Why Pride Month is “Good.”

It’s simple: it does not allow the faithful Church of Christ to act like everything in our culture is just fine.

“Pride” is always condemned in the Bible. It is condemned because it encourages us to esteem something about us at the expense of others and of the Lord. “Boasting,” on the other hand, in the right thing, Jesus Christ, is encouraged but that’s a far cry from our culture’s demand that we take pride in lifestyles that are inconsistent with the Bible. That’s what Pride Month is all about: sinful and deceived forces in our culture demanding the rest of us esteem what God does not esteem, indeed, the opposite of what He esteems. The Church can just ignore that while walking out of Target with a case of Bud Light or take “Pride Month” to be reminded brokenness in our world is increasing and as a result, we must pray, teach, witness and disciple the Church into godliness and away from worldliness.

Of course there is nothing truly “good” about “Pride Month” just as there was nothing inherently good about Adam’s decision to defy God. But, in the providence of God, the month of June is when a large flag is unfurled by our enemy in order to shock the Church out of complacency in our work of witness and worship. Is this how we are looking at it? Or, with the unfurled flag are we content to pull the shades and hope for July? That shock of the ubiquitous and blasphemous appropriation of a biblical covenant symbol should serve us to redouble our efforts to witness the freeing power of the gospel to those who are enslaved to the devil’s sexual lies. We are not enemies of LGBT+ people; we are simply those who have been set free and given the message that they can be free, also.

Sexual brokenness is part of many Christians’ stories (mine included) and having been set free from its power and guilt should motivate us with compassion and patience toward those who are still captive to it. In most cases, what we consider to be a message of freedom will sound as a message of condemnation or judgment. We must fear not; for those upon whom the Lord has set His love, it is truly a message of joyful independence from the tyranny of sin. No one saved by the blood of Christ has reason or room to boast in anything but Christ. Each of us is a beggar looking for more bread; the Lord, in Christ, has simply seen fit to give it to us who believe. We must pray and witness that this life-giving Bread is cast far and accepted wide.