Galatians 4:16 - Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?
Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? - Galatians 4:16
Paul is now saying, “Does telling you the truth offend you and make me your enemy?” The truth isn’t always welcomed, but it truly is love to tell a person the truth regardless of whether he welcomes it or not (Lev. 19:17).
If a bridge had washed out on a dark, rainy night, would it be love to flag down other cars and stop them from driving to their death? Sure it would. But at first some of those drivers might not welcome your attempts to stop them. They might think you were trying to harm them or rob them. But if you truly loved others more than yourself, you would stop them regardless of what they thought.
Likewise, those who don’t know the Lord may misinterpret our attempts of sharing the gospel with them, but if we truly love others more than ourselves, we will persist despite their objections.
Hi Tony,
Very well put my brtiher! You hit the proverbial nail right on it’s man-pleasing head. As you know, this whole mess in American evangelicalism happened because they have dragged the world into the Church. With it came a misplaced love for man which is actually above their love for God now.
I don’t mean to suggest it was intentional, but that doesn’t change the fact, does it? The neo-liberal cult of the Emerging Church is a classic example. We have been so busy not wanting to offend people that we have literally invited brazen counterfeit Christians like Brian McLaren to walk right into the sanctuary of our Lord’s Church, paid him to stand in front of God’s pastor-teachers and then teach them how to doubt what the Holy Spirit said in HIs Bible.
A couple of quotes from Dr. Martin come to mind: “This is Christianity? No, this is madness.” If you don’t mind my broher I’d like to ask people to read my article “Emergent: Believe It…Or You’re Not…” to see what is really at stake here: http://www.apprising.org/archives/2006/08/emergent_believ.html
Let me tie this back into what you say above Tony, “if we truly love others more than ourselves, we will persist despite their objections.” For those who think we are too harsh, I ask that you think about the other thing Martin said on this critical issue. He was once told by Jan Crouch on TBN: “You don’t show enough love.”
I paraphrase Dr. Martin’s answer in regard to our having to boldly confront so much arrogant error in evangelicalism today. Brother Martin would say: I have spent this entire past year doing your job in personally dialoguing with EC leaders. To try and protect your young people, I have also taken money out of my own pocket to pay for, and then study from, the very books that these men have written. And now I’m unloving? Wwll, what have you done?
Ken,
Thanks for posting the link to your article (I updated my categories to include emergent and seeker-sensitive categories based on your response and link). Your words ring so true and are what I have been saying for years from my own research.
I have done like you, read Kimball’s book and Jones’ blogs, etc. and given these folks a fair shake. Many people don’t like their errors being exposed but Walter Martin, nor Paul himself ever backed away from calling a heretical ace a heretical ace. The problem is in our postmodern world the only thing that is wrong is saying something is “wrong.”
I laughed when you were quoting Martin from his encounter with Jan Crouch. I have that on DVD and it is a hilarious exchange which I quoted just this past weekend! Look at the following two posts I did earlier and you will see that I am well aware of that! You are the only person I know that quotes Martin more than me!
http://galatiansc4v16.wordpress.com/2005/12/06/baptism-of-boldness-dr-walter-martin/
http://galatiansc4v16.wordpress.com/2005/06/27/censored-for-telling-the-truth/
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Tony,
Um…what’s that they say about minds that think alike ha! O I would luv to have these DVDs you speak of…when I quote Martin lately I’ve been going my memory!
You might change your view of me though when you check out my latest article. Surely the guns from the evangelical church are likely to be turned on me after this one. It’s been nice knowing you
Well, hey - it was kinda started by your post here so maybe I can blame you when the firing starts!
Warping Our Young In Christ’s Name: http://www.apprising.org/archives/2006/08/warping_our_you.html
But as my mentor before me said in that teaching “The Cult of Liberalism”: “I risk my credibility when I say it as bluntly as this; but I’ve done my homework, and I’ll stand by what I say.”
Ken,
LOL. I read your latest article above. You are right that it takes boldness to say those types of things today. I am glad the Lord has some left that are willing to do it. Your calling out those who are supporting the emergent heresies reminds me of the controversy that Dr. Martin had when his tape publisher also published Dr. Schuler’s Sunday School materials, and would not produce his audio sermon on Dr. Schuler. He encounter the same type of fire you are about to get!
If you want to hear that and the other messages from Martin I have mentioned and posted about, your one stop Dr. Martin audio page is here:
You are hear monthly free messages here: http://www.waltermartin.com/realaudio.html
Or you can buy any that you want here: http://www.serve.com/rini/cart/perlshop.cgi
Thanks for this post Tony. I confess that I am guilty of giving up telling the truth to some people because of their hostility to it. This has convicted me that I must not stop unless God tells me to.
In Christ
Mike Ratliff
I want to ensure I understand the context of the post. I read Galatians 4:16 as an admonishment from Paul to fellow believers (v. 12), not as a reason to keep pushing people who are hostile to the Gospel.
I think we should always look for opportunities to share the Gospel, but there are times when we should back off. Jesus taught his followers to shake the dust off their feet if rejected, and He didn’t run after the rich young ruler when he went away sad. And the Gospel presentations in Acts seem to run closer to a “here it is, accept it if you like” approach than a “you’re going to hear this whether you like it or not” appeal.
I’m not saying, “can’t win, don’t try” with respect to non-Christians, just that wisdom and discernment are required. When speaking to Christians and to the non-Christians who are in church, we should be very bold. We should call out the false teachers as you and Slice do.
Thanks Neil for your balancing comments here. You sort of stole my thunder in what I was going to say in response (but I think I’ll put those comments in a new post so please check that out too).
http://galatiansc4v16.wordpress.com/2006/08/11/speaking-the-truth-in-love-regardless-of-the-consequences/
You are right that Paul is talking to Christians and not to unbelievers, and in agreeing with that point, I don’t think it contradicts or disagrees with my original post (notice the last paragraph starts with the word, “Likewise,” because there is a transition from the subjects being “believers,” to comments related to them being “unbelievers,” and to the sharing the gospel.)
And even though Paul is directly commenting to believers, I don’t think we have a contradiction here. Paul never held back telling anyone the truth, whether it was a believer or an unbeliever, regardless of their suspected reaction to him. He also did it “in love,” and we should too as he exhorted us to (Eph 4:15).
The two points I would like to make about this discussion, and what I think Paul was getting at too, is that we can’t refrain from speaking the truth because we fear someone might react negatively to the message. That doesn’t give us the permission or prerogative however, to be unloving or attacking, but it does encourage the boldness to speak the truth in love, even if the truth itself is offensive. The Bible never gives us the right to be hateful in our speech, but it does exhort us to speak the truth, in love, regardless of the consequences. We can’t be offensive ourselves in delivering the message, but that isn’t an excuse to hold back the message of the cross, which is indeed, offensive to sinners.
Another point that I might add, is that offending with the truth, or speaking the truth in love, is only Biblical if we are speaking…the Truth! We don’t have the right to speak our opinions as truth and treat them the same as truth. Our opinions are nothing. If what we speak is not in accordance with The Word, which is Truth (John 17:17), then we have no business speaking it at all, much less being offensive with it. One thing I appreciate is that my pastor always makes it clear when he is expositing the Word verses when he is digressing to an opinion or a thought of his own. Although he does it rarely, he clearly labels his opinions as such so no one could be confused about what the Word of God is and what is the word of man. That is our charge as well.
Speak the truth, in love, making sure it is “the Truth,” and then as Paul exhorts, if that makes others dislike you personally, consider it worthy to be a soldier of the cross. If the apostles had analyzed what other’s reactions would be to the message of truth, and held back accordingly, they would not have died as martyrs.
Thanks for the great dialog guys!
Thanks, Tony, I appreciate the clarification and distinctions. It can be easy to rationalize our way out of challenging conversations with non-believers, so I am grateful for your boldness and exhortations.