When “More Loving” Becomes Less True

A single line from Matthew 7 can steady or shatter the soul of a preacher, and it’s the line that drives this conversation: not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven. We wrestle with how a “more gracious” gospel can sound compassionate while quietly redefining obedience, minimizing repentance, and removing the shape of discipleship. Instead of abstract theology, we trace concrete consequences—how words from the pulpit form consciences, how silence can masquerade as kindness, and why Jesus reserves his sharpest warnings for those who mislead the vulnerable.

We unpack a crucial distinction: grace doesn’t lower God’s standard; it lifts the sinner to it. That lens reframes familiar debates about holiness, self-denial, and the narrow gate. Drawing on James’s charge that teachers are judged with greater strictness and Ezekiel’s watchman imagery, we consider the weight of pastoral responsibility. We also revisit John Wesley’s vision of transforming grace and social holiness, clarifying how the Wesleyan quadrilateral only holds when Scripture governs experience, tradition, and reason—not the other way around.

Across these themes, one thread holds: sincerity isn’t safety. Paul’s warnings about “another Jesus” and “another gospel” are not relics; they are pastoral guardrails for a church tempted to trade revelation for affirmation. The goal here isn’t outrage but reverent clarity. We invite you to test everything by Scripture, let love speak truth without flinching, and recover the courage to warn because warning is love. If this conversation makes you tremble, you’re standing in the right place. Share this with a friend, subscribe for more, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway so we can keep the dialogue honest and hopeful.

Chapters

• 0:09 A Haunting Warning From Jesus
• 2:24 Different Gospels And Subtle Lies
• 4:23 Grace Fulfills, It Doesn’t Erase
• 6:10 The Weight Of Teaching And Accountability
• 8:17 Experience Versus Revelation
• 10:56 Wesley, Holiness, And Authority
• 13:23 Sincerity, Deception, And “Another Jesus”
• 16:20 The Narrow Gate And False Assurance
• 18:19 Watchmen, Warnings, And Love
• 21:12 Power Without Transformation

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:09

Hello and welcome back to Uncomfortable Craigs, where some lie. This episode is not optional for me. After sincerely waiting while believing they are doing good, and that should terrify us. I need to start this episode with a confession. There is a sentence Jesus speaks that has never stopped haunting me. It does not scare me as a listener, it scares me as a pastor. Jesus says not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. Then later on he says in the same text, then I will declare to them I never knew you depart from me. That passage should never become familiar. It should never stop trembling in our bones. Because Jesus is not speaking to atheists there. He's not speaking to the pagans. He's speaking to religious leaders. People who preached, taught, cast out demons, and used his name. And that is why this episode is not optional for me. Because if the church can redefine the gospel as more gracious as some denominations have and some pastors have, then pastors can sincerely lead people away from Christ while believing they are doing good.

SPEAKER_00: 2:18

And that should terrify us.

SPEAKER_01: 2:24

See, the most dangerous words a preacher can say, they're not, I reject the gospel.

SPEAKER_00: 2:33

They are this is a better version.

SPEAKER_01: 2:38

Scripture gives us no category for a gospel that improves over time. The apostle Paul writes, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, not that there is another one.

SPEAKER_00: 3:05

Paul doesn't say less loving. He doesn't say meaner. He says different. And that's the heart of this shift. The claim is not that we hate Scripture. The claim is not that we reject Jesus.

SPEAKER_01: 3:31

The claim is we've found a more loving way to apply it. We've found a more loving way to apply it. Question mark?

SPEAKER_00: 3:46

The claim is we've we've become more gracious. And I think if Paul were in life, he would say be careful.

SPEAKER_01: 4:01

One of the most subtle lies is this shift it's the idea that grace corrects scripture.

SPEAKER_00: 4:13

It's one of the most subtle lies.

SPEAKER_01: 4:17

But biblically, grace does not correct God's word, it fulfills it. Jesus says, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. Grace does not erase holiness. Grace makes holiness possible. Paul says, Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means in the epistle to the Romans, Grace is not God lowering the standard. Grace is God lifting the sinner. So listen, when the church says this revision is more gracious, we must then ask, more gracious than the cross? More gracious than repentance? More gracious than resurrection power. Scripture does not speak casually about teachers. James writes, Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. In the Epistle of James three, one That verse should slow every preacher down. James does not say we're judged more kindly, or that um we're judged more gently or uh judged with more nuance.

SPEAKER_00: 6:05

He says with greater strictness. Why? Because teachers don't just sin privately, they can't they they shape conscious.

SPEAKER_01: 6:22

When a pastor tells someone this is not sin, and scripture says otherwise, that pastor is not merely wrong. They are forming someone's eternal trajectory, right? And yes, scripture says that right there is dangerous. See, Jesus reserves his strongest language not for the broken, but for those who mislead them. He says, Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for them to have a great millstone fastened around their neck and then be drowned in the depth of the sea. This is not uh a metaphorical softness, uh it's divine severity. Jesus is not saying, be nice, he's saying, Do not lie to my people. And here is where um you could say your fear is not only understandable if you have the same understanding as uh as me, uh, it is biblical. Uh see, now I I need to say this carefully because words matter. Um, it is not that every progressive Christian is damned. We are not given that authority. But it is true that a progressive method of interpretation where scripture is repeatedly revised to align with culture creates a real spiritual danger. Now, why? You might ask why. Well, I would say because it trains people to trust experience over revelation, it trains them to trust feelings over repentance. And I would also say it it trains them to trust affirmation over obedience. And Jesus does not say, affirm yourself and follow me. He says, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross. A gospel that removes the call to self-denial removes the shape of discipleship itself. You see, to bring up Wesley, John Wesley believed radically in grace, but never a grace that left people unchanged. Wesley preached entire sanctification that grace actually reforms desire. He said, There is no holiness but social holiness, meaning holiness, holiness is lived together, not erased for unity. Wesley allowed liberty of opinion, but he did not allow liberty of obedience. You see, so many people uh use Wesley to justify moral revision, and that is not that's not Wesleyan.

SPEAKER_00: 10:08

It's selective.

SPEAKER_01: 10:10

The Wesleyan quadrilater works only if scripture governs the rest. When experience becomes the final judge, scripture becomes symbolic. And once scripture becomes symbolic, authority dissolves.

SPEAKER_00: 10:28

You see, this isn't pastoral sensitivity, it is theological drift. Now let me say this plainly and personally. Listen, I am not afraid of being disliked.

SPEAKER_01: 10:51

I am not afraid of being misunderstood. I am afraid of standing before God and hearing you told them peace where there was no peace. I am afraid of softening the gospel so much that people never meet the real Jesus. And I am afraid because Scripture tells me that pastors are not only shepherds, they are watchmen. You see, in Ezekiel thirty-three, six, it says, If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not bow, uh does not blow the trumpet, I will require their blood at the watchman's hand. See that verse, that verse should sober us. Now I need you to understand something here. This is not hate. This is love. Love does not mean silence. Love does not mean revision. Love does not mean pretending sin is salvation, as so many do. Love means telling the truth, even when it costs everything. So before I go any further, I need to slow us down for a moment. What I am about to say next is heavier. Not because I'm angry, but because scripture is. If what we've talked about so far is true, if redefining grace reshapes the gospel, if shifting authority alters discipleship, and if pastors are entrusted with forming consciousness, then we don't get the luxury of staying theoretical.

SPEAKER_00: 12:52

Scripture does not say stay comfortable when the gospel is distorted.

SPEAKER_01: 13:03

It warns, and everything I'm about to say, I say as someone standing under that warning. I'm under it, not above it. So one of the most dangerous assumptions the modern church uh in the modern church is this if someone is sincere, they must be safe. Scripture never teaches that. Scripture never teaches that. Paul says in the epistle to the Romans, I bear them witness that they have zeal uh for God, but not according to knowledge. Listen, they had zeal, they had sincerity, they had passion, all of it was present, but it was still wrong. Sincerity does not sanctify error, passion does not purify falsehood. And this is where the danger of a more gracious gospel becomes lethal, not emotionally lethal, but spiritually lethal. Because when error is wrapped in kindness, people stop testing it. They really do. And Paul warns in the second epistle to the Corinthians: I am afraid that the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning. Your thoughts will be led astray. If someone comes and proclaims another Jesus, you put up with it readily enough. Another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel, not angry, not cruel, just different. That's the threat. That's the threat. So let me say this plainly. A gospel that tells people they are saved without repentance, a gospel that tells people holiness is optional, a gospel that reframes obedience as harm may feel loving, but it is not saving. It is not saving. Jesus does not say, Enter by the broad gate of affirmation. Right? I don't recall that being there. He says in the Gospel of Matthew 7, 13 through 14, the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. That verse does not give us, uh it doesn't give pastors uh permission to widen the gate. Friends, understand that that's not how this works. It gives pastors a mandate to point to it honestly. And here is where, you know, fear is righteous. You know, if pastors reassure people on the broad road that they are on the narrow one, that is not kindness. That is catastrophe. It really is. It's tragic. Now, Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. And then, you know, uh, I will declare to them, I never knew you. It's abbreviated, I know. Notice what he does not say, though, in that text, if you want to go and look at it, it's Matthew 7, 21 through 23. He does not say, you didn't try hard enough. He doesn't say um you weren't kind enough.

SPEAKER_00: 16:51

Um he doesn't say you weren't inclusive enough.

SPEAKER_01: 16:58

He says, You practiced lawlessness. In other words, you claimed my name while redefining obedience. That passage is not aimed at pagans. It is aimed at leaders. Listen, this was the this was aimed at people who taught, people who ministered, people who spoke for God. That's why this should not make us angry. It should make us afraid, the right kind of afraid. So, what I would like to do now is go back to the watchman imagery, not to scare people into despair, but to sober shepherds that might be listening. In the book of Ezekiel 33, 7 through 8, God says, If you do not speak to warn the wicked, their blood will re will be required at your hand.

SPEAKER_00: 18:06

This is not saying pastors save people.

SPEAKER_01: 18:12

Only Christ saves. But it is saying that silence and distortion has consequences. The shepherd who refuses to name sin does not become more merciful.

SPEAKER_00: 18:30

He becomes accountable, or she becomes accountable. Here is one of the most tragic fruits of this shift. The church loses its ability to warn. Everything becomes accompaniment, an affirmation, a process.

SPEAKER_01: 18:55

But scripture still says in the epistle to the Hebrews, Take care, brothers, lest there be any of you an evil, unbelieving heart.

SPEAKER_00: 19:11

And then it says, Exhort one another every day.

SPEAKER_01: 19:18

Exhortation is love. Warning is love. A church that cannot warn, cannot shepherd. Full stop. John Wesley, you see, he feared a Methodism, or you can say, if you want to be liberal with it, Christianity that kept the name but lost the power. He said this of Methodist I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion. Without the power. You see, Wesley did not fear unkindness. He feared emptiness, a gospel with no cross, a grace with no transformation, a church with no fear of God. That's what he feared. So let me say this as clearly as I can. The Wesleyan Quadrilateral is not for equal votes. Scripture does not sit at a round table with experience. Scripture judges experience. When experience overrules scripture, we are no longer discerning. Period. We are deciding. And humans deciding morality has never gone well. So let me say this pastor to pastor, preacher to preacher, listener to listener. If this conversation makes you feel superior, you've missed it. You've missed it. You've missed it. If it makes you angry, listen, you are not ready to speak. But if it makes you tremble, I would say you're standing in the right place. Because Paul says in the first epistle to the Corinthians 9 27, I discipline my body, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

SPEAKER_00: 21:42

Paul feared disqualification. And so should we. So let me end here.

SPEAKER_01: 21:58

I don't claim that I'm infallible. I do not claim moral superiority. I'm just as sinful as the rest of you guys. But I will stand on this. Grace does not contradict truth. Grace does not erase repentance. Grace does not remove obedience. Grace saves sinners and then teaches them to walk in holiness. And if the church forgets that, it does not become more gracious. It becomes more dangerous. So may God have mercy on his church. May he purify his pastors and may he keep us faithful, even when faithfulness costs us everything. And remember this the best of all is Christ is with us. Grace and peace, friends.