I do not want to labor a point unduly or restate the obvious and agitate emotions unnecessarily. But in I want to ask a simple question. How is the Christian to deal with error? How are we to respond to false teaching and other such misrepresentations of the truth?
We are in a world that recreates a Jesus in its own image all the time. The common representation of Jesus is "passive and peaceful." A man who is always nice and sweet, even tolerant of sin. We have all kinds of people walking around with WWJD bracelets who have no idea what Jesus would do because they have no clue what He actually did.
How did Jesus deal with error and lies? Did He simply "love people in their sin" and neglect the condemnation of their sin? And while Jesus was called a friend of "tax collectors and sinners" you will notice that those tax collectors and sinners did not stay around long. Even the casual observer will see that Jesus had an incredibly accordion-like ministry. Huge, massive crowds would follow Him around looking for goodies and handouts but in a moment He would lose them all (except the 12) with shocking messages like Luke 9:23, 14:25-17, Matthew 10:37, John 6:41-65 and so on.
[It may just be that those whom the Pharisees referred to as "sinners and tax collectors" were the disciples! They certainly would have classified Matthew, the tax collector, in this way. If you think I am off base I would ask you to consider the pedigree of the 12. These were not sought out people or identified culturally as "righteous." That position was occupied by the Sadducees and Pharisees and they made sure everyone knew it. The Pharisees would certainly continue to berate those who followed Jesus - the fact that they were repentant sinners was of no consequence to them. Remember when Peter and John were before the rulers of the Hebrews in Acts 4 and they saw them as "uneducated and untrained." They still had them under the label of "simpletons," people of no value as they saw it, and they had no idea what to do with them. The Pharisees would certainly have caricatured alone following Jesus.]
Now why is it that these folks would leave Him so quickly if He was just loving them in their sin? What was chasing them off if He was passive and peaceful?
Remember Matthew 10:34? "not peace but a sword." Hmm. How does that fit into your passive and peaceful concoction of Jesus (What is the sword? We know He is not speaking of actual violence. As He said to Pilate His kingdom is not of this world. So what kind of sword is meant? I will let you dig into that field on your own. Enjoy.)?
In the oft quoted story of the woman caught in adultery (which also happens to be one of the most debated passages in all of Scripture as to its authenticity in the original writing) we here Jesus say "let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Is this God's way of saying that sin is not a big deal? Is Jesus saying that we should live and let live? Are we to understand from this story that we are to never judge sin or deal with it? Not only would this stand in complete opposition to a massive amount of Scripture but it would also do violence to the context of the story itself.
Jesus follows up this comment with "go and sin no more." Unless I missed it that woman displayed remorse and repentance - or Jesus would not have forgiven her! God never works in any other way! This story puts on display the nature of the Almighty God. He is more inclined to forgiveness than judgment; He is more inclined to grace than to destruction - Hallelujah! Without this we are all doomed and hopeless before the God of holiness! "God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. (James 4:6)" Praise His name, He gives grace to the humble. Surely there is none like our God? He forgives the unforgivable, He loves the unlovable, and He pardons the unthinkable.
But do not make the error of thinking that by any means He will leave the guilty unpunished (Nahum 1:3; Exodus 34:7). May it never be! For then He would be unjust, and this violates the very nature of His character. But His ways are not our ways and His timing is not our timing. Peter reminds us of this in 1Peter 3:9 as does Asaph in Psalm 73.
We deal with error not by sitting under it and learning all we can about their position, not by listening to it, not by cuddling with it > we respond with the truth. We preach truth. We preach death to self, identifying with Christ regardless of persecution, and faithfully following in His steps - Luke 9:23.
A dear brother in Christ, Pastor John Macarthur, has done a better job with this than I can even pretend to do. I would encourage any and all to listen to (or read) his dealing with this subject.
- to listen to the sermon go here
- if you would prefer to read it then you can go here
- you can even watch some of it on youtube
God's grace go with you as you do all you can to stand firm, fellow soldier of Christ.
much love
