The Bible teaches us one motivation and two methods for confrontation and correction:
Motivation: Care for the spiritual well-being of others who are fellow disciples of Jesus.
Methods:
- Personal/private sins are dealt with as privately and quietly as possible and escalated if the person shows no repentance, the goal being to save the spiritual well-beingof the individual in sin.
- Public teaching sins are dealt with publicly. The goal being to save the spiritual well-being of those under the influence of the one in sin.
The biblical teachings and examples are all of people who profess to be followers of the God of the Bible. I don't think this necessitates application to those not in the church.
If someone is a believer and you know they are in sin, then it needs to be confronted. Your motivation needs to be care for their spiritual well-being.
Should I confront someone publicly?
This is not a light task. I'm not convinced Jesus made friends when he went into the temple with a whip he had made, and started overturning tables during a time of worship. In fact, this is when some people started plotting his death.
But don't do the wrong thing because the right thing is intimidating. The motivation is the care for believers' spiritual well-being. How much do I care about another's spiritual well-being if I choose to allow them to be misled because of my own desire for what is comfortable?
Here's some intermediate steps that I might suggest. (These are not commanded or modeled in the scriptures that deal with public teachers that lead people astray):
- Seek counsel from those you know are wiser than you.
- Seek clarity with the leader privately first.
- Seek action by those to whom the teacher is responsible.
- The person you want to confront has likely spent more time studying and preparing for what they're doing, you may have something to learn - you may well be wrong. Be humble and teachable but not a push-over.
- You may learn that (s)he recognizes the error and is preparing to correct the error from the correct venue.
- You may lean that there is an issue but it's very minor.
But, it's not limited to blasphemy - (what most people mean when they say heresy, which is any false teaching) . Paul confronted Peter about acceptance of non-Jewish believers. John confronted Diotrophes in a letter that was sent to church members about him keeping people out of the church who were believers.
In my life
I've taught in some venues before. Rather than someone standing up and shouting me down on why I'm wrong on something, I'd much rather them talk to me and/or the person over me in that venue. If there is an error, I'll get up and correct myself at the soonest opportunity before all those whom I taught. If there isn't an error, then the one who asked the question has earned my respect for engaging in the conversation.
If I don't see a real problem but my superior does, then (s)he ought to make the correction in the same venue.
Public confrontation seems more fit for a consistent problem that is misleading people. If that's the case, then there ought to be public confrontation of the person in charge (for condoning the false teaching), and me.
I have personally stood in front of a church and issued an apology and correction for something I've said, and I've been in a church where the Senior Pastor stood up and apologized and corrected what he had taught the previous week.
I have never seen a public confrontation of someone who has consistently misled a church through false teaching. All of this is just my working through what the Bible says on the issue.
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