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Pastor Jay's Blog

A Defense Of Public Warning and Reproof

 

What do you do in a target-rich environment? If you come to my yard, and I tell you to pull out all the dandelions, you will find yourself in a target-rich environment! But you will soon realize that there are others things that you need to do in life, like eat and sleep and play with children. Your work on all those targets is determined by how much ammunition (or energy) you have and what other priorities you have.

This is the situation when it comes to error in a fallen world. Satan has made sure to flood the market with false teaching, bad worldviews, and wrong examples. This means we are in a target-rich environment when it comes to dealing with error. What is a pastor and church to do? This is a question worth considering. We don’t want to waste valuable time and energy. What does God’s word tell us about dealing with error in this world?

The first question is, do we need to deal with error in a direct fashion at all? One option is to simply speak the truth and let hearers use that truth against any errors they encounter. This option would suggest never speaking of names, heresies, religions, or movements directly. Just speak the truth of God’s word and let the people apply it to whatever or whoever they encounter. Now in one sense, there is a need for this. The church should be training people to be self-feeders, to be wise, and to be stabilized in sound doctrine so that they are not “carried about by every wind of doctrine.” (Eph. 4:14) This is necessary because Satan is constantly churning out error. There will always be a new cocktail of false teaching and immoral practice raising its ugly head somewhere. No pastor is competent to address them all exhaustively all the time. People need to be trained to handle God’s Word on their own so they can be trees planted by living waters which are constantly nourished (Psalm 1:3 ), and by implication constantly protected. They need to know the original so that they can detect counterfeits.

But this certainly cannot be all that is done about error and false teachers. Scripture is full of commands, examples, and principles that call leaders to protect God’s people from specific threats.

For this first post we will look at some of the direct commands.

Direct Commands

First, Acts 20:28 says, “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” After describing how wolves will both “come in” from outside and “arise” from inside, Paul says in verse 31, “Therefore, be on the alert….” These commands to be on guard and on alert would be unnecessary if continually teaching the truth is all that is needed. Instead, specific false teachers will arise and they must be handled specifically. It will be a part of faithful shepherding to explain to the church why these are wolves and must be rejected.

Second, Paul commanded Titus to appoint elders, and these elders would need various qualifications. One of these found at verse 1:9 is to be “holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.” Notice that every elder is to not only know the scripture, but to know it in such a way that he can identify error and speak against it in specific ways. This will certainly be a part of what it is to guard the flock of God. An elder will be able to warn the people about a particular error and why they should flee from it.

Third, right after the above qualification in Titus, there is a command-filled section that fills out what its execution will look like.

Titus 1:10–14 (NASB95) — 10 For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, 11 who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain. 12 One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” 13 This testimony is true. For this reason reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith, 14 not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.

Let’s notices several points:

– vs. 10 Paul calls out the abundance of rebellious men, and specifies a group within the Jews. This is an example of what we are talking about.

– vs. 11 Paul commands Titus to silence these people. That is, their teachings are to be identified and refuted.

– vvs. 12-13 Paul identified cultural features of Cretans and confronts them directly because of how it erodes the truth. This is another example of public warning.

– vs. 14 one last time Paul commands for reproof to be given and then calls out the errors of a particular group of people (the Jews) and how the church should see it for what it is and turn away from it.

Fourth, in 1Timothy, Paul tells Timothy in chapter 4:1-5 that there will be men who fall away by means of demonic doctrines and lying hypocrites who advocate abstaining from certain food and marriage. Paul then says in verse 6 “In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus…” Timothy was commanded to publically point out false doctrines and false teachers. He was to warn the church about these people and make sure they were not tolerated.

Fifth, one of the most important passages for preachers is 2 Timothy 4:2 which says “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” A part of preaching is to bring reproof, rebuke, and exhortation. These all have to do with error. Sin has to be identified and confronted, whether it is a cultural matter or a false teaching or another religion.

From these five different places, there are specific calls for warnings and rebukes that must come in public fashion against false teaching and sinful practice. Where there is a threat to the church, the leaders are called to expose it, confront it, and lead the church away from it. This simply cannot be done in private settings alone.

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