Christians: It would be good to stop striving for neutrality.
I know you think you’re loving everyone equally by refusing to take sides. I appreciate the attempt to be impartial and I understand that you’re trying to do a good thing. You think you’re acting like Jesus. The problem is that Jesus was never neutral.
“John, you jerk! Jesus was meek and gentle! Jesus loved everybody!”
Right. None of those things are neutral. In order to love people, Jesus shifted out of neutral and took action. Jesus picked a side. So you should pick a side.
When a couple in the church starts talking about getting divorced, it’s great to tell them you’re praying for them. You’re hoping they reconcile and peace is restored to the family. That’s not a neutral position. You picked a side.
Picking the side of the restored family means that you are automatically NOT on the side divorce. You are opposing the person filing papers to dissolve the marriage. Divorce is not a random act of nature. Somebody is actively pursuing it. If you are on the side of reconciliation, you are not neutral toward the person working for separation. You should say that.
Say it gently and meekly if you insist, but say it. Telling both parties that you’re on their side is cowardly and untrue. When you love someone, you don’t look away while she tears her family to pieces. You intervene when the people you love harm themselves. Neutrality is useless in crisis.
You’re going to pick a side. If you pick the side of righteousness, stand up for it.
(2 Timothy 2:24) And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.
