Yesterday at The Story, Dr. Voddie Baucham, a renowned scholar, preacher, and author, delivered a profound and provocative message based on this passage from the first letter of the Apostle John in the New Testament:
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. – 1 John 2:15-17
Even before Dr. Baucham began his sermon, I knew our congregation was about to be stretched and challenged beyond our comfort zone. I’ve studied Voddie’s sermons online for years, and he rarely misses an opportunity to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted” in his audience, as any good preacher should.
The fact that we invited Dr. Baucham to preach at The Story was uncomfortable to a handful of folks in our community, some of whom (very graciously) reached out to share their concerns about his views that are not in alignment with our own. Voddie is an outspoken “reformed Calvinist,” for example, whereas The Story was born out of the Wesleyan/Arminian tradition. Most Christians may not know or care about the distinctions between a Reformed Calvinist and a Wesleyan – basically it boils down to questions of Predestination and free will, whether Jesus died for everyone’s sins (as we believe) or just for the “Elect” (as Calvinists teach), and whether we should baptize babies and small children or only professing adults (if you’ve ever wondered why we baptize babies at The Story, check out my message on that subject here).
Someone else wrote to share their concerns with me about Dr. Baucham’s teachings regarding the role of women in the Church. Voddie has said that women should not be ordained as pastors under any circumstances, whereas we believe that, while God designs and calls husbands and fathers to be the spiritual leaders of their households, and while He has historically called more men than women to be pastors, He is more than able to call faithful women into various kinds of pastoral ministries as well. Our own Executive Pastor Geo, who has served the Lord faithfully for 25 years, and whose fruitfulness in ministry speaks for itself, is a prime example of this.
These theological disagreements are significant and important, but we shouldn’t consider them to be essential deal-breakers among Christians. Canceling people over ideological hang-ups is something our culture has grown accustomed to, but when Christians disagree over non-essential issues we should be “quick to listen and slow to speak” (James 1:19) or, in more modern terms, “quick to tolerate and slow to cancel.”
Now more than any time that I can remember, Christians in our culture need to come together and stick together to bolster our witness to the world. When I asked Voddie why he accepted an invitation to speak at a baby-baptizing, Wesleyan congregation with a woman pastor on staff, he echoed my sentiments: “Believers can’t get in the habit of canceling each other like the world does.” Amen to that!
So, in case anyone is wondering whether inviting Dr. Baucham to speak at The Story signals some kind of theological shift for our church, no it doesn’t. But I hope it does remind us that the Church of Jesus Christ is bigger than The Story Church, and I rejoice at the thought of our congregation being shaken and stirred up by one of the greatest preachers on the planet.
“Do not love the world,” Dr. Baucham began with his booming baritone voice, as the whole sanctuary held its breath.
The Bible actually says that?!
The same Bible that says, “For God so loved the world…” and “Three things remain: faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love,” and “God is love”?!
“The world,” he continued, “in the context of 1 John, doesn’t mean the planet or the people in it.”
Oh, thank God.
Then Dr. Baucham explained, “The world John is referring to is anything and everything in this world that stands in opposition to the Kingdom of God. To love the world, therefore, means to love the very things that Jesus Christ came to rescue you from. How can we go back to loving the things that Jesus saved us from?”
Ouch.
Voddie went on to describe this world’s deceptive wordplay around love, and how the popular refrain “Love is love” is a lie from the pit of hell. “Not all love is really love,” he insisted, “and not all love is good.”
He unpacked three common ways that our “love” can become sinful:
- When LOVE is directed at the WORLD (instead of God)
- When LOVE arises from the wrong SOURCE (the desires of our flesh)
- When LOVE produces the wrong FRUIT (see Galatians 5:17-23)
If you missed Dr. Baucham’s message, or if you’d like to watch it again, you can check it out here. If possible, watch it with your Bible and a journal and pen in hand so you can take copious notes as you absorb this powerful sermon.
