Have you seen them lately? I have. I’ve also experienced them in the past. I’ve watched them try to ruin people’s lives. They hurt people. I even had to learn to pray for them, without judging them. Caustic or sarcastic Christians are a plague to the body!
Let’s look at the definitions:
- Caustic: 1. Capable of burning, corroding, dissolving, or eating away. 2. Corrosive and bitingly trenchant; cutting. 3. Causing a burning or stinging sensation, as from intense emotion
- Sarcasm (Sarcastic): 1. A cutting, often ironic remark intended to wound. 2. A form of wit that is marked by the use of sarcastic language and is intended to make its victim the butt of contempt or ridicule
When we hurt folks with our tongues, let alone our actions, ARE WE EXEMPLIFYING JESUS?
It amazes me how some Christians have personal vendettas against other Christians; maligning their names, shunning them, and accusing them of "not being right with the Lord." How do you know? Are you speaking at the behest of the Holy Spirit or out of your own selfish desire to see them fail/suffer? God is not pleased with such behavior, especially when done falsely in His Name. You have become a PLAGUE TO THE BODY.
- Exodus 20:16, the eighth Commandment ,"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour"
- Leviticus 6:1-4, "And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the LORD, and lie unto his neighbour…or hath deceived his neighbour…and lieth concerning it, and sweareth falsely; in any of all these that a man doeth, sinning therein: Then it shall be, because he hath sinned, and is guilty,"
- Leviticus 19:11, "Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another."
- John 4:23-24, "…true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth"
Things that we do that are wrong, that ONLY God knows….suppose He adopted the practice of airing our dirty laundry? Would we appreciate it? Would we applaud it? Would we rebound from it? Would we be able to bear the hurt of betrayal?
- Job 11:3,5, "Should thy lies make men hold their peace? and when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed? But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee;"
On one hand...there may be some people who are operating out of the Will of God. By all means if you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God told you to rebuke them…then have at it. Don’t worry about offending them.. HOWEVER…If God has not told you to openly rebuke them, and they are operating outside of His Will, go to them and speak with them. Don’t try to publically humiliate them; by so doing, you are hurting the Kingdom and smearing verbal and spiritual garbage all over them AND yourselves. How are you to be credible after you take part in such a smear campaign? Sometimes you may not have a clue what God has spoken to another saint. Go to them in love, BEFORE open rebuke.
- Matthew 18:15-17 ESV , “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
- 1 John 4:20 ESV, If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
- James 3:17 ESV, But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
On the flip side, people or un-churched folks who are on the outside looking in say that they hate church. A lot of what we hate about Church is not Church, but flesh. Flesh rising up and doing it’s own thing, oblivious to the ebb and flow of the Holy Spirit.
What is the bottom line? The plague is a lack of love; Straight, good old, healing, reviving, renewing…AGAPE LOVE. A plague is running rampant in the church and needs to be eradicated.
How does a body deal with foreign antibodies (plague)? It seeks to cast them out. If you cannot walk in love you could be cast out. Could you deal with being cast out? Could you deal with coals being heaped on your head, like you did to Sister-so-and-so? Could you deal with losing everything…including your sanity, because somebody lied on you?
Does this behavior not make one lukewarm…having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof (2 Tim 3:5)? (IMHO, the folks at Laodicea had nothing on our society today) You know God, have seen Him work in wondrous ways, BUT you continue to DANCE WITH THE WORLD. Shouting and going to church on Sunday and chasing that ticket to hell during the rest of the week.
The plague makes the Church sick. Lukewarm water makes the body sick. According to Revelation 3:16, He will spew you out of his mouth; so even in the natural that’s how the body rids itself of things that are making it sick. If at all possible it spits them out or eliminates them in other ways.
How do we correct this problem? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, walk in Love. Somebody is waiting on you to show them Jesus. If the only Jesus they see is a perverted one, they wa't nothing to do with Him, let alone the Kingdom. So let me rephrase that…
Somebody is depending on you to show them Jesus.
© 2013 Ayani_Meli
Stilletto Warrior and Revolutionary Disciple
#Ayani_Exhales #preachingtoselffirst
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