It is without question that we live in a depraved and perverse culture. Sexual immorality, infant murder in the womb, and gender confusion are just some of the sins that are celebrated as virtues throughout the nation. The Christian church must respond rightly to this growing acceptance and celebration of rebellion against God. The question, however, is how we do so. At a time when the nation is deeply divided along sociopolitical lines, publicly displaying anger and animosity toward one’s ideological opponents has become the norm. In some respects, this is understandable. As a culture, we are being told that anyone who disagrees with our position hates and despises us. To attempt to argue an opposing view means a person wishes to dominate and oppress you. Therefore, the only “reasonable” response is to shout down the opposition and prevent them from having any kind of public voice. In reality, this is nothing more than an attempt to maintain a stranglehold on the culture through verbal violence.
Unfortunately, this ideology has invaded the church as well. Being swept up in the socio-politically driven culture wars, Christians see how secularists have targeted the church as a great “evil” that must eradicated for their agendas to move forward. This is not debatable, as the sociopolitical left has deemed Christian thought and practice as “hate speech” that must be removed from the public square. In response, the desire to respond in kind has been a temptation some have been unable to resist. Many Christians find themselves engaged in a tit-for-tat dialogue where they not only call out the depravity of their opposition but mock and deride them, sometimes quite maliciously. While the concept of fighting fire with fire seems to make pragmatic sense, one must question if it is biblical. In fact, many other Christians have called out this practice, calling on their brethren to tame their tongues and to remember our calling to proclaim the gospel. This has resulted in a debate between professing believers as to how far is too far when responding to a God-hating culture.
Those who engage in coarse protestations often point to the fact that Scripture describes times when even Christ Himself used hard language in dealing with unbelievers. Most famously, they will address the time when He used a whip of cords to drive out the money changers (John 2:14-17) or when He called the Pharisees “white-washed tombs” (Matt. 23:27-28). While Christ indeed could demonstrate hard speech and actions when dealing with His detractors, it is necessary to examine the context in which those events occurred. If we are going to argue we can emulate Christ in like manner, we must ensure that we are applying this behavior rightly instead of using the passages as proof texts to justify what may be sinful behavior.
In John 2, Christ had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. The city would have been packed with faithful Jews coming to make sacrifices at the temples as commanded in the law. It was a time for the Jews to draw close to God and worship Him for his gracious kindness in covering their sins. However, rather than the temple being a place where they could come and worship freely, it had become a place of thievery. Through a complex web of web animal inspectors and money changers, the Jews were being extorted to pay more for temple-approved lambs to be brought for their sacrifices. When Christ laid eyes on this vile practice, which placed an undue burden on God’s people, His response was to drive out these thieves at the end of a whip. Understand that this was not a response to sinners in general. In reality, sinners surrounded the temple. It was the whole reason they were there. Christ’s actions were directed at a specific people who were making merchandise of His free offer of salvation. They were barring the way of salvation by misleading the people into believing it had to be purchased at a high monetary cost. Christ’s righteous indignation was directed at those who were leading His people astray.
Similarly, in Matthew 23, Christ is proclaiming his famous woes to the scribes and Pharisees. At the beginning of the chapter, Christ is preaching to the people and describing the hypocrisy of these religious leaders. He speaks of how they lay heavy burdens on the people to prove their worth before God, yet they “are not willing to move them with their finger” (v. 4). These are the men who want all the accolades and to be seen as the model of godliness. They expect the masses to do all they command but refuse to hold themselves to the same standard. It is here, in verses 27 and 28, where Christ describes them as “white-washed tombs” that are “full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.” The scribes and Pharisees were supposed to be the ones who brought God’s word to the people and the people before God. They were to be so familiar with God’s word that they would rightly lead the people in worship before a gracious God, the One who would cover their sins. Instead, they selfishly made a spectacle of themselves, desiring the worship and applause that rightly belonged to God. They made themselves appear upright and clean before the people, but God saw the wicked hypocrisy of their hearts. It is for this reason that Christ showed no patience with them and declared His woes upon them. His sharp speech was directed at the very leaders who made a mockery of God’s commandments.
Now, let us contrast this with Christ’s interaction with a deeply sinful woman from Samaria. In John 4, Jesus and His disciples are en route to Galilee when they stop in Samaria. The disciples leave Christ at a well to obtain food. It is here where Christ meets a woman who has lived a life of ongoing sexual immorality. Christ does not mock her, He does not distance Himself from her, and He does not call on others to shame her. Rather, Christ engages in a conversation in which He reveals not only His knowledge of her sin but also her desperate need for the spiritual water of forgiveness that can only be found in Himself, the long-awaited Messiah. This woman’s sin was clearly known by the people of Samaria, hence her coming alone to the well in the middle of the day. Her deeds were not secret. By all biblical standards, she was a harlot. Christ had every right as God in flesh to not only condemn her but to openly shame her. Instead, He engages her with love and compassion, bringing her the message of the gospel. The very kind of person Christians find themselves surrounded by today was the mission field Christ Himself sought out intentionally to which to minister.
If Christians desire to engage this wicked culture and seek to emulate Christ in their speech, then we are required to understand just how and why He used the manner of speech He did. Hard speech was indeed used on occasion by our Lord; however, it was most often reserved for those who were expected to rightly lead the people in humble worship yet used their position for their own gain. Christ openly shamed those leaders who were leading the people astray and could not care one whit how much damage they wrought. Yet, when seeing the sinners in the streets, Christ showed compassion on them as sheep in need of a shepherd. He did not water down the message, nor did He waffle on the matter of sin. He warned sternly that fiery judgment awaited all who lived in rebellion, but He called them all to the only means of salvation, Himself. He later commanded His disciples to go into all the world and make disciples of every nation with this very compassionate message.
Christians must find that balance of knowing when and how to speak to the world around us. We cannot use the fact that Christ spoke harshly at times to justify our abuse of those who need the gospel message. We cannot allow our sense of self-righteous indignation to be a shield that allows us to misuse God’s Word so we may gain our pound of flesh at those whose depravity offends us. Yes, there may be times when hard speech is necessary to expose those who would lead sinners into the fires of Hell. Still, we must remember that our mission is to go into the world and make disciples. We can be firm and passionate, exposing sin in the lives of our hearers, just as Christ exposed the Samarian woman had five husbands and was living with a man not her husband. But, we must also love as Christ loved to show those sins can be forgiven through His righteous sacrifice. Our love for Christ and His act of propitiation should drive us to care for those in need of the gospel. It should mold our thoughts and our speech toward them. Even when we must be firm and unwavering, like our Savior, it must always be to point them to the One who can bring them peace. Let this be our guide rather than seeking to cherry-pick the portions of Scripture to justify our anger at those whose sins were once our own.
This article was also published at X.com.
The Christian walk requires us to be ever-thoughtful about remaining on the narrow path. The slightest deviation from God’s prescribed direction for our lives can result in falling into ditches we should have clearly seen had we been paying attention. Proverbs 4:25–27 tells us,
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