Last time I dealt with the issue of graciousness. It appears that man tries to be gracious in the worldly sense of the word rather than in the biblical sense of the word. The biblical sense has to do with giving grace and the worldly sense is basically being nice to other people. Jesus was perfect in love and yet He was the most hated man that has ever lived on the planet. Was He lacking in graciousness? Those who live godly in Christ Jesus are promised persecution (II Tim 3:12). If we apply this to the Church in modern America, perhaps the reason that the Church is not being persecuted more is because it is not godly enough. In desiring to be so gracious the Church has taken the edge off of its message and so it is easily tolerated. It is more like the world than it is like God.
We must also consider that love is not always what appears as gracious or winsome to fallen humanity. Was Jesus displaying love when He took on the Pharisees time after time? The graciousness of Jesus does not fit the categories of modern people when He told the Pharisees that they were “like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Mat 23:27-28). What Jesus did was a vicious act of intolerance according to the modern world, but with a true definition of love it was not an act contrary to love at all. It was an arrow that went to the heart of the Pharisees dependence on outward acts and showed them that they were indeed dead in their sins.
Jesus makes the point with clarity. The Pharisees believed in God and were orthodox Jews. They were devoted to outward acts of holiness and followed the teaching of the accepted tradition. But Jesus went straight to the heart of the issue and spoke forcefully and with true love. It was not, however, according to the modern concept of graciousness, tolerance, or love. Why was this method an example of true love and the modern concept of tolerance and graciousness are not? I think it is because of how the two Great Commandments are related to each other. There is no keeping of the second apart from the first. There is no loving your neighbor as yourself unless you are striving to love God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength. No matter what one human does to another, unless it is primarily love for God it is not love for the human.
When a human being is in error toward God, it is love for God and therefore love for the human to point that error out to the person. Jesus used strong words but the Pharisees would not hear soft words. This is very instructive in our day as well. When we use soft words and the modern version of graciousness and tolerance, those things may never pierce the hearts of the people that need to hear. That means that it is not true love. During the Reformation there were other people desiring reform. Erasmus also desired reform with Roman Catholicism. But it took a Luther (though admittedly over the top at times) who was willing to speak out with firmness and even ferocity at times. He did not spare those who were in error. It took strong words and strong actions in order for the message to get out. Erasmus would never have been really heard well enough for anything to have changed.
We must be blunt in order to get at the real issue. It may be the case and certainly is in some situations where graciousness and tolerance are the order of the day because the fear of man is so strong. We want to be liked and we desire to stay in situations where we think that we will have influence. Paul stated very clearly that if he were trying to please men he would not be a bond-servant of Christ (Gal 1:10). He said this in the context of setting out that there is only one Gospel. What we need in our day is not more man-centered and worldly graciousness; we need more God-centered and Christ-like graciousness. We need men who will be more like Luther and less like Erasmus. It is only then that men will stand up and declare the Gospel without fear of offending men. They will have no fear of offending men because they fear offending a holy God. In the modern mind it is pride to call things wrong and it is pride that will call sincere people heretics. The biblical model is that it is pride to fear men rather than God. The biblical model is that it is pride not to call sincere people heretics if they are indeed heretics. It is not true love for God or men if we remain silent on the Gospel. It is not true graciousness and winsomeness to remain silent about the truth of the Gospel while others distort and maim the message of the Gospel. It appears to me that too much of the attitude of the world and its definition of love have flooded into the Church. We need to repent.
God Loves... Himself 
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