If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
(Colossians 3:1-17 ESV)
In my last post, we learned that we are only to speak what is “good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Eph. 4:29). Basically, verbal abuse and swearing are unbecoming of a Christian because they don’t help anything.
However, there are times when certain restraints should be removed because to not say something is the less loving route. I’ll talk about two today:
- Calling out a fellow Christian on his sin
- Calling out a false teacher
Fellow Christians and Their Sin
What do you do when you know a Christian is sinning? The Bible is very clear on that. Jesus said, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother” (Matt 18:15). When he sins against you, tell him! It’s that simple. The rest of the passage talks about if he doesn’t repent of his sin. “But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector” (Matt. 18:16-17). There are no holds barred here. If the sinner doesn’t repent, bring a couple of people with you to talk him out if it. And if he continues sinning, tell the whole church. Don’t keep it a secret any longer.
We have to remember, though, that the purpose of this is not to gossip. Look at what Jesus said in verse 15: “If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.” This is reproof out of love. If we love our Christian brothers and sisters, we’ll call them out when they’re sinning. They are disobeying their Lord, and God chastens those who continue in sin.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit (again) that I have a difficult time with this. I don’t like confrontation. I don’t like making people feel bad. But that’s what the Bible says to do. Jesus called people out on their sin multiple times, wanting them to repent. And if I’m sinning, I hope someone will call me out on it because frankly, I don’t want to sin anymore (not that I, a human being, can fully stop sinning, but you get the idea).
False Teachers
This is a subject of particular interest to me, because I personally find it very difficult to be tolerant of false teachers. The people I mainly mean here are those who claim to be teaching the Bible and sound doctrine but are teaching utter heresy. Rob Bell is a nice example.
But are we supposed to be tolerant of false teachers? I don’t think so. Actually, we’re called to “contend earnestly for the faith” (Jude 3). Jude continues: “For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 4). Whoa. Jude didn’t pull any punches there. He outrightly condemned not only what these teachers were doing (perverting the grace of God and denying Jesus as the only Lord), but the teachers themselves. He called them “ungodly” and “designated for this condemnation.” Specifically, they were designated for God’s condemnation which was spoken of “long ago.”
Paul didn’t pull punches with false teachers and their actions either. In fact, part of the reason he wrote Colossians was a response to false teaching that had arisen in Colossae. He called the false teachers “puffed up without reason by [a] sensuous mind” (Col. 2:18) and their teaching “empty deceit” (Col. 2:8).
And let us not forget Jesus’ treatment of the Pharisees. Jesus called them “hypocrites” (too many verses to cite), openly exposed what they were doing (Matt. 23), and warned others against them and their teachings (Mark 8:15).
Why did they do these things? And why should we? The main reason, I think, is that these false teachers are wolves who have come to lead the sheep astray. That metaphor comes from Matthew 7:15: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” That means they look like Christians (or claim to be Christians) outwardly, but inwardly they are unregenerate, unsaved people trying to lead the sheep astray into wrong teaching. Jesus said we “will recognize them by their fruits” (Matt 7:16). By fruits, He means the things they do and say. And when we recognize them, we need to call them out so we can warn other Christians to stay away from them! Christians do at times fall for false teaching; it’s the job of other Christians to read their Bibles, know sound doctrine, and make sure that doesn’t happen.
As for the teachers themselves, I’m not sure what to say about them. They could potentially come to Christ later on, so I don’t think we should just outright say there’s no hope for them. But by calling them out, we expose them. Maybe then they will feel ashamed and realize they need to come to Christ. We don’t know what God plans for them. But they must be called out, both for their own benefit and the benefit of believers everywhere.
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