To Encourage You

2 Peter 2:17-18 “These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error.”

Perhaps some of the most horrifying words of warning in all the Bible are found in the verses above. They’re directed specifically to false teachers.  To listen to some of the religious leaders today, those who supposedly have the responsibility of bringing the truth of the grace of God to hundreds if not thousands of people, it is apparent that they view such warnings with just as cavalier an attitude as they do towards much of the rest of the Bible.  You may have heard of the controversy that has arisen in the United Methodist denomination recently. As the leadership of this denomination has met over the years to address the topic of sexuality, the majority, slowly but surely, has voted to abandon the Bible’s definition of sex outside of marriage as a sin (as if voting on any of the commands of scripture was the right of man!) As a result, many of the Methodist churches have left the denomination.  As the denomination’s leaders have tried to defend their decision, they’ve tried to justify as good what the Bible, in no uncertain terms, calls evil.

It is shocking that so many so-called “Christian” leaders can show so little fear of God in their bold declarations of what they think is so wrong about what God has said about the topic of sex. It would seem that the verses above are a direct warning to such men and women, as they take positions that violate the commands of God and encourage positions that are directly spoken to in Peter’s second epistle. And what is in store for such leaders? Utter darkness, or as some versions put it “the blackest darkness.”  One would think that such language would cause any person in Christian leadership to be very careful about the things they proclaim, particularly when those proclamations have the potential to influence so many!

In the Old Testament book of Leviticus, two of the very first men that had positions of spiritual leadership in Israel took just such a cavalier attitude towards the worship of God. These men, Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu, took it upon themselves as to how they would worship God. They burned “strange fire” to God, a kind of fire that God had nowhere commanded (or permitted) in His very clear instructions to Moses. The result:  they were consumed by God with fire from heaven. This judgment served as an example to all Israel that God’s law was to be taken very seriously, particularly by those in positions of spiritual leadership. For leaders to demonstrate such presumption and pride and disobey a clear command of God in the full view of people who looked to them for leadership would not be tolerated.  And while God may often tarry in this day and age as men and women in leadership do the very same thing, Peter makes clear that such foolish insubordination to God and His Word by Christian leaders will not be tolerated now either.

May God help these leaders come to their senses before it is too late, or the blackest darkness of an eternity apart from God awaits them. Surely those in leadership are warned to take the Word of God – all of it – as seriously as God intends it to be taken, particularly in this age of grace in which we live, an age which Jesus ushered in by dying to ultimately destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8); works that many leaders espouse, incredible as it seems, in Christ’s holy and precious name.