¹⁶These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:

 ¹⁷A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

 ¹⁸An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,

 ¹⁹A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. (KJV)(emphasis mine)

I am not saying these preachers and teachers are all perfect, far from it. We all make mistakes, and have much to learn about the Word of God. I am saying that those that spend their time tearing down others to point out their errors are in grave error themselves. They are damaging others faith, and they are doing the work of the enemy. This is why God hates the sowing of discord among the brethren.

We all get in trouble now and again and can be tools the enemy uses against others. It’s something we must always be careful of. The enemy is sneaky, especially when he gets you doing something while thinking it’s God’s work that you are doing.

I went through a time in my life that I thought it was my job to point out every error in the church. So I do understand how easily the enemy feeds our egos and gets us to do this.

Proverbs 13:10a By pride comes nothing but strife (NKJV)

Even the apostle Paul only dealt with errors in *HIS* fields, and in the churches that *HE* was the spiritual head.

The apostle Paul knew division well. He, Barnabas and Mark had it out at least once, maybe more than once. They even split for a time. You never see Paul do anymore than state that they separated. (They do later come back together). Paul, of all people, “knew” what was right and what was wrong and would have had a “Right”, if anyone does, to declare before the world how wrong the others were if this was the way to handle things. Yet, he did not. Even when another left his work and fell into sin, he barely mentioned their deception and went on in the letter to not mention it again. Paul did not spend his days writing large letters tearing apart other ministers.

Paul did correct Peter once, to his face, the Word says. To his face!

Paul never publicly tore apart another ministry that spoke against him by name either. He addressed falsehoods, but never personal attacks by name. Paul never “returned” an answer to those that spoke evil against him. Even when he stood before Caesar he did not bash the high priest, oh no, he shared the gospel instead.

So while those in leadership are responsible for those “in their fields” , to go to them personally when there are any problems, the rest of us have no right to throw stones at other ministries that are not in our fields. Oh it is tempting! Our ego loves to think that we are smarter, wiser or more holy than someone else. But resist it! It is strife and discord among the brethren, God hates it and we must not pay it any mind when we do stumble across it on the internet, in books, newspapers and the like.

The enemy will use the Word to “point things out to you” that are wrong with someone else. He did it to Jesus when tempting him and he will use it against you as well. Worry about yourself, not someone else.

Matthew 7: 3-5

3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?

4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye?

5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (NKJV)

The word is very clear how problems should be handled when they do arise.

Matthew 18:15-17 

¹⁵Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.

 ¹⁶But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

 ¹⁷And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. (KJV)

You go *to* that person. If you have not done that, nor been able to do that, do *not* go to the next steps, which are go with more witnesses and then the leadership etc, or on to other steps.

So you say “Well, they aren’t going to meet with me, so I must go to step 2”..

Nonsense!

If you can not do what the word says in step 1, then you have no grounds to go to step 2 or 3 etc. You must be able to meet with them to discern if they will hear you or not before proceeding on. If you can’t , they Word doesn’t give you the option to just blast them in writing on the internet, a book, a paper, whatever. So I’d say this is a good sign to you that this is not your “Field” to clean up.

The Lord may lead you to write a letter to a person about some things, if He does, do so in love. If you hear nothing back, do not fret, God can handle it. I promise 🙂

The Lord may lead you away from a ministry or church and onto something else, we are all growing at different rates and need different things at different times. I will tell you that when and if that happens it usually has to do with you and not them.

The enemy is having a field day in the Church, so today let’s endeavor to avoid sowing discord among the brethren and be allergic to strife. Repent if you find this in your life, it is sly and sneaks in pretty quietly, and then pray for the minister or ministry.  Stop using excuses.

There are going to be a lot of folks in heaven you didn’t agree with! 🙂

I will leave you with a scripture to ponder.

Titus 3:2 to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.

Be blessed!

-Kath

Scripture quotations marked “KJV” are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version, Cambridge, 1769.

Scripture quotations marked “NKJV” are taken from The New King James Version / Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers., Copyright � 1982. Used by permission. All rights reserved.