The religious leaders of Jesus’s day accused him of being a
drunkard and a glutton, a friend of tax collectors and sinners and in league
with Satan himself. How did Jesus respond? He called the religious leaders of
the day hypocrites, greedy, wicked, fools, vipers, sons of hell, blind guides,
whitewashed tombs full of dead man’s bones. He even said that the devil was
their father.
We must remember that the religious leaders of Jesus day
preached the 10 Commandments, told people to obey the sacrificial system. They
taught people to participate in the various Jewish festivals. They taught the
word of God. However, Jesus told his disciples as to avoid the religious
leaders of the day. They may preach God’s will for the Jewish people, which is
what the people should do, but they didn't practice what they preach. Or
they twisted the word of God for their own purposes.
We see
the same thing happening with the church through the writings of Paul. Paul
confronted Peter as being a hypocrite. There were those who were part of the
faith that were teaching false doctrine and Paul compare them to gangrene and
gave them over to Satan. The history of the church is replete with examples of
people speaking out against Christian leadership about how they have strayed
from the New Testament teachings of what a community of believers should look
like and act like. As a result some of these people who spoke out against these
Christian religious leaders were killed because they took the stance against
them. They were silenced in the name of Jesus.
Some would say that this kind of rhetoric that we see in the
New Testament from Jesus and Paul and Christian people throughout church
history is not good because it makes Christians look like they’re divided
against one another. And this perception is somehow not “Christ like”. And
because it is not Christ like these people who speak out against the abuses of
the people in religious authority should be silenced. It is this kind of
thinking that would have spoken out against Martin Luther himself. And did.
Could you
imagine someone coming up to Jesus and saying to him that he shouldn't judge
the religious leaders of the day because it might offend those people who are
friends with those religious leaders or under the teaching of those religious
leaders.
“Hey Jesus that’s not
very loving and you’re being very judgmental. We are friends with some of these
Pharisees. As a matter of fact we're related and what you are saying will make
it very awkward for us to say we know you.” Or telling Paul that he should not
write those harsh words in his letters where he judges another believer about a
particular doctrine or practice. “Hey Paul that’s not very loving and you’re
being very judgmental. Hey Paul I know those guys and hang out with them and
you’re making it uncomfortable for me because I see these guys all the time
therefore you can’t write that stuff. As a matter of fact you have to tear up
that letter you wrote were you mentioned them by name. If you don’t we can’t
hang out with you anymore. After all what would people think about Christians
calling out other Christians.” What do you think Paul or Jesus would say in response?
Would we even have a New Testament?
Jesus
said woe to you that all men should speak well of you because that’s how they
treated the false teachers. Speaking out against people in religious authority
when they abuse and shake the faith of brothers and sisters in Christ should
never be silenced. The abuses should be shouted from the rooftops, proclaimed
on every street corner, told to as many people as possible, to avoid those who
think they’re doing the will of God but destroying the sheep of God. People can
preach Jesus but serve their own religious appetites.
1 Timothy
1:20
2 Timothy
2:17-18, 4:10
John 8:44
Matthew 23
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