“But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.” (James 3:17-18 NLT)
A few days ago I used a quote from Pastor Burk Parsons that said: “The church is not full of hypocrites—it’s full of repentant sinners. Big difference. Hypocrites pretend to be what they never intend to be, but Christians repent.” My sense is we can see that for which we’re looking. If we’re looking for a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” we’re going to find one.
“Yes, but didn’t Jesus warn us that there would be false prophets who would disguise themselves as sheep when they were really wolves?” Have you ever noticed that we tend to be the most critical of the one(s) with whom we’re least familiar? And we tend to cut people we love, the most slack.
Are we resting on our own ability to come to right conclusions about people we hardly know or know only by reputation? Are we presuming things about them that are simply not true, things we saw online or heard somewhere, but haven’t verified for ourselves? The internet makes it far too easy to bring accusations about someone that may or may not be true, or, at best, taken out of context.
My sense is there are far fewer “hypocrites” in the church and far more growing believers who are struggling in their journey. Any of us, including myself, can have a bad day, a bad moment when we do or say something in public, we regret the second it happens, but if seen, can easily be taken out of context and blown out of proportion.
We, in the Body of Christ, tend to want to “judge” others in their worst moments, yet, be judged only in our best moments. “Yes, but there really are bad people in churches!” Yes, there are, and sometimes they’re leaders, even Pastors, but that’s why the Lord gives us discernment. We go to HIM first, not our friends. We don’t become the Judge and jury, then discover the truth.
What I often find is people who have a pure heart, but wrong information, make dumb choices, not because they’re “bad,” but because they’re misinformed or have misunderstood a clear instruction of the Lord. My son, when he was maybe 5, was riding in the car with me and he heard on the radio the temperature outside was 27 degrees. He perked up and said to me: “Daddy, I bet it’s really cold in the chill factory!”
He’d heard us speak about the “chill factor,” but didn’t understand what he was hearing. It was an honest mistake for a little boy to put what he heard in the framework of his understanding. But we do the same thing as adults. We presume to know more about a circumstance, situation, or person than we actually know and come to wrong conclusions and make uninformed comments about things that hurt people.
It happens, but as unfortunate as that is, it’s not the worst thing that can happen. Our wrong conclusions can be heard, then passed on as “truth,” when they’re anything but the truth. That’s the power of gossip on steroids and it’s evil. Presuming lies are truth and passing them on cripples the work of God and can damage reputations and the effectiveness of local congregations.
Please, I implore you, if you knowingly pass on information about which you don’t have all the facts, you are endangering not only another person’s reputation, but you’re hindering at best, and damaging at worst, the reputation of Christ Himself. Please don’t rest in wrong information and presume what may very well be lies, to be truth.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😃
Walking With Jesus 