Fight the Real Enemy

Brothers and sisters in Christ must, at times, confront one another. I literally hate it, but I know that it must happen at times. Elders must confront false teachers or those who are sowing discord. Preachers must sometimes forthrightly and directly rebuke a congregation for something that is amiss. A brother must sometimes go to a fellow Christian who has wronged him.

Those things happen, and they are exceedingly difficult.

But I suggest that these moments should be rare, too. What is far more sad than these rare moments is that some have made them much more common than they should be.

Every little inconvenience is not a reason to call someone a false teacher. A matter of expedience or judgment is no reason to write someone up as a change agent or church-splitter. Until you have prayed about a matter and examined yourself in light of that prayer and study, you have no right to display a matter!

The Church of our Lord is splintered enough as it is. There are decisions made and practices being done that hurt me deeply. There are times when individuals or congregations do things that are just wrong and must be called such.

But by and large, our brothers and sisters are the finest people on earth. They may err in judgment from time-to-time, but it is rarely out of disrespect for God. It is usually from a loving, but simply uninformed heart. Far more of our family wishes to follow God faithfully than want to go the way of the world. I firmly believe this.

Yes, we must call out sin at times. Yes, there might come a time to even withdraw from a brother or sister. Yes, there are Christians who do things that are wrong and those things must be addressed.

But our brothers and sisters in Christ are not the enemy, and it’s time we stopped making them out to be that way!

Church, it’s time we fought the real enemy. He is the devil. He is Satan. He is the prince of the power of the air. He is a murder. He is the father or lies.

He is, simply put, “your adversary” (1 Peter 5:8). Let’s unite to fight him, because each time we fight with one another, he has won yet another battle. And each time we unite to fight against him, he cannot defeat us, because we fight with Christ on our side.

Fight the real enemy.