Dealing with sheep and wolves

This past week a friend of mine who is another brother in Christ made a facebook post about a popular pastor/writer. He claimed that because this pastor had announced that he supported something my friend disagreed with that this pastor's ministry was false. To support his claim, he utilized an article he found which contained miniature quotes from an interview someone had conducted with this pastor combined with a handful of verses.

I cringed as soon as I saw the post. I cringed first of all because I have seen so many brothers and sisters fall into this trap--and second I cringed because I know the person who made the post truly loves God and was operating in what he felt was a Biblical way--I mean after all, doesn't the Bible tell us to beware of wolves in sheep's clothing? 

BUT...Let's think about this a little deeper. Let's start with what we know...

1. God loves people--not just some people--ALL people. There is not a single person that God is not passionately in love with.

2. God is sovereign--God is in charge of His kingdom and He can use anything and anyone He chooses to accomplish the mission He has.

3. All of us (including pastors) are imperfect. If we were honest with ourselves, we would all admit that there are beliefs and actions that we have that are not perfect. When we read the Bible, these imperfect beliefs and actions affect us.

OK...so then what do we do when we hear a pastor or Christian say something that we feel is in violation to the word of God. 

FIRST--We have to recognize that just because they may have an error in one piece of their doctrine--that does not mean that their entire ministry is false--if that were the case, there would be no true ministries anywhere. 

SECOND--We have to remember that ministry is a deeply, personal calling by God. When we have a problem with something a pastor says, we must be careful not to immediately dismiss his/her calling. Only God has the ability to choose the called--not us! 

THIRD--We must acknowledge that God loves that pastor--we must make sure that while we may disagree with his/her teaching that we respond to them with the heart and love of Christ.

We must approach these topics humbly. We must ask ourselves whether or not we are motivated out of a genuine heart of love or out of our own personal agendas. If we are truly operating out of love we are not going to tear down a leader on facebook or bash their name in public.

If you TRULY do believe a pastor is outside the will of God in his/her teaching--you pray for them. You fall on your face in love on their behalf. You pray for their followers and listeners that they will discern God's message through this person's teachings. Finally, you ask God to reveal the truth of the issue to yourself. You ask Him to purge you of any self righteous judgment.

There is no reason to turn it into a public spectacle because this confuses those who do not understand. Not everyone in the church is on the same level of Spiritual maturity and to bash another pastor over some random issue spawns confusion and when there is confusion Satan will create division. 

...and so I implore all of my brothers and sisters in the faith to think twice before you are tempted to tear down a pastor or teacher. Unless you know that individual personally and can speak to them directly about the matter you have no right to make judgments on his/her ministry.