you can have one without the other.

In other words, the truth of God’s Word is denied, watered down, made more palatable.

But the Bible is hardly unclear on this matter. When we are born again, we are BORN AGAIN. We are made new creations. We have heard the Good Shepherd and we follow Him. We have learned the truth as it is in Jesus. And thus, holiness of life is not optional. The Christian is not the old man but a new man created in Christ. The Christian’s mind has been and is being renewed. He or she has been given sight to see and a mind to understand that nothing – absolutely nothing – is more important that Christ. “This Word is true!” the new believer exclaims! Everything he or she used to pursue as the chief end of their life – has been relegated to a lower place. It is Christ, His Word, His truth, now. These are the things that matter.

Now think carefully on this. First of all, are YOU born again? Has there ever been a time in your life when your eyes were opened and your ears made to hear Christ and His Word? Or is your religion just something that you do when you have time and the other things important to you can be put on hold for a few hours?

I say all of this not only to challenge everyone to examine themselves, but to demonstrate that these vital truths of the gospel are being silenced in the churches (that is why big churches are big). The result is that a RASN (reviler, abuser, sociopath, narcissist) can be pronounced a Christian and on his way to heaven, even though he remains a man of the world, thinking just like the world, valuing what the world values, and would bail out the door of the church if anyone dare preach the truth as it is in Jesus.

A true church will not be a place where a RASN is comfortable. A true church is a church that teaches justification and sanctification as inseparable truths. A true church will tell people who show no fruit of Christ in their lives that they are still dead in their sins.