Day 10 of 10
How the Church Can Be the Church
A community where truth and grace coexist
Scripture Readings
Today's Reading
Read Romans 14:1-13: "As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. ... Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls."
Then read 1 Corinthians 13:1-7: "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal."
Reflection
We have spent nine days examining what Scripture teaches about gender, sexuality, and marriage. On this final day, we face the most practical question: what does faithful church community look like in a world of deep disagreement?
Romans 14 is Paul's extended reflection on how Christians who disagree should live together. The specific issues in Rome were dietary laws and holy days — not sexuality — but the principles are instructive. Paul says: welcome one another. Do not despise or judge. Each person stands before their own master. Pursue what makes for peace and mutual upbuilding. Do not destroy the work of God over a disputable matter.
Now, many traditional Christians will object: sexuality is not a "disputable matter" in the same category as food laws. And they have a point — Paul treats sexual ethics as a matter of moral teaching, not adiaphora (things indifferent). But Romans 14 still teaches us how to treat people with whom we disagree. Even if you believe the traditional sexual ethic is not negotiable, the spirit in which you hold that conviction — whether with humility or arrogance, with tears or with contempt — matters enormously.
Augustine preached extensively on 1 Corinthians 13, and his message was devastating: without love, even the most impressive spiritual gifts and the most precise theological knowledge are nothing. Not merely diminished — nothing. A church that has perfect doctrine on sexuality but lacks love is, by Paul's own standard, a clanging cymbal. This should terrify us.
Vaughan Roberts offered a practical vision: "The church should be the place where people can voice their struggles without being shamed — and where truth is spoken without being softened into meaninglessness." This requires a community where confession is safe, where questions are welcome, where people who are same-sex attracted can be honest without being treated as projects, and where the call to holiness is issued with compassion rather than contempt.
What might this look like in practice? It means a church where singleness is honored, not pitied. Where deep, non-sexual friendship is cultivated and celebrated. Where families open their homes and their tables to those who live alone. Where sermons on sexual ethics also confess the church's failures. Where the call to costly obedience is issued by people who are clearly bearing their own crosses, not by comfortable people prescribing sacrifice for others.
Paul ends 1 Corinthians 13 with words that should define every Christian community's posture: "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." This is not naivete. It is the hardest kind of strength — the strength to hold together when every cultural force is pulling us apart.
Going Deeper
This plan has not offered easy answers because the Bible does not offer easy answers on how to live faithfully in a broken world. But it has offered a vision: a community grounded in the goodness of creation, honest about the depth of the Fall, transformed by the grace of Christ, and marked by a love that refuses to choose between truth and compassion. What one step can you take this week to help your church become that kind of community?
Key Quotes
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”
“The church should be the place where people can voice their struggles without being shamed — and where truth is spoken without being softened into meaninglessness.”
Prayer Focus
Ask God to make your church — and you personally — a place where people can be honest about their struggles, where truth is spoken with tears, and where love is more than a slogan.
Meditation
Imagine a gay Christian walking into your church for the first time. What would they experience? What would they hear? What would they feel? Be honest.
Question for Discussion
Romans 14 tells us to 'welcome one who is weak in faith, but not to quarrel over opinions.' How do you determine which issues are matters of core doctrine and which are matters of conscience — and how does your answer to that question shape how you treat fellow believers who disagree with you on sexuality?