Whitewash Can be Dangerous
NOTE: This post originally appeared on jimfaughn.com. It is reprinted here with permission.
It may be that the most famous use of whitewash in literature is found in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. You may be familiar with Mark Twain’s fictional account of how Tom “conned” his friends into whitewashing a fence by making them believe it was fun and that it was a rare opportunity to get to participate in this “wonderful” activity.
According to some translations of the Bible, God had a message for His people that involved whitewash. Unlike the scene in Mark Twain’s book, there was nothing humorous about this message in God’s book.
Please consider these sobering words concerning the false prophets of Ezekiel’s day:
Precisely because they have misled my people, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and because, when the people build a wall, these prophets smear it with whitewash, say to those who smear it with whitewash that it shall fall! (Ezekiel 13:10, ESV)
Notice carefully what is being described in this translation of this verse. The people built the wall. In the context, the wall was to be their protection, but it was made from inferior materials. Interestingly enough, it was those who claimed to speak for God who whitewashed the inferior wall in order to merely make it look like everything was alright.
Ezekiel could very easily have been talking about our own society. Is it not true that many who claim to be religious leaders are, in fact, religious whitewashers? It is difficult to think of a type of improper worship, false doctrine, and/or abhorrent lifestyle that has not been “whitewashed” by many in the “religious establishment” of our day.
For far too many people (including religious leaders) the standard of authority has long since stopped being God’s Word. The Bible has taken a back seat to public opinion polls, church or community surveys, personal preferences, decisions by a congregation’s leadership, etc.
Preachers are “hired and fired” based upon how effective they are in making people feel good about how they are already living. Likewise, elderships are respected or ignored based upon how well they are “keeping up with the times,” not in how well they are applying God’s Word in the congregations in which they serve.
There has never been a time in the history of mankind when God looked for spokesmen to give a stamp of approval to what people had already decided to do. That would make people the authority; not God.
To borrow a phrase, we need to throw out all of the whitewash and give people “the unvarnished truth” as long as we make sure we are —
“…speaking the truth in love…” (Eph. 4:15, ESV)
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