Brother, When a Christian encounters a pattern of sinful behaviour within a group of believers, especially an evil that escapes mention or a reckoning, he/she must feel duty-bound to expose it, yet humbly knowing they could commit the same sin. If you were an unbeliever, that would be understandable, since your core issue would have been that you do not know God. But you are a professing believer — and much more, a teacher of small group sessions or what you call "leadership training sessions" — so you are answerable to how you behave in your conduct and speech to other Christians who have witnessed an unwholesome pattern of your behaviour (1Co 5). By God’s grace, these Christians would be mature: they are beyond reproach in speech, and dignified, and are not given to a youthful lust for quarrels and argumentative spirit (2Ti 2:16,24; Titus 2), and it seems to me that you sadly lack such Christians around you who can or are willing to admonish you. It is my conviction that the sins that affect many people must be exposed and rebuked to the degree of its publicity, hence my decision to include the people, who are influenced by a pattern of sinful behaviour in your Thursday small group meetings, in the dissemination of this letter (Gal 2; 1Ti 5).
What I have seen from you, brother, is this: your lack of fear of God, which results in loveless speech, and arrogance in regard to your ministry as compared to others' ministries. First, about the graceless speech: You have a pattern of aggression that speaks to a long history of lost battles in your heart in regards to failing to exercise agape love toward fellow Christian brothers as commanded by the Lord towards brothers that you think very little of (Jn 15:12; Ro 12:10). In my experience, I have seen that this aggression is somewhat common amongst preachers/teachers, and I suppose it is an easy temptation to fall into when your main influence is through speaking. This aggression is not physical, because they rightly know their ministry would reasonably be terminated, and their reputation would be difficult to salvage (1Co 9:27). This aggression is verbal through use of innuendo, gossip, and slander. These verbally aggressive men, who ply their trade by preaching/teaching, are characteristically insecure (lacking a sense of self-worth except what could be gathered through opinions of men), territorial (seeing themselves as some kind of a benefactor), and have enjoyed too long a period of a lack of accountability in regard to their speech. So when they sense someone is a threat/challenge to what they feel is their rightful place, they will target that person with a graceless speech that is meant to tear them down, not build them up (1Co 3:17; Gal 5:15; 5:26). What is innuendo? It is a way to cast aspersions on a particular someone without a direct reference, hence bypassing the normal defensive barriers. It is a very subtle and effective communication tactic to persuade others to more carefully consider the speaker's words, not through brute force but through power of suggestion. Jesus Himself employs it in the parable of the vine-growers in Matthew 21: in that story, the vine-growers mistreat or kill the owner's slaves, wave after wave, and finally kill his son out of greed. The story ends with the massacre of the vine-growers who are then replaced by other vine-growers who will be faithful to the owner. Did Jesus ever refer to the Jewish leaders In the parable? No. And yet, they understood that He was speaking about them. Consequently, they become very agitated and irate, because their true self was exposed; they have no fear of God and the Messiah, and only sought after their own place of honour. His use of innuendo was legitimate, because His judgments are true, and He knows the heart of all men (Jn 2:25). He rightly heaped public humiliation upon the heads of the Jewish leaders, who are misleading Israel. Now, some preachers/teachers, who are weak men, with a certain degree of eloquence in speech, knows how empowering the use of innuendo is, and they abuse it in order to compensate for their threatened sense of self-worth; they use innuendo to misrepresent, demean, and alienate their target, and subconsciously entice others in their hearing to join them in their wickedness. They do this at the expense of pursuing love and peace among fellow believers, and feed their fleshly bloodlust and self-righteousness. Thus, instead of overtly declaring, "I don't like you. I want you out of my church/house/life" and risking sullying their reputation as being a loveless person, they simply have to employ this verbal tactic to subtly antagonize and grieve the person they want to make disappear, who certainly would be foolish to remain in their unwelcoming, corrupting company. You were not afraid to abuse innuendo and to try to tear down the convictions of a believer. He comes to your Thursday small group meetings on at least 5 occasions, and on a first encounter, you maintain a social grace. At some point, you snap, and begin showing the bully attitude. Virtually, every time he speaks, you cut him down immediately. Was there at all anything wrong in what he had ever said? No. The topic of Gethsemane comes up, and he contributes to the discussion a simple point: that it shows the holiness of Jesus. Then you take issue, and go on an unexpected vitriol to negatively paint the people who hold this view. So he has to ask you twice what in the world you are on about, because he can't follow your unwholesome, truthless trail of thought. On the topic of the Greek word "doulos" in the Bible, he shares that the Bible uses "slavery metaphor" to describe Christians. Then you harangue about the word metaphor, and somehow he ends up allegedly claiming that Jesus is not actually Lord, but "metaphorically" Lord. Using innuendo, you go on a self-destructive rant: he has lots of vices (the list of which I do not remember, because again I was not expecting such viciousness. You looked to me like Leviathan in Job 41 who breathes forth fires of slander, and it was chilling to witness.), that he has "bad theology", that he has "made a fatal doctrinal error" (i.e. a soul-damning error, that is to say, that he is an unbeliever; I find this insult a favourite one among the most aggressive teachers), and that he is "blind because you subscribe to a doctrinal system" (which tells me you are desperate, for whatever reason, to discredit anything he says). I am referring to myself as a third person to make this point: with the pattern of behaviour that I have seen, I would not be surprised if I am not your first victim, and won't be the last unless you change. Was there some secret sin that I cherish? My conscience knows none. Do I have a bad theology? My knowledge of God is certainly at least not inferior to yours, since I do not verbally bite another brother and have a clear enough conscience to keep doing it. Am I a self-deceived unbeliever? The Holy Spirit testifies through love, humility, and obedience, and endurance of faith that I belong to Christ. Do I uncritically subscribe to a doctrinal system without any diligent study of God's Word? I do not. Secondly, in regards to the consistent show of arrogance that I have witnessed: I have heard you regularly speak contemptuously toward believers in regard to their particular area of ministry. Especially, you like to belittle those who use online social media to interact with unbelievers, or use podcasts to broadcast the Bible's teachings. Is online presence a sinful thing for a Christian? No. Is a podcast ministry an inferior ministry to yours? Not at all. Each believer is given a different gift and ministry by the Lord. So where is this coming from? As far as I can tell: You are not Amish, so you are not opposed to using technology. You phone and text, so it's not the technology aspect of it. It seems to me more likely that someone from your past rubbed you the wrong way, who happened to have an overtly emphasized online social media presence, and you have never let go of your grudge against that person, and you feel the need to vent every time you have an audience under the guise of "leadership training sessions." At any rate, you are assuming a place of unfair judgment on others' ministries. In Romans 14, Paul says: Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. And in 1Co 4: Do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God. Who knows? Your fellow believers who work hard to reach people through online ministries may be given more eternally meaningful rewards from the Lord than you might be given, despite your running around in North Bay or your presence in a broken neighbourhood, because their motives are pleasing to the Lord. Brother, it looks to me like you have been swimming in dangerous waters for far too long, and drank in the consequences to the detriment of your witness for the Lord. You have been feeding your flesh in regard to this practice of hypocritical speech, and arrogance toward others' ministries, and the time is overdue to stop. And change. Speak and think differently: fear the Lord, and love your brothers. Concerning love: The mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, false witness, slanders. These defile the man. This is not the way love acts. Your speech and your attitude toward your housemates and other regulars whose customs you managed to keep, is conspicuously more mellow, which does not necessarily manifest a Christian brotherly love. It is more likely a love of your own likeness; it is a kind of love shared among some frat boys in their frat house. It is the same kind of love shared among Pharisees by way of association. Please commit yourself to a local church, and fellowship with different kinds of people there, and learn to love and serve them and be served by them. Submit yourself to the ministry of the Word there. Please consider studying 1Co 13 to understand how love behaves and speaks, from which I personally have benefitted. You can read my commentary on the chapter here: https://arecord2.weebly.com/blog/1corinthians-commentary Concerning the fear of the Lord: please read and study these verses. James says "Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment...And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell." In Matthew 18, Jesus says: whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea...see that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven. My advice is: For as long as you do not take this letter to heart, please take a step back and do not lead your small group meetings that you call "leadership training sessions," because you have shown that you are unqualified to function in any teaching capacity. You are insecure and do not take very well personal offenses (perceived or otherwise), are quarrelsome, and have too long a nose to look down on others with; and you might lead others to further become like you, not like Christ. Why do I hear one of your loyal small group patrons mention Ray Comfort's ministry as something to mock, while you approve? Why do some of your housemates speak with fierce verbosity, but can shed no light whatsoever? Why do I hear one brother speak condemningly of the podcast ministry uncritically, almost as if it is a given? Jesus says, it would be better for you if you were killed than for you to lead others to sin, either by active example of useless chatter and bickering, or by passively alienating someone by withholding kindness. I pray the Lord grants you humility to look at yourself in light of His Word, and change: to return to the fear of the Lord and love and humility, so that your ministries will have true usefulness for the kingdom. Grace be to you from the Lord Jesus Christ, Sam Kim
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CategoriesAll Discourse Doctrines Gospel Humour NT Commentaries OT Commentaries Tactical Life Date
August 2023
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