By
Adam Faughn
It is June again. June is a fantastic
month! June brings along summer weather, delicious fruits, the end of the
school year, family vacations, exciting church events, and so many other
wonderful things! It is a month full of warmth, happiness, joy, and fun. I am a
summer guy. I love to be on/in the water, to go on hikes, and to be out in
God’s creation, so June is a wonderful month for me.
Unfortunately, many Christians have come to
dread the month of June for one particular reason: Pride Month. In recent
years, the start of June invariably brings with it rainbows, logo changes,
festivals, and more as our society seeks to celebrate sin. You cannot live in
the USA in the month of June and not hear or see something about Pride Month,
LGBTQ+ rights, or letting love win. Many Christians are saddened and frustrated
by the glorification of sin in our society, especially in the month of June,
and rightly so. Sin is absolutely wrong. God hates it. God’s heart hurts when
people sin and celebrate sin, and so should ours. There isnever an acceptable
reason to celebrate or glorify sin. But here is my problem: too many Christians
let the world’s glorification of sin dim the glory of God.
What do I mean by that? While June brings
with it the celebration of Pride Month, it also often brings with it these
kinds of statements by Christians. “The world is worse than ever before.” “Our
country is in the most sinful state it has ever been.” “There is so much more
sin today than when I was a kid.” “People are more evil and twisted than they
used to be.” “Our kids face so much more sin than previous generations.”
Statements like these sadden me for three big reasons: 1) they are depressing,
2) they are not theologically consistent with God’s Word, and 3) they dim the
glory of God. I don’t think I have to
explain why those statements are depressing. All I’ll say about that is don’t
be so quick to abandon the abundant joy found in Christ.
Those statements are also not theologically
consistent with God’s Word. 1 John 2:17 says, “And the world is passing away
along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” The
world, its sin, and its glorification of sin are passing away. This morning,
the world and its sin are closer to their end than ever before. We have never
been closer to the end of sin than at this present moment. The world is not
more sinful than ever before. In reality, the world has never been closer to
eternity and the end of sin. More than that, Christians have never been closer
to forever after with God than at this present moment. Those are two beautiful
and joyful things to think about!
Finally, those statements dim the glory of
God. When sin is magnified by the world around us, so many Christians actually
help magnify it even more by focusing on how bad things are. When we only focus
on the sadness and evil of a world that glorifies sin, we often forget to
glorify our great God. We know that sin is wrong, but let’s not forget that God
is good. Our hyperfocus on sin can dim the glory of God in our lives by
preventing us from doing what we are really supposed to be spending our time
doing: glorifying our mighty God who has defeated Satan and sin, who has washed
us clean from sins, and who has promised us that sin has never been closer to
its end and we have never been closer to our eternity.
So, yes,
it's June again. And praise God that it is! It is another month of beauty,
another month closer to the end of sin, another month closer to the realization
of eternity, and another month to rejoice in the glory of our great God.
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