In a church culture where too many confuse God is love with Love is God a pastor will often face the criticism for his harsh preaching. It’s not that pastors don’t on occasion say things harshly, being human they do. However, for some harsh preaching invariably has more to do with teaching hard truths. Consider some of the hard things Jesus said:
Mark 7:8-13: You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” 9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)— 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
How about this one:
Matt. 7:21-27 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ 24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
These are example of hard teachings. And then there’s what Jesus said to an old religious man:
John 3: 3-4; 9--10: Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?
Was Jesus being harsh? Or was He being very, very loving and confronting a religious person who was lost and needed to hear the life-saving truth? Imagine Jesus telling a church person that all their religious deeds meant nothing without a heart surrendered to God (Matthew 7:21-23). All the works in the world won’t save. Would that be a nice thing to say to a nice person? There are too many nice people in Hell already.
Is it harsh to challenge someone to do something they normally wouldn’t want to do? Is it harsh to tell someone news they don’t want to hear? Put another way, is it loving to usher a nervous passenger into a lifeboat to rescue them from a sinking Titanic or continue to let them arrange the deck chairs as the ship goes down? Would it be more loving for an oncologist to tell a patient that “everything’s going to be alright—nothing to worry about…”letting leave the office believing they did not have cancer—- or would it be more loving to give them the hard truth that they have stage two lung cancer and are in need of immediate treatment.
Is it more loving to say the hard things or less loving? Is it harsh to tell someone things may not be alright and let them go on the path they’ve chosen as is? In our “Love is God” culture being nice is more important than being truthful. In a God is love culture we are better off speaking the hard truths even if we are accused of being harsh. That’s loving God and our neighbor. God is love and love is not God. Sometimes nice just doesn’t cut it because it’s worldly concept that elevates its version of love to God and misunderstands and wrongly applies “God is love.”