Voddie Baucham Exposes the Problem with "Nice" Christianity

In this episode, Shane Lingo reacts to a powerful clip from Voddie Baucham titled “Thou Shalt Be Nice?” and it challenges how many people think about love.

Many reduce love to being “nice,” agreeable, or non-confrontational. But is that actually what the Bible teaches?

Looking at 2 Corinthians 10:5–6, where Paul the Apostle talks about destroying arguments and taking every thought captive, Shane unpacks a side of love that often gets ignored, the hard side.

In this video, Shane breaks down:
 • What Paul meant in context
 • Why ideas (not people) are the real battlefield
 • The difference between loving someone and avoiding truth
 • Why biblical love sometimes has to confront, correct, and challenge

If your version of love never deals with error, it may not be love; it may just be avoidance.

Real love tells the truth… even when it’s uncomfortable.

Original video from Voddie Baucham: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt-Bq_kOpoc

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Today on the Speaking Your Lingo podcast, I'm reacting to a clip from Bodie Baccom called Thou Shalt Be Nice. And it hits something I think the church really needs to hear about love.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

All right, so pause right here because what he's about to say is something the church really needs to hear. And for those of you who don't know, this is Vodi Bacham that we're listening to. He's a pastor, an author, and he recently passed away last year in 2025. And I was just introduced to his content by a buddy of mine named Ryan from Small Group. And this clip comes from a video that's titled, Thou Shalt Be Nice. And I think it connects directly to our conversation that we've been having uh since the last episode on love. So this clip, in this clip, he's referring to a passage from 2nd Corinthians chapter 10, verses 5 through 6. And I'm gonna put that up and I'm gonna read it. It says this we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete. All right, let's keep listening.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

We are okay with the second part of that. Right? We're gonna take every thought captive. And so if I were to stand up here and say that no, we we need to have a biblical worldview as it relates to these issues. And here we're talking about these issues, the the these sexual issues, right? We need to have a biblical worldview about these and we go, amen, hallelujah, praise the Lord. What we don't like is the first part. Destroy arguments and lofty opinions raised against the knowledge of God.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Let's go back to what Bakham said because he makes this point. We like the second part of the verse, but it's the first part that we have a problem with. So we're okay with this idea of taking every thought captive because that sounds spiritual or that sounds nice, but this idea of destroy arguments that feels harsh. And so we kind of think like, whoa, Paul, you've gone a little bit too far there. You know, maybe you need to slow down, maybe you need to back off a bit. Before we go back to Bacum, let's slow down and let's get some context. And so, again, this is from 2 Corinthians, and Paul is writing to the church in Corinth, and there are some serious issues going on. A few things specifically. Some people are starting to question Paul's authority, and they're being influenced by what Paul is later going to call these super apostles. And these guys are basically critics saying things like Paul is weak in person, but he's bold in his letters. Uh, he's not impressive by worldly standards, his speaking, his presence, his status. And so Paul has to defend essentially his authority as an apostle, his approach to ministry. And ultimately, he's trying to defend the truth of the gospel itself. Now, in this specific passage that we're looking at, Paul's going to use this, he uses this warlike language. He talks about destroying false ideas, destroying arguments, right? Destroying really worldviews that oppose God. Because in Corinth, there were competing teachings going around, competing philosophies, and a lot of really prideful thinking that resisted Christ. And so Paul sees his role as tearing down these false belief systems and really calling people to submit their thinking to Christ's authority. And that's so so that's the context in which Paul is speaking to. Now, uh let's keep going and continue to hear what Bakham has to say.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

We don't like it. Makes us uncomfortable. Not only is it war language, but now we're talking about destroying, right? Destroying arguments. It just doesn't seem very nice. Very Christian. And the 11th commandment is thou shalt be nice. We don't believe the other ten. It just is it just seems to me, it doesn't seem Christ like. You know? Going around destroying arguments. Isn't that arrogant? You're saying you're right and people are wrong. No, I'm saying God's right and people are wrong.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Now, here's why all this matters, because when people talk about love today, we tend to think about almost entirely kind of the soft aspects of love. And honestly, I'm just as guilty of that too, because we think of love being nice and we think about love being warm, or we think about kind of that the emotional side of love. But in doing that, we often forget what it means to love God with all of our mind. And we also kind of forget about the the discipline side of love, right? Another way to say it is that we ignore the hard side of love, the kind of love that tells the truth when it's uncomfortable, the kind of love that corrects when it's needed. Because when you think about love, love isn't always soft. It's not always nice. And I like to think about when I think about love in this sense, I like to think about what it takes to be a parent, right? If you think about it, if your kid sneaks out in the middle of the night, what does love look like in that moment when you catch them? And I'm not saying I have a direct answer because depending on your child and depending on the exact situation and where they're at and where you're at, and all of those things, sometimes it might look gentle. But at the same time, I think it's easy to see in a scenario like that that love might have to be firm, right? If your kid runs into the street for the, you know, fourth time after you've told them not to, um, what does love look like then? Again, you might, you know, you could you could argue it could go both ways towards the gentle side, depending. But in those moments, it might have to be kind of that more uh intense love that um is is disciplined because you want your kid to be safe. You know, sometimes love as a parent just looks like saying no. You're just saying no to your kid. That's not soft, that's not warm, but in the moment, that might be the most loving thing to do. And so, really, what I'm trying to say is that love requires wisdom. Sometimes love is gentle, but often it also has to be firm. And so, really, what I want to get at is what's this hard truth that Paul is getting at here when it when it comes to this conversation? Why is he using this type of language? And first, the reason he is is because our battlefield, what he's saying here, are is ideas. So Paul is saying that false teaching, it isn't neutral, it's it's actually dangerous. It's something that we have to stand up against as Christians. And when it comes to false teaching, Christians should be ready to recognize it. They should be ready to challenge it. When we see things like false gospels, when we see things like false assumptions about reality, false beliefs about Christ, uh, false beliefs about morality. And really, all of these things that we're talking about, all these things that the apostle Paul talks about, these fall under speaking the truth in love. But it's important to notice as you look at the passage, Paul is talking about destroying arguments. He's not talking about destroying people. And so clearly that's that's not loving in this context, right? So destroying arguments is something that you could argue is something that is loving, but um, we're not talking about destroying people. Now, the the second thing that that we see Paul is is saying here is that the goal is obedience to Christ, right? So taking every thought captive means bringing belief, any belief system, all belief systems under Jesus' authority. So not just correcting the errors, but also a real submission to Christ and his authority and what he he calls of us. And so the goal isn't when we're talking about these destroying arguments, it isn't to win the argument. It's really to help people see the truth and to follow Christ. That's the goal of what Paul is talking about here. And then there's verse six, right? Ready to punish disobedience. And that sounds intense, but in context, Paul is talking about church discipline and he's talking about his apostolic authority in order to do that. He's saying once the church is aligned in obedience, he's gonna have to deal with the continued rebellion within the church. But it's also important to notice that it's not random harshness, it's really about protecting the church when it needs protection. It's about guarding the truth of the gospel again, and it's about dealing with this ongoing and unrepentant opposition that is building up within the church. And so I think I think Paul is really doing all of this that we're talking about. He's doing it out of love. Because again, biblical love tells the truth even when people don't want to hear it. And so sometimes love has to expose falsehood. That's never fun, it's never that soft, nice kind of feeling love, but it but it's love. Sometimes it is just calling people to submit to Christ. And sometimes it's really just challenging the way that we think, which means loving well doesn't always feel nice. Sometimes as Christians, we're called to confront false ideas about God and really to help people align their thinking with Jesus. And so what I'm trying to say is if your version of love never confronts error, it's not love, it's really avoidance. So the goal that that I want to push for, and the goal that I'm trying to encourage on this episode is really to strive for love together, towards the type of love that uses wisdom. Sometimes that love is going to be soft and sometimes it's going to feel nice, but other times it's going to be kind of that hard type of love that might even at times feel intense, um, but you're doing it for the good of the individual before you. And sometimes that type of love is this type of love that has to destroy arguments and break down these things that go against who Christ is, what the gospel is, and really ultimately what true love is. And so I want to say, as always, thanks for listening to the Speaking Your Lingo podcast. Thanks for subscribing, and I'll see you on the next episode.