08 Instructing Them With Meekness
Instructing them in meekness
“In meekness instructing those who oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth,”2 Timothy 2:25.
We have said it several times before; but I believe it bears repeating at this point. In considering such a subject as this, we need to be very wary, and very careful, of our own motives. Every one of us still has that same carnal nature we brought into this world, and that nature can easily get the advantage of us.
Jeremiah warns us, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Our own deceitful heart can easily turn a righteous zeal for truth into resentment, or even malice, toward those who are in error, and we cannot always tell when we cross that line. We can very easily slide from opposing falsehood to chastising and vilifying those who are in error. No doubt, there are those who advocate error, becausethey do not know any better. Paul talked about those who, “being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God,”Romans 10:9. We have Paul’s word for it that they did not know any better.
Paul also talked about those “who hold the truth in unrighteousness,”Romans 1:18. Regardless of anything else that may be involved in that verse, it does teach that a person may use the truth in an improper manner. If a person knows the truth, but uses that truth to maliciously attack his brother who may not know any better,it appears to me the person who uses the truth like a club may incur the greater guilt.
We will have some comments to make about the role the Roman Catholic Church has played in persecuting those who will not submit to their authority. The historians have made their point; the historical record is clear. There can be no doubt about what they did, especially during what is called the Protestant Reformation.
I realize I am repeating myself; but I believe this point bears repeating. We must oppose error, but we have absolutely no right to imply that our Catholic neighbors are responsible for what happened centuries before they were born.
We will have some comments to make about the conduct of John Calvin, and other leaders in the history of Calvinism. We will show that they inherited the persecuting ways of their Catholic teachers. We have a perfect right to point out that their doctrine led to their conduct, but we have no right to impute their misconduct to those in our day who answer to their name. The Protestants have done such an effective job of rewriting their history, that only the rarest of their people are aware of the scope and magnitude of their persecution of those who differed with them.
We will point out some of the doctrines of Judaism that have survived both in the Roman Catholic Church and in the various Protestant denominations, but there is a vast difference between opposing the false religious system we call Judaism, and opposing the Jewish people. They are not at all the same thing. The Apostle Paul spent his life opposing Judaism, and yet, from the very core of his being he loved the Jewish people. We hear him saying, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved,”
He could even say, “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,”Romans 9:3. We should not imagine that he could wish himself-eternally- accursed from Christ. His eternal destiny is not under consideration. But if he was such an offense to the Jews that his being in the church was what kept them out, he would be willing to be sacrificed for their sake. Considering the joy he received from the church, and the great benefit he was to the church, I cannot imagine how he could have said anything more.
He was appointed to be the apostle to the gentiles, but he never lost that love and affection for his own people, and he always prayed for their benefit. We must be always on our guard that we never allow our opposition to false ideas to slide off into resentment for any people. If we do, we will surely suffer for it.
Paul recognized the errors of Judaism, and he rejoiced to be free from the Jew’s religion,”Galatians 1:13-14, but that did not in the least diminish his love for the people. Listen to Luke’s account.
“And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judea a certain prophet, named Agabus. And when he was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles”Acts 21:10-11. Agabus was speaking by the Holy Ghost, and that is exactly what did happen, but listen to Paul’s reply.
“Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break my heart? For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus,” (Acts 21:13). Paul recognized that the Jews were seriously in error. They had rejected their Messiah, and they were soon to suffer for it, but that did not diminish his love for them. He was ready to suffer and to die for his people. A person can oppose Judaism and still feel genuine affection for the Jewish people, just as he can oppose Catholicism and Protestantism and have genuine love for his Catholic and Protestant neighbors. We should always be aware that when any person harbors malice for any other person, or any other people, he harms himself far more than he harms the object of his malice. The story has been told a thousand times over of the two men who watched a condemned man being led to the gallows. One of them called him “a miserable wretch,” and he was right; the man had been convicted of a horrible crime, and he deserved to die. His companion knew more about the grace of God-and about his own corrupt nature-and he said, “Yes, he is; but,” he said, “there, but for the grace of God, I go.”
If we have a brother who advocates error, we need to realize that, were it not for the blessing of God enabling us to understand the truth, we could be just as much in the dark as he is. God deals in judgment with those who are malicious in their opposition to error as surely as he deals in judgment with those who advocate error. We must oppose error, but we must do it with compassion and love for the erring brother.