Discerning Truth

March 25, 2009

2 Peter 2:1-3

“But there were also lying prophets among the people then, just as there will be lying religious teachers among you. They’ll smuggle in destructive divisions, pitting you against each other—biting the hand of the One who gave them a chance to have their lives back! They’ve put themselves on a fast downhill slide to destruction, but not before they recruit a crowd of mixed-up followers who can’t tell right from wrong.”

He had been the pastor of the church for a long time and people loved him so it was really hard to palate the day we started noticing changes in him. His sermons had always been so eloquent and so spiritually on target that as a congregant, you found your head bobbing constantly in agreement. And then, all of a sudden the sermons took a turn. We would listen and there would be something we disagreed with. With each week that passed, the sermon would hold more that was contrary to our beliefs such that I began to find my head shaking rather than bobbing.

Ministers tend to have their fans and have their opponents. It’s true of just about every minister that I know. Even so, rarely are there total factions unless there is something more deep-seated-ly wrong. In this case, this preacher had his faction that absolutely refused to think he could or would do anything wrong. As the weeks passed, it became painfully evident that this beloved preacher was having an affair with the children’s minister. More and more information was leaked out. Many of the staff members had to sign affidavits. He became physically impaired by his unwillingness to admit his wrongdoing. Though there were abundant witnesses to the error of his ways, this married man and preacher of God’s word, refused to resign and refused to admit his sin. After being pressed by the deacons about seven times, he finally relented and resigned but still wouldn’t admit his failure. In so doing, his sin ate at him—literally—he died from liver failure weeks later.

Peter wanted the people to understand the importance of truth-telling and the importance of discernment. The false teachers were talking a good game and getting their support from people who failed to discern what was true and what was right. They listened to the message because it sounded good but they failed to see the true spirit of speakers. With naiveté they trusted. They failed to see the destructiveness that was being created by the teachers because they were wooed.

It is easy for us to study the scripture and pursue that study as an intellectual exercise. Academics do this every day. But the life of a Christian, is one in which the intellectual study translates to living out the principles. Of course, we are all at different places along the journey but if we assume that everyone is just at a different place and everyone’s motives are pure that makes us very trusting and sometimes remarkably naïve. The challenge for us, to which Peter calls us, is to trust others but to practice a discernment of knowing who to trust and who not to trust, of looking for the truth tellers by being able to examine the true spirit of the persons, and when we find a spirit lacking to do two things: pray for them and seek to minister to them. This won’t always be successful. Some people just don’t want to know the truth of God. Some people will not avail themselves to the Spirit of God and much as it may pain us, even Jesus had to wipe the dust from his feet in the towns that wouldn’t receive the message of truth.

It pains me to think that my former minister whom I admired for his care and teaching of me, would begin to teach such falsities so as to make himself look better. It pains me that he was unable to take responsibility for his failures and then find forgiveness. It pains me that he died such a tragic death. Life didn’t have to go that way for him.

Life didn’t have to be so troublesome for the people of Peter’s day and it doesn’t have to be for us. Our charge is to give ourselves to the Spirit, practice discernment and share the truth of God as we know it and then trust that the Spirit can redeem us, others and the situations of our lives. May we indeed allow the Spirit to work! Amen.