False Love (Polite Ignoring of Truth) Is Killing the Bride of Christ
Romans 16:17Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. 18For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. 19For your obedience has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil. 20And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
We live in the age that Paul described to Timothy:
2 Timothy 3:1But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
Whenever I see a list of behaviors that is so detailed, I am supposed to take the time and consider each item in the list. This isn't a general list of bad behavior in the "world" Paul is warning Timothy about. It is a very specific list of attitudes in the church that Timothy is supposed to be watching for so he can separate from those who practice these behaviors. This is very hard. This takes faith and obedience.
Many believers have been brought up to believe that "being polite" is the point of not speaking evil. This couldn't be further from the truth. Jesus was not polite. He was true in love. He spoke very unpolite things but was never unloving:
Matthew 23: 27“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’sbones and all uncleanness. 28“Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 29“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30“and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ 31“Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32“Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. 33“Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? 34“Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city,
I need to balance what the Bible says about being careful in speech in the light of truth and love. To watch bad behavior in the church...to abide it silently...is to fall into sin. Those who silently approve sin are just as guilty as those who commit offenses.
1 Corinthians 11:31For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. 32But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
I am not supposed to gossip, but I must speak the truth about what is happening in the body of the One I am loyal to. Otherwise, I am disloyal to Him.
Many are loyal to false rules ABOUT Jesus over being loyal to the actual person Jesus Christ. To be loyal to Jesus is to care about His heart over any other heart. To do this, I need to actually know Jesus...not just know about Him.
Jesus is sifting a Bride out of the church right now. Just as He took a church out of Israel, He is taking a Bride out of the church. Not everyone who claims to be His is actually operating in loyalty:
Matthew 7:13“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. 15“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16“You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17“Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18“A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20“Therefore by their fruits you will know them. 21“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22“Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Jesus desires NONE should perish. I can't read passages like the one above neutrally. I must care that this reality doesn't derail believers within my reach!
We must discern bad fruit. If someone is arrogant, that is a sin that leads to death. Selfishness...lying...jealousy, these all disqualify believers from the New Jerusalem!! These behaviors unrepented of will literally sweep many out of Jesus' city!...and their blood will be on those who stood idly by and said nothing. They will be the ones beaten by Jesus in the age to come:
Luke 12: 42And the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? 43“Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 44“Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. 45“But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, 46“the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. 47“And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48“But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more. 49“I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!
It is easy to ignore bad behavior that doesn't directly happen to you. This is pure selfishness and unbecoming of anyone filled with the Spirit of Truth.
I have witnessed this many times where, because we weren't the victim, in the name of politeness and not gossipping, we let it ungodly behavior go unaddressed in the midst of the church because we not only don't have all the facts, we don't WANT all the facts. This is unacceptable to Jesus. We are supposed to be intercessors....peacemakers. We have been given the ministry of reconciliation. We are supposed to be doing our part to bring the body of Christ into maturity by speaking truth in love:
Ephesians 4: 11And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. 17This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Jesus will hold each believer accountable for the way they stood for truth. No believer will be asked if he or she was polite. All will be asked about how they loved those around them and contended for truth in Jesus' body.
We are supposed to know the fruit of unrighteousness and false doctrine, observe it, and speak directly to it, because we love JESUS. If this behavior GOES UNREPENTED OF, we must then separate from any who refuse to separate from it!
Here is another specific list:
Galatians 5: 19Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery,fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20
idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
21envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
"hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy..."
The modern church is rife with these behaviors because so few will get into the weeds when those bearing good fruit fall victim to these behaviors from bad actors in the church. Often, for the sake of not gossipping or being polite, we will let Jesus' body be trampled not realizing Jesus will hold US accountable for not being like Jesus and standing up for truth in love!
This is not ok with Jesus. He contends for truth against the false. He is sifting His church... He is cleaning His threshing floor:
Phillippians 3: 17Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. 18For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things. 20For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
Revelation 2: 18“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, ‘These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass: 19“I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last aremore than the first 20“Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. 21“And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. 22“Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. 23“I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works. 24“Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden. 25“But hold fast what you have till I come. 26“And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—
27‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’—
as I also have received from My Father; 28“and I will give him the morning star. 29“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’
The letters to the seven churches are to the Church, not the world! The church is what is being sifted in the Book of Revelation...refined...purified, not the world. The wicked will continue in wickedness even after the return of Jesus...it will take 1,000 years to cleanse the world of unrighteousness. What is being cleansed right now is the Church!
Daniel 12:9And he said, “Go your way,Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. 10“Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.
If we stay silent now, the falling away will be because of us, because we would not love truth.
2 Thessalonians 2: 11And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Those who love unrighteousness are gathering together even now. Rebellion is a strong adhesive among people. But, Jesus' Bride is also gathering right now!
True unity doesn't happen by ignoring the truth to get along. No! TRUE unity happens by sanctification...being set apart in truth in love. This is how the world will know what is true!
John 17:15“I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16“They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18“As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19“And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. 20“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21“that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.
We live in the age that Paul described to Timothy:
2 Timothy 3:1But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
Whenever I see a list of behaviors that is so detailed, I am supposed to take the time and consider each item in the list. This isn't a general list of bad behavior in the "world" Paul is warning Timothy about. It is a very specific list of attitudes in the church that Timothy is supposed to be watching for so he can separate from those who practice these behaviors. This is very hard. This takes faith and obedience.
Many believers have been brought up to believe that "being polite" is the point of not speaking evil. This couldn't be further from the truth. Jesus was not polite. He was true in love. He spoke very unpolite things but was never unloving:
Matthew 23: 27“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’sbones and all uncleanness. 28“Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 29“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30“and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ 31“Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32“Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. 33“Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? 34“Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city,
I need to balance what the Bible says about being careful in speech in the light of truth and love. To watch bad behavior in the church...to abide it silently...is to fall into sin. Those who silently approve sin are just as guilty as those who commit offenses.
I am not supposed to gossip, but I must speak the truth about what is happening in the body of the One I am loyal to. Otherwise, I am disloyal to Him.
Many are loyal to false rules ABOUT Jesus over being loyal to the actual person Jesus Christ. To be loyal to Jesus is to care about His heart over any other heart. To do this, I need to actually know Jesus...not just know about Him.
Jesus is sifting a Bride out of the church right now. Just as He took a church out of Israel, He is taking a Bride out of the church. Not everyone who claims to be His is actually operating in loyalty:
Matthew 7:13“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. 15“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16“You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17“Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18“A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20“Therefore by their fruits you will know them. 21“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22“Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Jesus desires NONE should perish. I can't read passages like the one above neutrally. I must care that this reality doesn't derail believers within my reach!
Jesus has left it to us to help give the other servants the right food at the right time. That means, if I want to be a faithful servant I am willing to tell the people I go to church with what will actually save them! MANY will substitute politeness for truth and find that while they haven't offended the people around them (read: haven't gotten a cross) they HAVE offended Jesus! Woe!
We must discern bad fruit. If someone is arrogant, that is a sin that leads to death. Selfishness...lying...jealousy, these all disqualify believers from the New Jerusalem!! These behaviors unrepented of will literally sweep many out of Jesus' city!...and their blood will be on those who stood idly by and said nothing. They will be the ones beaten by Jesus in the age to come:
Luke 12: 42And the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? 43“Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 44“Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. 45“But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, 46“the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. 47“And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48“But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more. 49“I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!
It is easy to ignore bad behavior that doesn't directly happen to you. This is pure selfishness and unbecoming of anyone filled with the Spirit of Truth.
I have witnessed this many times where, because we weren't the victim, in the name of politeness and not gossipping, we let it ungodly behavior go unaddressed in the midst of the church because we not only don't have all the facts, we don't WANT all the facts. This is unacceptable to Jesus. We are supposed to be intercessors....peacemakers. We have been given the ministry of reconciliation. We are supposed to be doing our part to bring the body of Christ into maturity by speaking truth in love:
Ephesians 4: 11And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. 17This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Jesus will hold each believer accountable for the way they stood for truth. No believer will be asked if he or she was polite. All will be asked about how they loved those around them and contended for truth in Jesus' body.
We are supposed to know the fruit of unrighteousness and false doctrine, observe it, and speak directly to it, because we love JESUS. If this behavior GOES UNREPENTED OF, we must then separate from any who refuse to separate from it!
Here is another specific list:
Galatians 5: 19Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery,fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20
idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
21envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
"hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy..."
The modern church is rife with these behaviors because so few will get into the weeds when those bearing good fruit fall victim to these behaviors from bad actors in the church. Often, for the sake of not gossipping or being polite, we will let Jesus' body be trampled not realizing Jesus will hold US accountable for not being like Jesus and standing up for truth in love!
This is not ok with Jesus. He contends for truth against the false. He is sifting His church... He is cleaning His threshing floor:
Phillippians 3: 17Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. 18For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things. 20For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
We are called to be intercessors.... peacemakers.... reconcilers, like Jesus. If we refuse to hold the body of Jesus accountable, our own lives and families with be judged. In the Book of Revalation, Chapters 2 and 3, Jesus tells us HOW He will sift out a Bride. To not agree with Him is to be cast out of the wedding (Mat 25:12, 30). If we don't care about God's children, our own children will suffer:
Revelation 2: 18“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, ‘These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass: 19“I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last aremore than the first 20“Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. 21“And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. 22“Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. 23“I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works. 24“Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden. 25“But hold fast what you have till I come. 26“And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—
27‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’—
as I also have received from My Father; 28“and I will give him the morning star. 29“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’
The letters to the seven churches are to the Church, not the world! The church is what is being sifted in the Book of Revelation...refined...purified, not the world. The wicked will continue in wickedness even after the return of Jesus...it will take 1,000 years to cleanse the world of unrighteousness. What is being cleansed right now is the Church!
Daniel 12:9And he said, “Go your way,Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. 10“Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.
If we stay silent now, the falling away will be because of us, because we would not love truth.
2 Thessalonians 2: 11And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Those who love unrighteousness are gathering together even now. Rebellion is a strong adhesive among people. But, Jesus' Bride is also gathering right now!
True unity doesn't happen by ignoring the truth to get along. No! TRUE unity happens by sanctification...being set apart in truth in love. This is how the world will know what is true!
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