It’s easy to speak negatively about someone you don’t know personally, and even slander them, because you are not with them on a regular basis. You don’t work with them. You don’t hang out with them. You really don’t know their hearts. So why are you maligning them? They are part of the body of Christ!
It amazes me how often believers speak negatively about preachers they don’t even know. I used to do it until the Lord dealt with me about it. It doesn’t matter if you think they are preaching false doctrine and heresy. You are not qualified to talk about them if you don’t know them personally. We have far too many zealous watchdogs and policemen in the body of Christ that feel its their responsibility to root out all the tares in the body, and keep all the preachers accountable.
You see, if everyone had their own sheepfold and a local body they belonged to, including every preacher in the land, we would have far less of this criticism and unrighteous judgment in the body of Christ, because everyone would be accountable to their own local body and it’s leadership. In this light, can you see how important it is to be a vital part of the local body? I believe it would solve 90% of our problems.
You cannot enter into this watchman and police mentality without hurting innocent people and bringing shame on the Church. Jesus told His own disciples not to pull out the tares lest they pluck up the wheat with it, but instead, wait until the time of harvest when all things will be made known. Some zealous watchdogs may think they’re uprooting tares, and it may very well be the purest wheat in the field that they are uprooting. Moreover, it’s just such a poor witness to the world.
Let love prevail.
(Excerpt from my newest book I’m working on concerning the glory of the local church, Divine order, and the corporate anointing I see beginning to manifest across the land)
What about speaking negatively about our enemies? The enemy?? “Love your enemy” includes “Your enemy”, would it not? I guess that even includes political opponents, and proponents of things we don’t agree with.
Indeed, Jesus spent 40-days alone with Satan himself and never lost His temper. Never uttered a curse. Never prayed down fire from Heaven. Never even raised His voice, if the Scripture gives a full account (rhetorical question there).
So-called “righteous indignation” isn’t an excuse to abandon the one commandment upon which all the Law and Prophets depend. In fact righteous indignation is nothing more than spiritual judgment. Which is the most dangerous kind of judgement there is for a believer, because it is reserved for …