cliques A small group of people with shared interests, who spend time together and exclude others. (#Part7) Confront Sin to Save Souls. The Corinthian correspondence is filled with various sins that Paul specified and admonished to be corrected. If difficulties in the church can be traced to sinful conduct or a wicked character fault, it must be corrected or those impenitent brethren will be condemned on Judgment Day (II Corinthians 5:10). “Judge those within the church…Remove the wicked man from among yourselves” (I Corinthians 5:12,13). So, preachers have front-line responsibility before God and to the brethren to rebuke crying sins in the church (II Timothy 4:2; cf. Ezekiel 3:17-21). I recall having to confront a deacon in a church who continually “reviled” me behind my back, trying to tear down my work for the Lord. (Paul enumerated a “reviler,” along with others sins in I Corinthians 5:11 that should not be tolerated in the local church.) When I confronted about needing to resolve this, he arrogantly quipped, “I don’t have to talk to you about anything.” How ignorant of the Biblical duty to resolve sins in attitude, word and deed. At Corinth, Paul’s fidelity to truth meant he didn’t shy away from dealing with sinful behavior. “We are ready to punish all disobedience” (II Corinthians 11:6). More sins are exposed and rebuked at Corinth than any other church in the New Testament. He identified the underlying condition of many as a lack of dedication to the Lord, being “weak” and “sick” and “asleep” (I Corinthians 11:30). He also exposed their carnality, arrogance and worldly thinking (I Corinthians 3:1-3; 4:6-7,18; 5:2; II Corinthians 10:7). Paul certainly didn’t have the attitude to just teach nice, fluffy lessons and gloss over their damning sins. Moral cowardice fears the trauma of confronting brethren’s persistent, pernicious sin. Yet, Paul confidently asserted, in correcting perversions in worship: “there must be divisions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident” (I Corinthians 11:19). Later, he admonished the brethren to “separate” themselves from the bad influence of the false apostles (II Corinthians 6:14-7:1). Paul’s loving honesty exposed the reality of sin. We do not one a favor by allowing them to go to hell with a good conscience. Paul’s teaching on sin did help the majority of the Corinthians to repent and change for the better (II Corinthians 2:7; 7:9-10). Paul’s scriptural warnings against sin were balanced with loving and tender appeals (I Corinthians 16:24; II Corinthians 6:1-3,11-13). He challenges them, “Examine yourselves, whether or not if you are in the faith” (II Corinthians 13:5). We are all accountable to God for our conduct. “For we all must stand before the judgment seat of Christ” (II Corinthians 5:10). It is the “fear of the Lord” that sobers us up to our personal accountability to God and the need to persuade others to turn from sin (II Corinthians 5:11). As a preacher, don’t let a few bad apples sour you on the great work of preaching. Focus on the many good brethren willing to accept Biblical teaching. A lack of consistent church discipline allows a thorny backlog of problems. If the local church clearly shows, over time, that it is too cowardly, lax, or lazy to practice corrective church discipline, then you will be better off going to a church willing to stand for the whole truth. Leave those incorrigible brethren in the Hands of the Lord. They may have unfairly condemned your scriptural work, but they have condemned themselves to wickness. Don’t Defend Yourself, but Do Defend the Lord’s Work Being Done. Paul was very open and vulnerable with dealing with the Corinthians (II Corinthians 6:11). He also gave a vigorous defense of the scriptural integrity of His apostolic work at Corinth against his critics: “I will not be put to shame” (II Corinthians 10:8). In preaching, we must distinguish in upholding divine truth and a personal grievance. Remember, I am not that important but what I am doing for the Lord is eternally important. “Let no one despise you” (Titus 2:15). Paul confronted spiritual error foisted by religious errorist in the church. “They” (II Corinthians 10:10; 11:13-15,18) were identified as “false apostles, deceitful workers … ministers of Satan” (II Corinthians 11:13-15). He used gospel truth to tear down the fallacy of their worldly tactics" (II Corinthians 10:1-7) and fleshly subjectivism (II Corinthians 10:12-18). “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God” (II Corinthians 10:5). Some brethren seem to think that the preacher is paid to be the personal dart board of disgruntled members. I’ve had brethren tell me, “You can’t stop people from talking about you. Just overlook it.” Personal opinions can be overlooked but there are “sins of the tongue” (grumbling, reviling, lying, gossip, etc.) that can damn an impenitent soul to hell and can poison the minds of unsuspecting brethren against the preacher’s work. Again, it is the Lord’s work done by the preacher that should be defended, not the preacher’s personality or feelings. Allowing ungodly, underhanded tactics to hurt a preacher’s work is a corrupting influence in a congregation that professes to stand for the truth and against sin. When there’s a conflict, some think the easy answer is: “let’s get a new preacher.” If the preacher leaves, the unpleasantries of the issue may pass, but the sinful character that reared its ugly head will only be submerged, awaiting the heart-searching judgment in the end (II Corinthians 5:10, I Timothy 5:24). If it happens that you must a congregation because you have done all you can scripturally do, it is important as you leave to not “shoot over your shoulder” (Harold Comer) by taking cheap shots from the pulpit at the brethren. This helps nothing. Snide remarks will seem as petty sniping.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 06:11:28 +0000