August 11, 2024 • 12 mins
Can true Christian love mean staying silent about sin? On this episode of the Jordan and Kristen Rickards Show, we challenge the popular notion that compassion equates to permissiveness. Kristen recounts a fiery response to a friend's Facebook post that suggested Christians should refrain from speaking out on issues like abortion and religious beliefs. We dive into the heart of this controversy, questioning whether love can truly exist without truth, and how silence can lead to harmful consequences.
We tackle the misconception that being kind and creating relationships means we can't also stand firm in our beliefs. Kristen passionately argues that genuine love involves guiding others away from destructive paths, much like a parent would protect a child from danger. Tune in as we discuss how to speak the truth in love without alienating others, and why it's crucial for believers to balance compassion with the courage to express their convictions. This episode is a must-listen for anyone grappling with how to address sin in today's society while maintaining loving relationships.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everybody, welcome to another edition of
the Jordan and Kristen RickardsShow.
Today's topic is calling outsin in a world that wants us to
be silent.
The world does not want ustalking about sin.
The church doesn't want to talkabout sin.
So, kristen, it is up to youand I to talk about talking
about sin.
That's right.
But before we do that, can youopen us up in prayer please?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Thank you, lord.
Thank you that you've given usa voice, lord, you've given us
compassion.
You've given us the things youput inside us.
We are made in your image.
But, god, you have also calledus not to be silent and not to
turn away when someone is goingdown a path.
They shouldn't be because youlove them, lord.
You love us and you just havethe best for us and you have our
(00:42):
best interest at heart, lord.
So help us to speak the truthin love, but to speak the truth
and to know when we're supposedto do that, in Jesus' name, amen
.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
All right.
So today's message is inspiredby a Facebook post that one of
Kristen's friends, who shallremain nameless, put up, and it
was this meme that she thencommented on.
So the meme says this I did notcomment on.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
No, your friend commented on this okay.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
So the meme is you are not being asked to change
your beliefs or religion.
You're being asked to letpeople make their own decisions
about their body, their religion, their love and so on.
It doesn't affect you.
Affect is spelled incorrectly.
If you truly believe it iswrong, then let god judge them
and worry about your judgmentinstead.
And judgment is spelled wrong,and then your friend writes this
.
All of this, they will know.
(01:27):
We are Christians by our love.
By the way, before we get intothis, what is it about social
media that like infantilizes theway that we speak?
This, all of this, or I am this.
I was this many days old when Ilearned it's like I really
that's a pet peeve of mine beingin the flesh for a second.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
This, always this, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
So, but more to the point, your friend writes they
will know we are Christians byour love.
So she's agreeing with thisperson and basically saying that
to be a Christian, to exercisetrue love, is to I don't know be
silent about abortion andreligion and how everyone else
lives their lives, because itdoesn't affect us.
Kristen, Kristen, Kristen, theChristian, you brought this up.
(02:05):
Why don't you go ahead with it?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Oh, this just really fired me up today, because it's
just the enemy's lies.
It's this person who I don'treally even know that well, I'm
sure they mean, well, I'm surethey have a good heart, but
clearly, clearly, the enemy isfeeding these lies and
Christians, or people who callthemselves some version of
(02:27):
Christian, are just taking thebait.
And it is what the enemy wantsus to do.
He wants us to remain silent sothat he can lead all these
people into the pit of hell.
Now here's the thing we confusecompassion and God's love for
letting someone do somethingwrong.
It's like if you have a childand there's a ledge or something
(02:51):
, and if the child walks off theledge, they're going to fall
and die.
Right, I know that's a veryextreme example, but I'm trying
to draw a point here.
Well, you love the child, butthe child's like I want to go
off the ledge.
Should you just let the childgo off the ledge or should you
say no?
You know, it's that compassion,part of loving.
(03:13):
Yes, now we have to do it in acertain way.
We can't just scream at peopleand tell them you're living in
sin, you're living wrong.
I'm not suggesting we do that.
I have a lot of friends andpeople that I feel that I'm able
to influence because I havecreated a relationship.
I am kind to them, but theyalso know where I stand and the
(03:34):
problem is we've done the firstpart reaching out, being lovely,
loving lovely also loving tosomeone but then they never know
where we stand because we'reafraid to offend them.
And I see this a lot in youknow, as a kid actor, I would
see a lot of other kids thatcall themselves Christians being
(03:56):
in, frankly, in media projectsthat were very sinful and did
not draw the line because theywanted to influence.
How are you influencing ifyou're the one being influenced?
And that's probably anothertangent.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
So here's what this appeals to.
Okay, first of all, the enemywants you to be silent.
So anytime you hear someonesaying that Christians need to
shut up about something, youknow where that's coming from,
and I'll tell you what's at theroot of it is it's a combination
of fear and idolatry, becausewe want to be popular.
Ok, we don't want to offend theworld, we want to have this
sort of watered down,inoffensive version of
Christianity that allows us tostill be part of the world, in
(04:29):
the world and of the world.
And that's where this is comingfrom, and it's this attitude.
It's one thing in politics tosay, well, the government
shouldn't interfere ifsomething's not causing third
party harm, but here this personsays it doesn't affect you,
okay, well, first of all.
(04:50):
First of all, there are lots ofthings that don't affect me
that I still need to call out.
I mean, you know, slaverydidn't affect a lot of other
people who still fought againstslavery and, in fact, who've
continued to fight againstmodern day slavery.
I am not at risk of beingaborted, but other people are,
and so, since those people don'thave a voice for themselves, it
is incumbent upon me to be avoice, and it's incumbent upon
the church to be a voice, andI'm sorry if that makes some
(05:10):
people uncomfortable, but I'mnot going to be silent on it.
You know there's sins, kristen,that you can commit, and those
are the obvious ones, butthere's sins of omission also,
and where there's evil in theworld, and evil that absolutely
does affect other people inparticular, I would suggest it's
the wrong thing, it's a sinfulthing to be quiet, because we're
not called to be quiet, we'renot called to be timid, we're
(05:32):
not really called to be popular.
We are called to live righteouslives, yes, but also to speak
truth, to speak light intodarkness.
That is the goal.
And so, with this person here,this friend of yours, who's all
this, all of this, they'll knowwe are Christians by our love.
Yeah, that's true, and it goesbeyond.
(05:52):
You know, going to church andsaying nice things, yeah, be
charitable, that's important.
You know, feed the hungry,clothe the naked, house, the
sick, all of those things, dothose things, but speak against
evil where you see it also.
So I totally reject this ideathat we're supposed to, that the
loving thing to do is for us toshut up and watch the world
(06:13):
decay and sit in the silence.
Because I gotta tell yousomething.
The world isn't shutting upabout it.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
I was just gonna say we're the ones that are showing
that we really have no platformby doing this.
We're, you know, the otherpeople.
The other side knows what theybelieve in and is passionate and
strong about it.
We need to be just as even moreso passionate about what we
believe and why we believe it.
And if we're silent, thenthey're you know, the enemy can
(06:41):
just take over.
It's the David and Goliathstory.
We've got to.
We fight against, not flesh andblood.
That's the thing.
We're not angry at the peoplewho are sinning because,
honestly, because we all havebeen so silent, a lot of people
don't even know it's a sin.
I mean, this goes back to whenyou and I talked One time I
(07:03):
heard in a church that I visited.
They goes back to when you andI talked one time I heard in a
church that I visited.
They said well, we don't wantto tell people it's wrong to
live together before marriagebecause we don't want to offend
anybody.
It's like those people don'teven know that it's a sin to
live together before marriage.
So that's a perfect example.
People don't even know what's asin anymore because we've been
so silent on it and wishy-washyand we need to draw the line in
(07:26):
the sand.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
And what happens is, when you remain silent, it
creates this vacuum effect, andit's not like that area stays
silent.
It just gets filled in withsomeone else's voice.
It gets filled in withHollywood, with the media, with
the secularists, with all thesepeople who have their own ideas
that they want to impose oneverybody else, or their own
ideas that they want to advance.
Okay, so what they're reallysaying is don't compete in the
(07:48):
arena of ideas.
That's.
That's the idea behind beingsilent.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
The other thing I would add to that is if you're
either being influenced orinfluencing, there is no middle
ground.
So if you're taking the standthat I'm not going to to, I'm
just not, I'm going to shut up,I'm not going to influence that
person, then you are going to beinfluenced, you're going to be
pulled into the tide.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
I think I was being hypercritical when I was
correcting their spellingearlier, so I want to repent of
that.
It just does kind of get mewhen I think I see one of like I
don't want to say our enemies,because it's not.
I don't like to see the worldthat way, but when I see
somebody who is doing somethingthat I think is is deleterious
to the faith uh it it.
(08:31):
It does cause me to be lesscharitable, which is not what I
should do, so I'm sorry aboutthat.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I know and that's the thing what fires me up is it's
not this person.
I don't really even know thisperson.
It's just more than anacquaintance.
I don't even know who thisperson is.
They just popped up on myFacebook feed.
I believe that people this iswhat the enemy.
We have to be mad at the enemybecause this person is probably
(08:57):
an example of people who thinkoh, we want to love people, I
want to be Christ-like, and theChrist-like thing is remaining
silent.
Now, the Holy Spirit might giveyou different ways to be quiet
and then all of a suddeninfluence somebody, but just to
say by showing someone love isto be totally silent, is just
(09:19):
wrong.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Well, if that was the case, then we wouldn't even
have a New Testament, becausewhat would Jesus have said?
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
He'd have healed a few people.
We've gotten zero message, andthat would have been that.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
But that's what's happened in our churches, in our
life, in our Christianinteractions.
We have wanted to accept.
We need to accept the sinner,not the sin.
So we all have sinned andfallen short.
We're not pious saying, youknow, oh, I don't do that, or
whatever.
That's not the point here.
It's we build each other up.
(09:51):
Iron sharpens iron.
We accept the people into thechurch who are just don't know
about God yet or don't know, butthey're not going to know right
from wrong.
We're not loving them.
Okay, we're not loving them byhaving them come into our
churches and into ourinteractions and that sort of
things and just not telling themwhat God says, what the word of
(10:13):
God says.
We're doing them a hugedisservice.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, and it's not just in the church, but in your
everyday life.
Oh, absolutely All right.
Kristen, why don't you wrap usup here?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
All right.
Well, thank you, lord.
Thank you, god, for your mercyand your forgiveness and
compassion and, as I just said,we have all sinned and fallen
short of your glory, lord, Idon't sit here saying, pointing
a finger and saying you know,lord, I repent of any time that
I have stayed silent, although Ithink my issue might be the
opposite.
Sometimes I don't really eventhink I ever stay silent.
But, god, we just honor you andpraise you.
(10:50):
We just want to see you, yourkingdom, come to this earth and
we just want people to know you,lord, and we want to love them
the way you have called us tolove them by speaking the truth
in love, but still speaking thattruth In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Amen, good job, sweetie.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
You too.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
All right, guys.
Thanks for joining us.
We'll see you next time, asalways.
Until then, be blessed and be ablessing.
Bye.
Hey everybody, welcome to another edition of
the Jordan and Kristen RickardsShow.
Today's topic is calling outsin in a world that wants us to
be silent.
The world does not want ustalking about sin.
The church doesn't want to talkabout sin.
So, kristen, it is up to youand I to talk about talking
about sin.
That's right.
But before we do that, can youopen us up in prayer please?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Thank you, lord.
Thank you that you've given usa voice, lord, you've given us
compassion.
You've given us the things youput inside us.
We are made in your image.
But, god, you have also calledus not to be silent and not to
turn away when someone is goingdown a path.
They shouldn't be because youlove them, lord.
You love us and you just havethe best for us and you have our
(00:42):
best interest at heart, lord.
So help us to speak the truthin love, but to speak the truth
and to know when we're supposedto do that, in Jesus' name, amen
.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
All right.
So today's message is inspiredby a Facebook post that one of
Kristen's friends, who shallremain nameless, put up, and it
was this meme that she thencommented on.
So the meme says this I did notcomment on.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
No, your friend commented on this okay.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
So the meme is you are not being asked to change
your beliefs or religion.
You're being asked to letpeople make their own decisions
about their body, their religion, their love and so on.
It doesn't affect you.
Affect is spelled incorrectly.
If you truly believe it iswrong, then let god judge them
and worry about your judgmentinstead.
And judgment is spelled wrong,and then your friend writes this
.
All of this, they will know.
(01:27):
We are Christians by our love.
By the way, before we get intothis, what is it about social
media that like infantilizes theway that we speak?
This, all of this, or I am this.
I was this many days old when Ilearned it's like I really
that's a pet peeve of mine beingin the flesh for a second.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
This, always this, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
So, but more to the point, your friend writes they
will know we are Christians byour love.
So she's agreeing with thisperson and basically saying that
to be a Christian, to exercisetrue love, is to I don't know be
silent about abortion andreligion and how everyone else
lives their lives, because itdoesn't affect us.
Kristen, Kristen, Kristen, theChristian, you brought this up.
(02:05):
Why don't you go ahead with it?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Oh, this just really fired me up today, because it's
just the enemy's lies.
It's this person who I don'treally even know that well, I'm
sure they mean, well, I'm surethey have a good heart, but
clearly, clearly, the enemy isfeeding these lies and
Christians, or people who callthemselves some version of
(02:27):
Christian, are just taking thebait.
And it is what the enemy wantsus to do.
He wants us to remain silent sothat he can lead all these
people into the pit of hell.
Now here's the thing we confusecompassion and God's love for
letting someone do somethingwrong.
It's like if you have a childand there's a ledge or something
(02:51):
, and if the child walks off theledge, they're going to fall
and die.
Right, I know that's a veryextreme example, but I'm trying
to draw a point here.
Well, you love the child, butthe child's like I want to go
off the ledge.
Should you just let the childgo off the ledge or should you
say no?
You know, it's that compassion,part of loving.
(03:13):
Yes, now we have to do it in acertain way.
We can't just scream at peopleand tell them you're living in
sin, you're living wrong.
I'm not suggesting we do that.
I have a lot of friends andpeople that I feel that I'm able
to influence because I havecreated a relationship.
I am kind to them, but theyalso know where I stand and the
(03:34):
problem is we've done the firstpart reaching out, being lovely,
loving lovely also loving tosomeone but then they never know
where we stand because we'reafraid to offend them.
And I see this a lot in youknow, as a kid actor, I would
see a lot of other kids thatcall themselves Christians being
(03:56):
in, frankly, in media projectsthat were very sinful and did
not draw the line because theywanted to influence.
How are you influencing ifyou're the one being influenced?
And that's probably anothertangent.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
So here's what this appeals to.
Okay, first of all, the enemywants you to be silent.
So anytime you hear someonesaying that Christians need to
shut up about something, youknow where that's coming from,
and I'll tell you what's at theroot of it is it's a combination
of fear and idolatry, becausewe want to be popular.
Ok, we don't want to offend theworld, we want to have this
sort of watered down,inoffensive version of
Christianity that allows us tostill be part of the world, in
(04:29):
the world and of the world.
And that's where this is comingfrom, and it's this attitude.
It's one thing in politics tosay, well, the government
shouldn't interfere ifsomething's not causing third
party harm, but here this personsays it doesn't affect you,
okay, well, first of all.
(04:50):
First of all, there are lots ofthings that don't affect me
that I still need to call out.
I mean, you know, slaverydidn't affect a lot of other
people who still fought againstslavery and, in fact, who've
continued to fight againstmodern day slavery.
I am not at risk of beingaborted, but other people are,
and so, since those people don'thave a voice for themselves, it
is incumbent upon me to be avoice, and it's incumbent upon
the church to be a voice, andI'm sorry if that makes some
(05:10):
people uncomfortable, but I'mnot going to be silent on it.
You know there's sins, kristen,that you can commit, and those
are the obvious ones, butthere's sins of omission also,
and where there's evil in theworld, and evil that absolutely
does affect other people inparticular, I would suggest it's
the wrong thing, it's a sinfulthing to be quiet, because we're
not called to be quiet, we'renot called to be timid, we're
(05:32):
not really called to be popular.
We are called to live righteouslives, yes, but also to speak
truth, to speak light intodarkness.
That is the goal.
And so, with this person here,this friend of yours, who's all
this, all of this, they'll knowwe are Christians by our love.
Yeah, that's true, and it goesbeyond.
(05:52):
You know, going to church andsaying nice things, yeah, be
charitable, that's important.
You know, feed the hungry,clothe the naked, house, the
sick, all of those things, dothose things, but speak against
evil where you see it also.
So I totally reject this ideathat we're supposed to, that the
loving thing to do is for us toshut up and watch the world
(06:13):
decay and sit in the silence.
Because I gotta tell yousomething.
The world isn't shutting upabout it.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
I was just gonna say we're the ones that are showing
that we really have no platformby doing this.
We're, you know, the otherpeople.
The other side knows what theybelieve in and is passionate and
strong about it.
We need to be just as even moreso passionate about what we
believe and why we believe it.
And if we're silent, thenthey're you know, the enemy can
(06:41):
just take over.
It's the David and Goliathstory.
We've got to.
We fight against, not flesh andblood.
That's the thing.
We're not angry at the peoplewho are sinning because,
honestly, because we all havebeen so silent, a lot of people
don't even know it's a sin.
I mean, this goes back to whenyou and I talked One time I
(07:03):
heard in a church that I visited.
They goes back to when you andI talked one time I heard in a
church that I visited.
They said well, we don't wantto tell people it's wrong to
live together before marriagebecause we don't want to offend
anybody.
It's like those people don'teven know that it's a sin to
live together before marriage.
So that's a perfect example.
People don't even know what's asin anymore because we've been
so silent on it and wishy-washyand we need to draw the line in
(07:26):
the sand.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
And what happens is, when you remain silent, it
creates this vacuum effect, andit's not like that area stays
silent.
It just gets filled in withsomeone else's voice.
It gets filled in withHollywood, with the media, with
the secularists, with all thesepeople who have their own ideas
that they want to impose oneverybody else, or their own
ideas that they want to advance.
Okay, so what they're reallysaying is don't compete in the
(07:48):
arena of ideas.
That's.
That's the idea behind beingsilent.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
The other thing I would add to that is if you're
either being influenced orinfluencing, there is no middle
ground.
So if you're taking the standthat I'm not going to to, I'm
just not, I'm going to shut up,I'm not going to influence that
person, then you are going to beinfluenced, you're going to be
pulled into the tide.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
I think I was being hypercritical when I was
correcting their spellingearlier, so I want to repent of
that.
It just does kind of get mewhen I think I see one of like I
don't want to say our enemies,because it's not.
I don't like to see the worldthat way, but when I see
somebody who is doing somethingthat I think is is deleterious
to the faith uh it it.
(08:31):
It does cause me to be lesscharitable, which is not what I
should do, so I'm sorry aboutthat.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I know and that's the thing what fires me up is it's
not this person.
I don't really even know thisperson.
It's just more than anacquaintance.
I don't even know who thisperson is.
They just popped up on myFacebook feed.
I believe that people this iswhat the enemy.
We have to be mad at the enemybecause this person is probably
(08:57):
an example of people who thinkoh, we want to love people, I
want to be Christ-like, and theChrist-like thing is remaining
silent.
Now, the Holy Spirit might giveyou different ways to be quiet
and then all of a suddeninfluence somebody, but just to
say by showing someone love isto be totally silent, is just
(09:19):
wrong.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Well, if that was the case, then we wouldn't even
have a New Testament, becausewhat would Jesus have said?
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
He'd have healed a few people.
We've gotten zero message, andthat would have been that.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
But that's what's happened in our churches, in our
life, in our Christianinteractions.
We have wanted to accept.
We need to accept the sinner,not the sin.
So we all have sinned andfallen short.
We're not pious saying, youknow, oh, I don't do that, or
whatever.
That's not the point here.
It's we build each other up.
(09:51):
Iron sharpens iron.
We accept the people into thechurch who are just don't know
about God yet or don't know, butthey're not going to know right
from wrong.
We're not loving them.
Okay, we're not loving them byhaving them come into our
churches and into ourinteractions and that sort of
things and just not telling themwhat God says, what the word of
(10:13):
God says.
We're doing them a hugedisservice.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, and it's not just in the church, but in your
everyday life.
Oh, absolutely All right.
Kristen, why don't you wrap usup here?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
All right.
Well, thank you, lord.
Thank you, god, for your mercyand your forgiveness and
compassion and, as I just said,we have all sinned and fallen
short of your glory, lord, Idon't sit here saying, pointing
a finger and saying you know,lord, I repent of any time that
I have stayed silent, although Ithink my issue might be the
opposite.
Sometimes I don't really eventhink I ever stay silent.
But, god, we just honor you andpraise you.
(10:50):
We just want to see you, yourkingdom, come to this earth and
we just want people to know you,lord, and we want to love them
the way you have called us tolove them by speaking the truth
in love, but still speaking thattruth In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Amen, good job, sweetie.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
You too.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
All right, guys.
Thanks for joining us.
We'll see you next time, asalways.
Until then, be blessed and be ablessing.
Bye.
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