If you don't stand for something...

...you will fall for anything. So went the saying that I was told as I grew up and it is true. If we don't stand for something we are tossed about on the waves of the latest idea or fad. This is true in life generally but it is even more vital when it comes to the truth about God.

God has revealed himself in the Bible and if we want to know him, what he is like, what pleases him then the obvious place is to look in the Bible that he has given us. However, it may be that we find some things there that we don't like or that conflict with out societies values, and that poses a question; what do I do? Do I accept that is what God has revealed or do I seek to mould God into an image of my own choosing reflecting my like and dislikes?

This week has seen many pages of ink spilled debating the schism that is growing in the Anglican communion over the issue of the consecration of practicing homosexuals in the USA. What are we to make of this debate? In the media it is portrayed as a debate between fundamentalists and liberals, or the Western church and the African Church. But it is not, it is a debate over truth, God and sin.

Christianity is not homophobic, some Christians maybe, just as some people in society at large are, but that is not because it is what the Bible teaches. Homosexuality is a sin - in other words it is something that displeases God that will provoke him to judge men and women, just as sex outside of marriage is a sin, just as greed is a sin, just as lying is a sin.

The Bible tells us that as sinners we cannot stand before a Holy God in our sin and expect to live. God therefore sent Jesus to die on the cross in our place bearing our sin and shame, cut off from God so that we never need to be in the most costly act of sacrifice willingly undertaken by Jesus. For those who accept that Jesus Christ has done that for them and who repent of the sins something must happen s a result. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians writes: "Those who have been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need." Likewise those who lied must speak truthfully, it is a glimpse of the affect of repenting, in repenting we turn our life around and instead of living opposed to God we live for him.

That means for the adulterer, they put off adultery because God says it is wrong - they may battle for the rest of their lives with the attraction to other men or women but they are to battle with it. The couple having sex outside of marriage are to get married or stop having sex. The homosexual if he or she repents is to stop practicing though they may battle for the rest of their lives with the attraction. The greedy person must stop being consumed with material possession and would be wise to get rid of many of those possessions and give to the poor though they may battle with greed for the rest of their lives. Why? Because they now live to please God, and what pleases God he tells us in his word the Bible.

One cannot repent and yet keep on willfully doing what is against God's revealed will. That is not to say Christians are perfect, Christians are only ever sinners saved by the grace of God in Jesus, we sin by omission and commission, but the Christian should never deliberately set out to live a life opposed to God or you have to question if they have understood what it means to repent and have eternal life.

Sexuality is not the issue, sin is the issue no matter what that sin is. You cannot be a repentant sinner and yet live a life that is blatantly sinful disregarding what God says - that is not repentance. Repentance is to turn from sin to God in Christ.

Truth is the issue as the Bible delivers it, truth about God and what pleases him and what repentance looks like. To pick and choose what we believe about God is to leave us with God in his image, God who conforms to cultures standards, in fact it leaves us with no God, no salvation and no truth.

But God has revealed himself and repentance means living in the light of what has been revealed; that God loves us so much he sent his Son into the world to die in our place and to call us to repent and then live a life that pleases God.